How to make a Yorkshirewoman suffer
This year I kicked off my 23rd birthday with a travel day through Italy by train and car to the Strade Bianche. Not something I thought I would ever say since the race is usually scheduled in March. We knew running on 1 August it had the potential to be very hot but boy it was an absolute scorcher.
Normally, every year prior to this, we are up at 5:30am to eat breakfast before we kick off in freezing temperatures at 9am. This year the organisation decided we would start at midday, the hottest part of the already boiling day.
My Wahoo’s average temperature for the race was 42°C and maxed at 45°C!
It was like nothing I have ever experienced – as a Yorkshire girl, I prefer to race in the rain and cold, it’s what I’ve been brought up with. The crazy temperatures were not my cup of tea.
My body felt it; by the end of the race I had seven new heart rate scores. For 90 minutes I averaged 180bpm and 193bpm for 10 minutes. Eating in that kind of weather with a mouth lined in white dust from the roads is an effort in itself. I did however, manage to get through nine bottles, which is a bit of an achievement for me as I usually struggle to get enough liquids during a race.
I don’t think the addition of Covid-19 measures took away from the race at all, I only really noticed during the team presentation when we weren’t really presented to anybody! Once we started racing I didn’t even notice the lack of a crowd.
After the race our team drove back to Belgium where we had a small team camp, we managed to do recons of all the Classics including the new women’s Parisroubaix where I managed to pick up, quite literally, a hand-full of blisters. What a race though, I’m really looking forward to the inaugural women’s race this year.