January 2012 -

Specialized supports women’s cycling

January 30, 2012 Nicola Cycle racing, Professional cycling, Women cycling, women specific bike, women's bikes

If you’re a regular reader of this blog then you’ll know by now that I’m a fan of the US bike company Specialized. It’s partly because I really love their products which so far for me includes my bike, shoes, socks and gloves but also because they are great supporters of women’s cycling teams. Many of you would have probably heard of the European based Specialized Lululemon team which is a spin-off from the ill-fated HTC Highroad team that disbanded last year (a blog post coming on that one soon) but Specialized is also working with women’s cycling in Australia

My Tour Down Under experience

January 25, 2012 Nicola Cycle racing, Professional cycling, Women cycling

I’ve just returned home after a great holiday to watch the Tour Down Under (TDU) in South Australia and I thought I’d share some of my experiences with you. The TDU has become a bit of an annual pilgrimage for Phillip and I because we were visiting for the fifth time in 2012. But like most cycling activities our interest and time spent has grown exponentially in the TDU. Our first in 2008 centred around Phillip’s participation in his first charity ride – the JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes. We probably watched a stage or two of the TDU but

My JDRF ride – reaching the next level

January 18, 2012 Nicola charity bike ride, training, Women cycling

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) annual Ride to Cure Diabetes is pretty special to me because it’s the reason I started my love affair with cycling three and a half years ago. This was my fourth time I had participated and while a lot of people think that raising $3,500 to do the ride is a huge challenge, for me riding the 160 km course was far harder. In my previous three rides I’d only done the 80 km course which was hard for me the first time (only four months after I started riding) but it had become

Bird Strike on the LACC Sunday ride

January 10, 2012 Nicola Cycling Club, training, Women cycling

The most bizarre thing happened on my ride this past Sunday and I’ve got a great video to go with the story thanks to my friend Howard Brown. I was doing what I do most Sundays and enjoying a bunch ride on Sunday morning around Homebush with the guys from my bike club LACC. For those who know the area we had come along Hill Road and turned left into Pondage Link and I was on the front. The next thing I heard and felt this soft thud which I later realised was a low flying black bird with really

Working together will help raise the profile of women’s cycling

January 4, 2012 Nicola Cycle racing, Cycling journalism, Professional cycling, Women cycling

The low profile of women’s cycling has come to fore again in recent days following some rather controversial comments by Chloe Hosking at the start of the Bay Crits racing inVictoria. Calling the head of the UCI ‘a dick’ is probably not the right way to go but I do agree with her sentiment. To her credit she has come out and said her choice of words was not great but she stands by the comments. I’m at outsider to this situation and have only recently started following the women’s professional cycling scene so I’m in a unique position to