2015 was a pretty crazy 12 months. At the beginning of the year, Dave and I had just moved back from Italy, and were thoroughly enjoying being able to do simple things such as renew your car tax without having to go to three different offices that only open for half an hour a week, as well as eating baked beans and other British delicacies.
Having not initially planned on being in the UK I had no great scheme for the year, instead deciding to just make things up as I went along and enjoy every opportunity that came my way. And that worked out just fine; it was a great year, packed with surprise adventures and unexpected fun, plenty of riding, coverage and even some awards! But most of all, I had lots of fun on all my bikes.
To kick things off, I won an award for this very blog, being named Cycling blog of the year – a nice beginning after being nominated for several awards in the past and not coming out on top!
In February I was named one of ‘Cycling’s Most Influential Women,’ by UK trade magazine Bike Biz. It was a real honour to be recognized alongside some truly inspiring and very well known women.
In March, Assos photographer Phil Gale flew to the UK to shoot some photographs to appear on the brand’s social media, braving some horrific British weather in the pursuit of imagery, then I flew out to Switzerland to shoot some images for advertising and the new Assos catalogue. We also shot a video up in the mountains, due for release soon I think. The Assos shoots were followed by one with Met Helmets, who visited me in Devon to get some images to use for their own catalogues, social media and advertising.
Cycling in Switzerland was lovely. 30 degrees today!! #goprogirl #gopro #cycling #womenscyling #roadbike A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on
In May, I entered my first Downhill Mountain bike race, Steel City DH, finishing eighth out of the 31 women in my category, which was not too bad for a first attempt. After that, I headed to Wideopen Magazine’s Local’s Only day at Triscombe, which wound up being fun and productive – I now write for the mag.
In June my first full page Assos advert appeared in Cyclist magazine. June was also the month that I suddenly decided to enter the Red Hook Crit, embarking on a desperate four week’s of training to try and get race ready. Charge Bikes sent over a new custom track bike for me to ride at the race in London.
The event was such an amazing experience that I immediately signed up for the Red Hook Crit in Barcelona.
Also in July, I spent a few weeks riding in the Peak District, bought a house, went to the Tour de France and then went posh camping on Dartmoor in order to film a Charge Bikes video.
Then it was off to Wales with Peugeot for the weekend. Read the interview here, or check out the video:
In August, I managed, headed up and promoted some rides for Fred Perry, creating a blueprint for their ‘ride-outs’ to be replicated for rides in Tokyo, Paris, New York and Munich. Then it was off to Barcelona to race in the Red Hook Crit.
September, I joined the Assos team to launch the new Assos Equipe rides in London, of which there’ll be plenty more this year, then it was off to explore Catalonia on two wheels. What a place!
In October I went to London for the launch of new women’s cycling initiative, Strongher, with Marian Vos, Manon Carpenter and a whole host of amazing women. Make sure you check out the Strongher website for all kinds of cool stuff, including a tale of how I almost didn’t get into mountain biking. It was lucky I did get into mountain biking, because the following week I went to Triscombe for a Fox shoot with Tahnee Seagrave and Sam Reynolds. Happy to say I’m now on the Fox team!
In November, I headed over to Exmoor to begin my mountain bike leader award training with British Cycling and impulsively bought a jump bike, which was entirely silly given the time of year.
I squeezed in a little Charge Bike video shoot, to showcase their new 27plus range of mountain bikes:
Then I finished up the year by helping take over local mountain bike club and trails, TQ3 Riders, thereby securing the future of the bike park at Scadson Woods. Then I entered a cyclocross race and won my category and finally, spent a few days up in Essex enjoying riding my track bike.
If you’d like to read which were my favourite rides of 2016 (this post doesn’t even cover everything!) check out my latest column over on the Brooks England website.
