Sky Scholar Lucy Garner on starting a new road cycling campaign alongside her sister
Thursday 30 March 2017 07:21, UK
A new season, testing conditions across the cobbles in Belgium and racing alongside your sister.
It's been a challenging and lively start for Lucy Garner in her second road cycling campaign with Wiggle High5, but the 22-year-old from Leicester wouldn't have it any other way.
The Sky Academy Sports Scholar opens up on what she's been up to......
The season has officially started!
After months of long hours on the bike and trying to replicate racing efforts it was finally time to start the 2017 campaign and get racing again.
My first race was Omloop Het Nieuwsblad - a one-day cycling event in Belgium. It was a tough one to get the campaign under way but I was determined to help the team and do the best I could.
My last experience of OHB wasn't pretty. There were freezing cold temperatures, lots of crashing and frozen eyeballs was all I could remember. Luckily this time it was pretty mild for spring in Belgium (6-9 degrees).
I felt good in the early stages of the race and believed I could position myself well and got into it pretty quickly. My goal was to help Jolien (D'hoore) and Elisa (Longo Borghini) into the first climbs. Unfortunately I punctured…. with 200m to go until the climb….
I was not a happy bunny and had to ride the climb with a flat. By the time I had changed my wheel it was game over and my sport director said it was better to stop at the feed and concentrate on the Wednesday. Not what I had planned but that's racing!
My race in Le Samyn (another annual single-day road race in Belgium) was pretty special for me. It was my first race with my younger sister Grace who is now part of Wiggle High5.
The race was really tough, there was bad weather, lots of cobbles and lots of wind. The race blew up. As a team we were really disappointed with how we rode as we didn't have anyone in the breakaway.
Our communication was great but we were unfortunately unable to finish with a result. I tried my best but didn't have the top form I needed to be there to help Jolien.
We were all pretty disappointed. You win some and you lose some but we can learn from our mistakes.
The last couple of weeks have been good and I've been racing other one-day races in Belgium. I've also been very busy with a media camp as well as the racing. Overall, it's just great to get back into the race rhythm.
The races I've been doing I have been pretty satisfied with. I've been helping the team get the best result for our lead riders.
I've got two more events in March in Belgium (Gent Wevelgem and the Pajot) and then I'll be getting stuck into another big block of training.
Busy times! And don't forget to apply to be one of the new Scholars. You have until Sunday night.
