Sky Scholar cyclist Lucy Garner on crashing in La Course in Paris
Friday 24 March 2017 12:59, UK
The summer of 2015 is leaving her mark on Lucy Garner.
The Sky Academy Sports Scholar crashed twice in one day in Belgium in the build-up to the Women's Tour of Britain. At the weekend, the French weather caused havoc leading to more smash-ups and more bruises to nurse.
It's just all part of being a top cyclist as the 20-year-old from Leicester continues her fight to compete in Rio next year in road racing.
Here are Lucy's latest words as she describes all the drama from riding in Paris at the weekend....
Even my laptop crashed as I wrote this blog! It's been quite a few days for me.
I had a very good training block and a good lead-up to La Course. I had some good results in the BeNe ladies tour and I was feeling confident heading to Paris to race on the Champs-Élysées.
I settled into the hotel and had a good night's sleep before the race. I already knew the weather was going to be bad so it wasn't a surprise when it started to pour down.
There was already a huge crowd cheering us on during warm-up and then it really sank in that I was going to be racing along the famous street in Paris where Chris Froome would soon be racing to fight for the yellow jersey.
The race began and it was obvious it was going to be a fight the whole way. With the rain thrashing down everyone was fighting to stay at the front.
The speed was high when the first big crash happened. I slipped off and hurt my left side but tried to get back on my bike as quickly as I could.
I was in pain but I was determined to get back to the peloton and fight for the win. As soon as I got back there was another crash... again I found myself on the floor and again found myself in pain trying to jump on my bike as quickly as possible.
I knew at this point I wasn't able to sprint. I had a lot of pain everywhere so as soon as I got back to the peloton I told my team (Team Liv-Plantur) I wasn't fit enough for the final and that Amy Pieters should sprint.
I was fighting to stay at the front but also trying to recover to make sure I could help my team as much as possible.
Again, another huge crash and I was taken down.....
At this point I was completely devastated and remained on the floor for a while to try to pull myself together.
Crashing three times in a race in which I was hoping to contest for the win completely knocked me and we decided that I should stop. I was battered and bruised and couldn't carry on anymore.
This wasn't at all the race I was hoping or expecting for but having to fight back three times, it just wasn't meant to be.
Time to recover and look ahead to the last part of the season!
WHAT'S COMING UP FOR OUR SCHOLARS..............
August 2-9: Siobhan-Marie O’Connor - World Swimming Championships, Russia
August 3-9: Quillan Isidore, National BMX Championships
August 5: One year countdown to the Rio Olympics begins
August 8-18: Lucy Garner, Route de France
August 8-9: Mark English, Irish National Championships
