I’ve been given the rather lovely task of testing out some high end road bikes for Total Women’s Cycling… Yes, I know it’s a terrible job, riding about on lovely bikes before putting pen to paper, or finger to keyboard in this instance, but someone has to do it…

Most recently, I tested the Trek Domane 5.9 WSD, and struggled not to just write, ‘I love it, I love it, I love it!’ In the end I managed to get some technical info in there rather than breathlessly proclaiming my love for the machine. Take a look at this fine piece of carbon wizardry and read my review here.

I recently went to Morocco to stay with Surf Maroc in Taghazoute. Naturally, I couldn’t be separated from my bike for a week, so even though we woke daily to the sound of waves breaking on the beach outside our bedroom, I ended up spending more time on two wheels than in the water, something I slightly regretted when the ocean was flat as a pancake later in the week. Oh well!

Whilst we were there, we bumped into some friends who’d just ridden from Marrakech through the Atlas mountains to the Sahara, around 500km through high mountain passes. The trip sounded absolutely incredible and has inspired me yet further to plan a long adventure on a touring bike. Where to go?

El Duende magazine sent me over a few questions a while back. I can’t really remember what I said in response, I seem to remember being in a bit of a hurry. So I have no idea how this comes across as it’s in Spanish, but I love the illustration.

If you speak Spanish and want to see if I say anything interesting (unlikely, I know!), the whole mag is on Issuu here or you can take a look at their website here.

In my mission to get fitter, faster and stronger, I’ve been trying some exercise classes, something very new to me.

I can honestly say that before this year, I hadn’t participated in any form of group exercise since school. Even at school, I didn’t like team sports or group workouts, so that meant no to hockey, netball and rounders, but a big resounding yes to skateboarding, climbing and  snowboarding. Those three were my saviours, for it it weren’t for activities like those, I’m sure my experiences at school would have led me to believe that sport was not for me.

Anyway, school was a while ago and people do change, so I thought it about time I at least gave exercise classes a go. I began by reviewing an indoor spinning class at Boom My Body (terrible name!) for Total Women’s Cycling. It had it’s positives and negatives. Find out what I thought here.

Next up, I reviewed Cyclebeat for Coven Magazine, and as this is all about writing honest reviews, I can reveal that I much preferred that class. Find out why here.

Since dipping my toe into the water with these classes, I’m keen to try more. So far, it’s been a bit hit and miss – a terrible ‘yogalates’ class, a surprisingly fun kettlercise class and a pretty weird TRX class that had me laughing hysterically whilst suspended from the ceiling. I wonder what new weird and wonderful workouts people are dreaming up?

Anyone who says the modelling industry doesn’t promote eating disorders is lying. I remember when I was working as both a model and a snowboarder, it was a bloody nightmare sometimes – on the one hand I was trying to eat enough to build strong muscles for power and stability and spend up to eight hours a day riding, and on the other hand I had someone telling me I needed to watch my weight as my waist size had crept from 24 inches to 25 and making snide remarks about my figure. I’m not gonna lie, the whole experience made me pretty uncomfortable and it’s one of the biggest reasons I didn’t stay in the fashion industry for long.

Though some might argue that things are a little different nowadays (I disagree!), when I was modelling you had to be TEENY TINY! And I was, at least I thought I was… Until someone explained that ‘model thin’ is different to thin. I tried being hungry for a bit but all I could think about was food and I got very grumpy. Adios, fashion week!

My experiences as a model made me obsess far too much about what I was eating, so thank god for cycling, which helped my shrug that off. Now I  eat what I bloody well want thank you very much, and I’m fit, strong and happy. Whereas cake was once supposedly off limits, now I eat as much of it as I like, and if you want to take my photo, you get what you’re given.

I really love cake, always have. Me and my Dad have always snuck off for secret slices, ever since I was a wee nipper. Last week I had a bit of fun working out  much extra energy you burn when commuting by bike and weighing it up against various sugary treats. Wanna have a read? 

The more you ride, the fussier you get, right? Well it’s not strictly fussiness, you just get to know what works for you. It’s also about making your bike fit for purpose – I had super narrow bars on my courier bike so I could get through gaps but I’d never ride something like that in Devon.

Charge recently sent me a lovely titanium Plug to ride and it’s been through a few different incarnations whilst I’ve been tinkering around with it, trying to dial in my ride.

