My 2022 race season

Finally taking some time to reflect on my 2022 season.

I started off the year with a lot of what ifs. I raced a lot in 2017 and 2018 at uni and absolutely loved it. I had to stop part way through 2018 and focus on my mental health and passing med school. In the last few years I’ve seen people I used to compete with riding tour series, national series and do some awesome things and again I had the niggling what if thoughts. So I got myself a new coach (Eliot Ward from Inflite Cycling – cannot recommend enough their passion and everything extra they offer) and new team (Saint Piran women’s development) and set about answering my what ifs.

The training started off well and I surprised myself with managing to train early in the mornings before 12 hour shifts, go on long rides after night shifts and see some all time power PBs. My first race was a huge disappointment, I tried to race like I used to making moves but I did not have the legs or lungs yet. Then I caught covid in March and had a month off the bike. After this going into the spring/summer I struggled with the training more. There were other things I wanted to do and I found myself not wanting to miss social events or wanting to go for a swim or climb rather than sit on the turbo. I also struggled to find enough races for the calendar both due to living in the south west and often having other weekend commitments.

The racing didn’t really get any better and it’s never fun to get dropped every race with no feeling of improvement.

I signed up for the Dorset divide ultra in a mad moment early on in the year and loved the training for this. It was tough and I went in with a very different mindset to usual and scratched when it was no longer fun.

British gravel champs I was excited for after all of my riding off-road but I ended up being just like a crit race on some very non technical forest tracks.

One thing I absolutely fell in love with this year is bikepacking. What started put as practice rides and kit tests for the Dorset divide became a real passion. I have found an amazing community in bikepacking buds. I now have an ever growing list of long distance routes I want to ride and I’m excited to explore more by bike!

So I’ve answered the what if question with a new one… what if I don’t want to? That being said I still have some cyclocross races coming up and a small goal of doing an ironman in 2024 but I will always bear in mind the most important things which are balance and fun.