Hannah Manley stoking with Janet Birkmyre
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The reality of what we have to do to set a new track national record over 5,000m on a tandem hit home on Friday evening, when I met up with my partner at Newport velodrome to ride for the first time.
The purpose of the session was to get the feel of the bike, riding together and the effort required to ride to a schedule that will set a new record.
My partner, Hannah Manly, is just 12 years old and there is no doubting that she is already showing herself to be a huge talent on a bike. She got into track riding a couple of years back, after enjoying the cycling element of triathlons, and she holds the national record for pursuit in her age group. She is still 4 years from GCSE's and so once her homework is out of the way, she can put all her energy into her riding. And, by all accounts, that is a considerable amount of energy, so much so that on a recent training trip to Mallorca she was in danger of doing too much.
All of this bodes well for our ride, but there is one area of her experience where I have been badly misled. Courtney Rowe, the manager of the velodrome and coach to CC Ajax, had previously assured me that she was an experienced tandem rider. One look at her face on Friday had me doubting this to be true and I quickly discovered that Courtney had somewhat exaggerated the facts. She had actually never ridden a tandem on the track and she was looking pretty worried, not an expression anyone had seen on her face in connection with any biking activity before!
Our first session of the evening left us both shaken. I could feel every movement Hannah made and her instinct to try to steer the bike from her position on the back, was most disturbing, albeit utterly fruitless. I also felt a huge responsibility for her safety and continued love of bikes in all shapes and sizes. We were both way outside of our comfort zones and the last thing I wanted was to really scare her, but things got worse before they got better. Upon instructions from the coach, I moved the bike a little way up the 42 degrees of banking and immediately she screamed at me to bring the bike back down. It was almost 15 laps before I could get her say anything to me at all and then it was mostly one syllable words in response to my false jollity.
Happily, two hours later, it all ended in smiles. We even rode 10 laps (half the distance we will cover for the record) at close to the schedule required and Hannah felt comfortable sitting up and taking her hands off the bars to wave at her father.
Katie Curtis/Alex Greenfield - Hannah Manley/Janet Birkmyre, with Tandem coach Courtney Rowe
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At the second, and final, practice session, we will try to use low profile bars. These will give us a more aerodynamic profile but at the cost of some stability. I will really need Hannah to be completely still on the back to get these to work for us and in that respect Katie Curtis and Alex Greenfield showed us the way. They were riding the second tandem in practice for their attempt on the 10,000 m record, which they will go for later on the same evening that we ride.
Both Katie and Alex were on devastating form during the Revolutions series and look very good on the tandem together. They are physically more evenly matched in terms of build than Hannah and I and so will need to be technically better to get the tandem moving well. They are an inspiration to Hannah and I. Just seeing them riding around on the aero bars and then up against the boards on the highest part of the banking, bought out the competitive streak in us and we said absolutely together 'we could do that!' a far cry from our nervous laughter and worried faces of a few hours earlier.
Thanks again to the following who have helped make my 7 minutes of pain a reality:
SheCycles.com - dedicated to everything that is 'women's cycling' but I guess if you are reading this you will already know that www.SheCycles.com
Evans Cycles - the largest independent cycle retailer in the UK, voted Best British Bike Shop in 2003 and 2004 and a solid supporter of all disciplines of biking at all levels www.evanscycles.com
Natures Kiss - distributors of a range of all natural sports/muscle rubs from New Zealand that offer pain relief, sooth bruising and tired muscles and protect you from chafing, in short they make cycling altogether more pleasant www.natureskiss.net