One of the things I have to be very aware if my lower back. About 2 years ago, tightness and imbalance in my sacroiliac joints resulted in absolute agony… I was unable to ride for about 8 months and really frustrated. In the end, it got so bad that I couldn’t walk properly so I finally went to see a chiropractor, then my yoga teacher, Anna taught me some balancing stretches which have been very helpful. I still suffer from a fair bit of pain on the bike, but minute adjustments can make a huge difference.

So, it’s come to this – I wanted drops as I’m going to be racing and riding the track on this bike, but I’ve had to flip the stem. It would have been better to have a longer fork and some spacers, but the fork came from Charge ready cut, and rather short. So yes, it looks ugly, with the stem like this, but it works for me so I have to turn a blind eye!

Alongside snowboarding, I’d was really into skateboarding as a teen, and I just couldn’t see why anyone would want to ride a skatepark on a bike instead of a board. To me, it just looked like there was so much potential for hurting yourself and getting all tangled up. But after building up my first fixed gear bike, an old, rattle canned road conversion with cottered cranks, it wasn’t long before I was trying wheelies and barspins and as fixed gear progressed, we moved away from the flat spaces and carparks and into the curves and banks of the skatepark.

I ended up getting a BMX – I’d long stopped skating and the idea of feeling that flow again and carving round a bowl was massively appealing to me. I kept the fixed gear(s) of course, but my interest began to take a different direction.

Just like I never thought I’d want to ride a bike in a skatepark, I never thought I’d want to wear lycra or do a sportive – ‘freestyle’ was my thing, not training, energy gels and padded shorts. But after moving away from London and falling in love with long, geared rides in the countryside, I found myself keen to sign up for a sportive, just to see what it was like.

My opportunity came through London Cycling Campaign, who I’ve been working with recently – I decided to ride the 180-mile ‘London Revolution’ for my first event and write up the experience for their magazine. I’d also blog about my training.

The training didn’t happen, as I didn’t really have time. I know that’s a poor excuse, trundled out by many, but I was genuinely drowning in deadlines and trying to catch up on stuff after the release of the fourth issue of Coven. So I lined up on the morning of the sportive, wondering how the hell I was going to manage 100 miles on day one, and a further 80 or 90 on day two. Prior to that, the furthest I’d ever ridden had been 92km, not even 92 miles!

The day of the sportive, we set off from London at around 8.45, groups of riders dispatched together after a quick briefing on how the whole thing would work. It turned out that all we had to do was follow arrows to designated feed stops, stuff our faces, then carry on pedaling though glorious countryside resplendent in the sun. How bloody brilliant is that – literally nothing at all to do expect ride with everything taken care of for you  – it felt truly decadent!

We kept things pretty steady – me, because I wanted to finish the first day with enough in my legs for day two, and Dave, because he was riding a fixed gear bike and his knees were killing him. Our slow and steady pace paid off and we made it to Windsor racecourse, ready for more food, a little yoga, one solitary pint and a night in a tent, sparko!

The second day was a struggle for Dave, his knees were very painful thanks to skidding down so many hills the day before and though the medics had strapped them heavily, he was unsure if he was going to be able to ride at all. We decided to set off and see how far he could go, and thanks to a lot of codeine, he managed to complete the whole ride with me. We even pegged it up Box Hill, a mere bump after riding around Dartmoor, but a very pretty one!

I was actually rather surprised at how strong I was up the hills, obviously just riding around the area near my home in Devon has substantially built up my strength, and thanks to being relatively light, I was even able to overtake a lot of people on the hills, well most of the time. When we hit hills around the seventy mile mark of day two, well that was another matter! But on the whole, we kept the pace pretty steady and I reckon I could have done quite a few more miles, as long as they were relatively flat.

After a ride around Herne Hill’s velodrome on the way back, we rode onto the red carpet at the finish and collected our medals. It was a great weekend, we were so lucky with the weather; brilliant sunshine but not too hot and barely any wind. And I was really happy at how my fitness has improved without doing very much. Now if I could just schedule some proper training, I might see an even bigger difference!

Read more about my first mass participation event in London Cyclist magazine, or London Cycling Campaign’s website

For those of you not into cycling (why not!), according to Wikipedia, a criterium, or crit, is a bike race held on a short course (usually less than 1 mile), often run on closed-off city center streets.

I’m always up for trying new things, and when I heard that there was to be a track bike crit at the London Nocturne in Smithfield’s, I wanted to give it a try, chiefly because I had little idea what to expect. With so many questions in my head about the race, I found myself signing up and looking forward to my race debut – what better way to find the answers than participating?

