You began cycling in Holland – describe how you first began.. What made you take up cycling, and continue?
. Like everybody else in Holland, I learnt to ride a bike as a 4-year old and this then became my main mode of transport for getting to school and to see friends. So there isn’t such a thing as consciously “taking up” cycling. However, I didn’t ride my first racebike till I was 23 – so I suppose that’s when it became serious. I had finished my studies (English Language and Literature at Leiden University and then a Master’s and Post-Graduate Certificate in Education at Leicester University), had gone back to Holland to take up teaching and found myself pretty unfit – I was picking up every single bug from the students and suffering permanent colds. So I decided drastic action was needed and my then boyfriend (now husband) and I both bought a gleaming racebike to get more fresh air and exercise, and enjoy the countryside in the South of Holland where we were living. It started off as an hour here or there but we soon became fanatical and the weekend trips became longer and longer, and faster and faster. We considered joining a touring club but found that a bit too tame, so we took the plunge and joined a bikeracing club. I got my first racing licence at 25.
Cycling is a very popular sport in Holland – what would a weekly routine have been for you growing up?
As I always combined cycling with a full-time job in teaching and later in management in education, I had to be clever in making maximum use of my time. At one point I was teaching 4 days at a secondary school 15 km away and 2 or 3 evenings at a night school in The Hague, which was 40 km away. My routine was to cycle to the daytime school, have a shower (a week’s supply of clothes on location organised beforehand), and on the days I had to continue on to The Hague I would cycle the distance plus an extra loop along the Dutch coast if I had time – another shower waiting at that end, and all my course books, notes etc safely tucked away in a locker. Graham (my husband) would pick me up at 11 or so when classes were finished. There was an advantage to students in these arrangements as well: I had to be extremely well organised way ahead of the actual classes.
Your husband is involved in cycling as well – did you meet him through the sport?
No, we actually met as students in Leicester and as I mentioned, we were pretty unfit at the time and (dare I say it) even smoked…
Your work commitment is quite time consuming now – do you find cycling a good escape?
I still try and get out on the bike a couple of times during the week and at least one longer ride over the weekend. I wouldnt describe it as an escape, more as a nice antidote and funnily enough, when you’re on the bike and not really thinking of work your brain is still ticking away in the background. Sometimes a solution to a problem, or a good idea, just floats to the surface even though you’re not trying. I love riding around the Clare roads; nice and quiet, lovely scenery. I know lots of back roads that some of my colleagues at Limerick Institute of Technology, who have lived here all their lives, have never even heard of.
What kind of bike do you cycle? Do you ever go Mountain Biking?
I ride a Wilier Le Roi, which is an ultralight machine. Marco Pantani used to ride one of those, but we all know what happened to him…I also have an older racebike for training in bad weather, as I don’t want to ruin my new bike. The mountainbike is a Dutch make, Gazelle. We only do mountainbiking over the winter months as a break from riding on the road. There aren’t that many suitable tracks for mountainbiking here, but we have found a large forested area near Broadford where the East Clare Way takes you over some hills where you can do various circuits. Not a soul around. What do you like most about cycling in Ireland, as opposed to Holland?
I love the variation of undulations, steep climbs and some flat sections as well. The views are stunning. Hard work though! You really have to be careful not to get overtrained. I also find now I am well past 40 that I need more recovery time. I’m still not a 100% fit after my gruelling 280K of the Tour of Flanders 3 weeks ago. But very satisfying and you have to keep challenging yourself.
And what do you miss most?
Funnily enough I miss the mountainbike trips in The Netherlands! You wouldn’t believe this for a flat country, but they have the best organised MTB trips during the winter months, where hundreds of riders turn up for 50K spins in the forest. The route is staked out with arrows and streamers, you get taken along twists and turns through the trees along sand or mud tracks as the case may be. Very safe, no rocky descents, but excellent training and very enjoyable. We always used to go to these every Saturday morning along with a group from the club. What are your favourite memories – of a race or training spin?
My fondest memory is finishing 20th overall in an international stage race in 1994. This was in Holland and involved a 5 km timetrial, a 60 km street circuit race and a 100 km road race. Most of the riders in the 120-strong field were semi-professionals who didn’t have to combine racing with working full-time, and in fact there was only one amateur rider ahead of me in the final classification – she was an ex-professional ice speedskater. I finished higher up in plenty of other races, but this international stage race was definitely my best relative performance.
What was your worst experience? Dropping out with a flat tyre when I was in a front group of three riders in a race in Belgium. You head out for spins with a group at the weekends – what kind of distance do you do? And how did you get in touch with the group? We do sometimes join a group that sets off from Limerick City Centre on Sunday mornings at 9.15 (we have learnt not to go with them on the Saturday morning because then they are still fresh – I’ll wait until they have burnt themselves out!). We got in touch with them just the way things go in cycling: just by chance, you run into them one day. The other week there were about 15 of us: one Dutch, two English, one Pole, a French speaking Belgian and the rest were Irish. We were speaking all sorts of languages but the chatting soon stopped when the ones in front suddenly darted off left up this winding climb somewhere in Limerick County. By the way, there was one other woman riding that day, who used to do triathlons apparently and she was very strong. If you were to give women one reason to get on their bikes – what reason would you give? Just do it – you will feel and look great!
