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Rachael rides through July!

Rachael rides through July!


I don’t really know what happened to July. It started off well before I went into pathetic decline as I fought of bugs and colds.  So, before you sit comfortably to read on don’t ask me ‘How are you’ otherwise I will begin to list all my ailments including my aches and pains and I will still be telling you about them even as you walk off into the distance.

cycling primal europe

The start of the month had planned to be quite full on beginning with The Pink Ribbon Ride.  This was organised as part of the OVO Women’s Tour Series in London and celebrating 25 years of the pink ribbon campaign where the final 25k of the finish line was opened up for ladies of any age, bike and ability to ride in conjunction with Breast Cancer Care.  As my club couldn’t get everyone to London our Breeze Ambassador put plans into action to organise the ride in our neighbourhood.  There had been a fair amount of planning to entice over 30 female riders to join us on the Saturday morning to cycle just over 10 miles with the reward of coffee and cake once we had finished.  It was amazing to see so many ladies all together with pink ribbons in their hair, flowers weaved around their wicker baskets and people of all ages, bikes and ride ability.  Myself, Anita, Gemma and Breeze Ambassador Louise rode the ladies out with the help of the CCC guys and a support vehicle stopping traffic and not by the show of the smoothly waxed leg as they would like to tell us. There was a lot of chatting, laughing and bad singing from the back of the group (let me just say I can hit those high notes fine when I’m in the car!!).  The result from this event was that it has since spurred on a fair number of these ladies to take up group cycling which is a great achievement.

cycling, ambassador, primal europe

The following weekend Chatteris Cricket Club had organised a series of twenty20 cricket matches with the aim of bringing community sports groups together which was a great idea. Chatteris Cycling Club were the 1st of the local clubs to take on the challenge on a Friday evening with a BBQ, bouncy castle and sunshine.  The CCC V CCC.  The cricket club were first to bat while the cycling club were out fielding, having played ladies football I wasn’t used to stopping a ball with my hands but eventually managed to work out my hand eye coordination so that I was running to the ball in mid-air and then clapping like a seal as it bounced passed me (telling the guys I meant to do that).  When it was our turn to bat I was quite eager to strap the very long cricket pads over my short legs, pop an oversized baseball helmet on (naturally), put on a pair of sweaty mitts and take the guys on.  Not having a clue on what I was meant to be doing I was handed the bat and told where to stand with Mark my team mate opposite advising me when to run.  I bopped the ball away a couple of times and shuffled my short legs in the long shin pads with a dusty trail behind me to and from the posts splitting my sides laughing all the way, waving goodbye one by one to my cycling team mates as they left the pitch while myself asking “am I out yet”, with the reply “no you’re still in but your team mate is out”.   The game ended with me hitting two 4’s and winning it for the cycling club and being the only girl playing.  I laughed all the way off the pitch to a series of high fives and back patting.  Hurrahh!!!.

I didn’t hang around too long after the cricket match as I wanted to get home to organise my new Primal kit ready for the Street Velo in which I had won a ballot place earlier in the week.  The Viking Street Velodrome Series UK was being held in Newmarket and I had been looking forward to racing.  The event is a “regional round of the Viking Street Velodrome Series where local amateur cyclists gets the chance to enter a ballot to win a race place attempting to qualify for the UK StreetVelodrome Series on Race Day morning. Riders who qualify they then get to race alongside the Pros in head to head races to decide the best male and female amateur riders.” HOWEVER…..6am I woke up to the feeling like I was suffering someone else’s hangover despite being sober the night before.  I decided to get outside for some fresh air and I was feeling a little bit better by lunchtime but still contemplatied heading off to the event talking myself in and out of it enough times that by the time I grabbed the car keys and my kit it would have been too late to register and take part, so instead with the car windows down and fresh air in my lungs I reluctantly headed to a local village gala where the Chatteris Cycling Club had an open air stand still feeling gutted that I had not taken part in the race.  In a bitter sweet kind of way this was also the last time we as a club and for the members that had been on the stand would have spent time with our club mother and treasurer Jacky as we received news later in the week of her unexpected passing in the evening after the Gala.

 

Sunday morning should have been the Women on Wheels sportive which I had been preparing to ride in since racing in the Tour of Cambridgeshire but still not feeling 100% decided to stay in bed and watch the Tour De France while checking on updates on how my friends were getting on in the ride and whether they had managed to find each other at the start line.

 

The rest of July continued to be a mix of evenings being an indoor warrior on the turbo trainer or out on solo and Tuesday group rides while still feeling weak feeble and a pathetic (violin...) with the finale of a full blown cold to make me really feel fed up.  After not being able to ride for a week I decided to join the Sunday group inters ride (aka part Primal Jersey Peloton) for a 70-mile ride to Oundle for coffee and cake to either kill or cure the cold, sweat it out and just blast my lungs out with more fresh air taking on my stoical Dutch friend’s words of wisdom that a glass of water and a walk around the playground cures everything’. She wasn’t wrong, it made me feel a bit better but then my runners knee started playing up…. are you still sitting comfortably?

 primal europe, cycling

 I hope to have more interesting things to tell you about in my next blog, if not why spoil a good story with the truth…until then ride safe.

 

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