I knew I’d be racing with the men, but I had no idea how I’d fare. What standard would they be, serious pros, or urban fixed gear enthusiasts? Would riders pace themselves or go flat out from the start? Could I handle the sharp turns of the course at speed?

In the run up to the event, a lot of women congratulated me on having the balls to enter the race, and asked me whether I was nervous. I actually wasn’t nervous and here’s why – a lot of people are scared of trying things because they’re scared of failing. But what really is failing? And how could I define it when thinking about this race? My only goal with entering the track crit was to participate, so as long as I turned up, how could I possibly fail?

I didn’t do much prep in the run up to the event; I rode my bikes when I could but I didn’t really train as I’m not very clued up about that sort of thing. I did set up my new Ti Charge Plug with drop bars and I tried to work out an appropriate gearing, but that’s about the extent of it.

So at the start of the race, by main concern was whether I’d chosen the right gearing. I’d decided to keep it pretty spinny as the course included a sharp bend followed by a hill, and I wanted to be able to sprint away quickly after slowing slightly for the bend. I ended up going with about 68 gear inches whereas I think Rudy from Fifth Floor had about 90, and seeing as I didn’t even slow much for the corners, I reckon I should have gone higher.

As I mentioned before, I didn’t really know what standard everyone else would be, and I didn’t know whether everyone would sprint from the start, or kind of hold off slightly till the last few laps. It turns out that everyone sprints from the get go, and though the pack was pretty mixed, some very strong Italian riders set the pace at the front, and it was FAST, way faster than I could handle.

I absolutely loved the race; it was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done – tearing around a closed course as fast as you can, my friends cheering on the sidelines. When I wasn’t grimacing through the pain of burning lungs, I rode with a smile on my face the whole time!

But despite the enormous amount of fun I had, sadly I just wasn’t fit enough, and I pulled out of the race once I was lapped by those speedy Italians, my lungs screaming, nearly puking. In terms of fitness, it was a real eye opener – it’s easy to think you’re fit when you compare yourself with the average Joe, but as I’ve found out before (in the two cyclocross events I entered) I am a million miles away from the level required for this thing.

I strongly believe that if you put the time in at things, you’ll get somewhere, so I’m going to put the time into riding and get fitter and faster. I’ll be enlisting some help along the way too, I’ll fill you in on that at a later date! Now that I now how much I enjoy this kind of thing, I’m keen to do more – I’ve got the bike handling skills, I just need the fitness to match!

All pics by Dave Noakes

When Beefeater got in touch about working together, I thought, hell yeah, I’ll be drinking G & T’s for life. What I didn’t initially realise is just how much the Spanish love gin, and that my ad was destined to be plastered all over the billboards and bus stops of Spain, much to the hilarity of my friends!

I’ve never actually been to Barcelona but thanks to the power of instagram, I’ve been able to see just how amusing I look gracing Spanish bus stops in a pink net skirt all.

I started a Tumblr so I could display some of the photos from my travels in a nice format, it just seemed a waste to have them all languishing in folders in the depths of my computer. This way, I can look back at my adventures whenever it takes my fancy with just one click. The other reason I started a tumblr is probably because it was the least important thing I had to do that day; I really should have been doing some boring work but this tickled my fancy more!

Most of the photos are taken on 35mm and not messed around with, but some of the riding shots were taken with a digital camera. I’m no expert, I mainly enjoy taking snaps for the memories. You can take a look if you like, here.

http://today-is-saturday.tumblr.com

Last year, a good friend from my snowboarding days, Nelson, decided that life was too difficult to continue. Sadly, Nelson’s joy was stolen by severe depression, and like many people, he struggled alone for a long time without getting any help.

A new sportive, Nelson’s Tour De Test Valley has been set up in memory of our dear friend, to celebrate his short life, and also to raise money for the mental health charity, CALM.

100% of the money raised will go to CALM, so please join us in September for one of three routes through the stunning Test Valley where Nelson used to enjoy riding his beloved ‘Treader.’ Enter online here or for more information, check out the website.

There was a time when If you wanted to ride with SPDs and trainers, your options were pretty limited, either make your own (more on that later!) or choose from a couple of distinctly dodgy looking choices. It seemed to me the only SPD compatible trainers were enormous and let’s be frank, very uncool looking.

