Rider diary: Pooley victorious in the mountains of Ardeche
Sharon Laws updates us on the progress of the women’s team, this time with a huge win by Emma Pooley at the Tour of Ardeche! The Tour of Ardeche is one of my favourite stage races; it is held in a beautiful area of France, the weather is usually good and having done it 3 [...]
Rider diary: The temperature drops but the heart rate rises
Sharon Laws continues her diary entries, this time from the GP de Plouay-Bretagne in France. After the Sweden World Cup I spent three days back in Girona before getting on a plane again for a race in Belgium. Carla was particularly excited with her Cervélo S5 making its debut. It failed not to disappoint and [...]
Rider diary: Racing in the land of the vikings
Sharon Laws continues her diary of adventures with the women’s team, this time from the TTT World Cup in Sweden. With Thuringen completed we sent Emma home to Switzerland, to do some more baking as provisions were running low and Noemi, Trine, Iris and I headed for Sweden via Copenhagen. Lizzie headed back to Belgium [...]
Rider diary: Tired Legs and the infamous Hankaberg
Sharon Laws sent us another great diary entry, this time from the Thuringen Rundfahrt in Germany. Noemi Cantele, Lizzie Armistead, Trine Smidt, Iris Slappendal, Sharon Laws, Emma Pooley After an easy five days recovering from the Giro I was back on a plane again heading this time to Germany for the International Thuringen Rundfahrt. I [...]
Rider diary: Highs and lows of the Giro Donne
The longest and hardest stage race on the Women’s calendar is the ten-day Giro Donne. Second place on GC and a stage win for Emma Pooley made it a good result for our women’s team. Sharon Laws reflects on the biggest race of the women’s season. Iris Slappendal, Noemi Cantele, Sharon Laws, Lucy Martin, Jessie [...]
Rider diary: Giro Trentino
Sharon Laws wrote this diary entry about the Giro Trentino just before the start of the Giro Donne. Apples, Apples and more Apples. The Giro Trentino. One of Italy’s most famous wine regions but unfortunately we had to stick to the apples. The Giro Trentino was my first stage race in Italy last year and, [...]
Race preview: Recon for the Giro Donne
Sharon Laws is part of our team for the Giro Donne, the Grand Tour for women’s racing. She sent this diary of the team’s scouting of the race. The Giro Donne is the most prestigious women’s stage race of the year and runs from the first to the tenth of July taking in many of [...]
Rider diary: Chasing the green machine in Spain
Sharon Laws of our women’s pro team checks in after tough racing in Spain. I’m wearily travelling back from northern Spain to Girona having just completed Iurreta Emakumeen Bira a 4 day, 5 stage, race and one day race – Durango Durango. Marianne Vos is on fire and won both Durango and Bira. It was [...]
Blog: Carla Ryan goes to California
Garmin-Cervélo’s women’s team member Carla Ryan recently ‘took one for the team’ by trading the harsh conditions of Northern Europe for the sun of Southern California to represent the team at the Cervélo Brain Bike Show. She sent in this dispatch: When I was asked whether Id like to go to California for 10days or [...]
A physio's diary: Consistent Aggression (Tour of Britain)
Team physiotherapist Toby Watson sent this dispatch from the recent Tour of Britain, despite few hours of sleep! I’m in Ipswich, southeast England, and have finally found time to get finger to keyboard (what is the modern equivalent of “pen to paper”?) to scribble (again – what’s the digital version of scribbling? – such important [...]
A physio's tale: You've ****** done it!
Stage 5 of the Eneco Tour had the race heading back into the bumpy territory that did so much damage on Stage 3, this time on similar roads to those used in the Amstel Gold spring classic. Svein was still in contention for a podium position on the over all, and the main role for [...]
A physio's tale: Getting It Done – Eneco Tour, stage 1
Yesterday was an interesting day for the team: we had Svein in the leader’s jersey, and so were obliged to control the race. It’s a different vibe controlling the race to get close to the finish and then letting the sprinter teams take over: normally we’re in the situation of wanting to control things late, [...]
A physio's tale: The wait and hope
Once again our fearless team physiologist Toby Watson will be sending in dispatches from the road, this time at the Eneco Tour. Yesterday was the start of the Eneco Tour, a race through the Netherlands, Belgium and (I think) Luxembourg. It’s a week-long race on the Pro Tour circuit, meaning it is one of the [...]
A physio's tale: Redundancy and happy surprises: Stage 19 (time trial)
Team Garmin-Transitions’ physiotherapist Toby Watson will be checking in from the roads in France during Le Tour (literally from the roads as the transfers from start to finish in the car are the medical staff’s only down time!) Time trials are always difficult days at races. Firstly, the riders line up knowing their final position [...]
A physio's tale: The final efforts
Team Garmin-Transitions’ physiotherapist Toby Watson will be checking in from the roads in France during Le Tour (literally from the roads as the transfers from start to finish in the car are the medical staff’s only down time!) We’re on the downhill slope for this race now, and the fatigue is starting to show. It’s [...]
A physio's tale: Mountaintop on stage 17
Team Garmin-Transitions’ physiotherapist Toby Watson will be checking in from the roads in France during Le Tour (literally from the roads as the transfers from start to finish in the car are the medical staff’s only down time!) Today was the showdown. As all who watch cycling know, any stage with a mountaintop finish is [...]
A physio's tale: How far we go
Team Garmin-Transitions’ physiotherapist Toby Watson will be checking in from the roads in France during Le Tour (literally from the roads as the transfers from start to finish in the car are the medical staff’s only down time!) Stage 16 was the biggest climbing stage of the Tour, but the last climb was some 60km [...]
A physio's tale: Hump day & humdrum
Team Garmin-Transitions’ physiotherapist Toby Watson will be checking in from the roads in France during Le Tour (literally from the roads as the transfers from start to finish in the car are the medical staff’s only down time!) As the physio on team Garmin-Transitions, all I can say is this is a dangerous sport! All [...]
A physio's tale: R&R for some
Team Garmin-Transitions’ physiotherapist Toby Watson will be checking in from the roads in France during Le Tour (literally from the roads as the transfers from start to finish in the car are the medical staff’s only down time!) After a single day of respite from the searing heat of the majority of this race, we [...]
A physio's tale: The hard 'easy' day
Team Garmin-Transitions’ physiotherapist Toby Watson will be checking in from the roads in France during Le Tour (literally from the roads as the transfers from start to finish in the car are the medical staff’s only down time!) Yesterday was always going to be the day that the breakaway succeeded. The profile of the course [...]
A physio's tale: Another Day, Another Epic
Team Garmin-Transitions’ physiotherapist Toby Watson will be checking in from the roads in France during Le Tour (literally from the roads as the transfers from start to finish in the car are the medical staff’s only down time!) Yesterday’s stage was a 204km monster through hot weather over a series of significant climbs, totalling about [...]
Rest day: Treat, tweak and retune with Matt Rabin
Team chiropractor Matt Rabin checks in from the first ‘rest’ day of the Tour — or as mechanic Kris Withington calls it, the day the ‘rest’ of the work gets done. For Rabin, his work-load has been bigger than usual, thanks to a rough-and-tumble first week. We all had a great time watching the world [...]
A physio's tale: Weight of a nation
Team Garmin-Transitions’ physiotherapist Toby Watson will be checking in from the roads in France during Le Tour (literally from the roads as the transfers from start to finish in the car are the medical staff’s only down time!) Today was the first mountain stage of the race, and the second chance for the big hitters [...]