But that was then, and things have moved on considerably – savvy manufacturers such as Chrome and DZR have realized that many city folk like to ride clipped in, but aren’t up for wearing clumpy mountain bike SPD trainers or ‘normal’ cycling shoes to the pub. Personally, I’ve never had a problem with wearing my SIDI’s around town, possibly because they’re shiny and patent and cost a bomb, or maybe as I just got used to it as a courier. But anyway, I have always been interested in trying a pair of trainer style SPDs to see what they’re like.

Californian company, DZR manufacture a pretty diverse range of trainer style clipless shoes, including a pair of knee high ladies boots (!). I opted to put the Links through their paces – a pair of charcoal grey high tops with white soles.

To mount your cleats, you need to cut a clearly marked panel from the sole and pop it off. Once you’ve done that, the cleats simply screw in like they do in any other shoes and as they’re deeply recessed you’re able to walk as normal on the high traction sole.  When it came to riding, the sole felt good and stiff, meaning little loss of power on the bike but I would have preferred a more supportive foot bed under the arch. Also, I ride with Time ATAC pedals and cleats and I found the cut out area was quite small which can make it hard to swivel your foot to unclip.

When it comes to looks, the shape and style works well  - I could definitely wear these without people knowing they were bike shoes and they looked good with jeans. I’m not crazy about the wide velcro strap, I think these shoes would look better without it, but it does a really good job of making the shoes feel secure when you ride and it keeps your laces out of the way.

The shoes are ‘pleather’ which is great for our animal friends however it’s not one of my favourite materials  – I find pleather gets very hot and aesthetically, well it just doesn’t float my boat. On the plus side, it does dry very quickly and will give you a little protection from the rain.

I’ve been for several rides in these shoes and found them comfortable – actually when I got in last night, I realized I still had them on a couple of hours later – I hadn’t rushed to get them off my feet the minute I got in. They perform well in the city environment they’re designed for – they’re a hell of a lot better than regular trainers and toe straps. Out on the open road, well they’re not a match to my SIDIs, but that’s not really the point.

My sponsors and good pals from Met Helmets and Bluegrass were just over in England and came to visit us in Downton Abbot. Whilst here they took the opportunity to shoot their new catalogue due for release around Eurobike. I think it was pretty handy for them that I ride so many different kinds of bike as I was able to change outfit and bike to suit each kind of helmet they wanted to shoot.

Here I am in BMX mode on a blissfully sunny day at Decoy bowl:

Before moving to Devon, I thought that mountain biking was pretty crap. The very first time I went was in the Alps – I spend the first day hurtling down a very steep mountain on a hard tail with an open face helmet, totally out of control. I had no idea what I was doing at all in any way; I was totally clueless but up for it, however it did seem rather dangerous….

The next day, a kind/concerned man at the place I was staying lent me a downhill bike, a full face and body armour. The body armour was a revelation – I was able to fall off on every hairpin bend and just roll around! It was ace until I broke my wrist…..

Back in the UK, after surgery to fix my wrist, I didn’t do any more mountain biking – living in London without a car, it seemed like a bit of a mission, and by the time I’d ridden to Epping Forest on a slow soggy bike, I was already knackered. So pretty much the second time I went riding was in Wales where I spent five hours riding in knee high mud at slower than walking pace. It was bloody awful, so bloody awful, that I was thinking of returning the mountain bike that Charge had so kindly lent me when I got back.

But last year I moved to Devon, and when I mentioned I might send the mountain bike back, my friends Kye and Gemma thought I was nuts and immediately set out to change my opinion. Several trips to Haldon and the Teign Valley later, and I’d properly caught the mountain biking bug (actually not a good thing, as now I want an all mountain bike and they cost a bomb!).

Anyway, the point; Erlestoke 12 MTB Enduro. The first time I entered this several years ago, I’d just been hooked up by Charge and they invited me to bring a team down from the big smoke to compete. I didn’t really know what was involved but I got the idea that it would be fun, gathered up some mates and headed down to Somerset. It turned out that the race started at 6pm (or 8pm?) and the idea was to complete a lap before your team mate went and did the same. You then had to do as many laps as possible in the next 12 hours.

When I set off for my lap it was already dark. I didn’t know how to ride mtb but I just had to slog my way up a hill through a field. So far, so horrible – this was back when I drank and smoked a lot and health and fitness were unknown concepts. Once I’d navigated my way through the fields, I then had to ride some really tight, winding singletrack in the dark which sucked! I was really scared that I was going to hit a tree and couldn’t  cope with the steep drops and proximity of so many trees. Once back at the start, I decided I was not doing another lap and sat in the tent drinking beer instead. All my friends abandoned the silly competition as well, and we necked beers and whisky, made a lot of noise and slagged off mountain bikes.

Funnily enough, Charge didn’t invite me again, at least not until this year when Nick must have got wind that I’d changed my mind about mountain bikes. This time I was up for it! Whilst I still like a beer, the cigarettes are history, and I can actually ride a mountain bike well enough to enjoy myself. It turned out the race had changed slightly – it now started at 12 noon and ran until midnight, which meant fewer laps in total darkness. I was on a team with two other guys and we gave it a good go, getting in as many laps as we could. In the end, our team came 4th! Ok, 4th out of four mixed teams, but whatever, it was really good fun and I’ll be back next year. I LOVE MOUNTAIN BIKES!

As a freelancer, my job is pretty varied, and that’s just the way I like it! As one of my favourite things is riding bikes, reviewing them for various publications can be pretty awesome if it’s a good ‘un, ‘oh what, I actually have to go out riding, it’s part of my job, you say, oh woe is me!’….

Most recently, I reviewed the Scott Contessa CR1 Team for Total Women’s Cycling, a pretty reasonably priced carbon machine which I enjoyed putting through it’s paces around Devon. If you’d like to hear what I thought about it, head on over to Total Women’s Cycling and have a look.

Oh, and I think my brain has finally been warped by cycling – I remember when I bought my first NJS track frame for £250, I thought it was obscenely expensive, but these days under £2000 seems quite a bargain! Ha!

A French magazine called Combo recently ran a a little piece on my and the Met Fat mini velodrome race which I won in France. They somewhat cheekily lifted some text from this blog for the piece, so if it reads badly, that’s because I didn’t know it was going to be published, doh! Oh yeah, and photo credit is Dave Noakes, guys!

I don’t know if it’s just that I’ve begun to notice them more, but it seems like there are many more cycling events taking place these days!

The latest one to hit my radar is Orbital Cycling Festival, which takes place at Goodwood at the end of July.

The weekend looks like a real blast if you’re into any kind of competitive cycling – there are all sorts of different races, from cyclocross to flying laps, the Brompton World Champs to time trials and even family races. The one that caught my eye is the Cooper Bikes Hot Cog which is a fixed gear crit, or circuit race, similar to the one I entered at the Nocturne. The website specifically states that the races are for men AND women, so I’m assuming that means that even thought you’ll set off in the same bunch, the women will be ranked separately. It would be a welcome change were that the case; when I’ve entered alleycats in the past, there were always prizes for the fastest ladies.

I’m hoping to see lots of my friends there, and I’m very much hoping a lot of other women will compete with me. Racing against super fast dudes can be a bit demoralising sometimes, so I’d relish the chance to be demoralised by the ladies instead!

Do you want to know what advice I would give to girls thinking about getting into action sports? Have a look at my little interview with Michelle from on Expression Riders and find out. What do you think, good advice or am I missing the point?

A few months back, I designed a Coven cycle kit which was made in collaboration with British purveyors of Italian made bike apparel, Milltag.

We put the kit up for pre-order as I was nervous in case nobody ordered it, particularly as they’d have to believe that our mockup was an accurate portrayal of what they’d be receiving. Thankfully, people seemed to dig the design so we went ahead with manufacturing and when I received the kit last week I was genuinely stoked; it’s come out really good!

The minute people saw the pics of the jersey and bibs over at the Coven site, if they didn’t already have them, they wanted them! So I’m happy to say you can now place an order for the next batch. Head over to Milltag to select either the jersey, the bibs, or both.

[PS the bibs are really nice and very comfortable - they have a really soft wide coloured band around the bottom of the leg, rather than that stitched ruching with a horrid little rubbery bit which gives me a rash. And they're a bargain at £70]

The fine folks at GoPro hooked me up with a Hero 3 to play around with, which has been super fun so far. I’ve tried using the various different mounts; head, bars, chest etc and taken the mini camera out for a spin on most of my bikes. Some of the footage has been excellent whilst other times I’ve managed to film an entire run on the mountain bike with the GoPro angled at the floor, even though I’d hoiked the camera up pretty high on my chest. So in case you have one too, the ‘chestie’ chest mount is probably better for other stuff. It’s been a matter of just filming a few runs, then watching back to future to work out what set up suits what situation best.

Yesterday, I took the Hero 3 down to Decoy to film Kye Forte for a fun little project for Red Bull. It was a beautiful, hot, dry day and we got some great stuff on film, which hopefully you’ll get to see very soon.