This lady made her track racing debut just one year ago and already she holds two World Masters Champion jerseys. Janet has become stronger with every race this season and impressively won this year's women's track omnium series.
More impressive is the fact that she has achieved all this whilst juggling a very successful full time career. We went along to the Track National's in Manchester to congratulate Janet on her storming season and ask her just how she's found the dedication and motivation to reach such heights in her first year on the track scene.
Age: 39
Team: Twickenham CC/Natures Kiss
Racing debut: Manchester National's 2004
So, give us a bit of your cycling background. How did you get into it all?
I actually went travelling around the world and I was in South America in a place called La Paz on my own, and I realised that it was a fairly dangerous place for a woman to be on her own. I came across a Kiwi Mountain biking outfit called Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking and I did a mountain bike ride down the world's most dangerous road, which seemed like a good way to start! And then when I got back from that, I did a season skiing and met some cool guys who were really into mountain biking and they said if you're into mountain biking you should come and ride with us- and I then pretty much lied about my ability because I quite fancied one of them, as you do!! I turned up and this guy said 'bring your bike' and I said, 'I've got to reveal it to you, my bike's got a mud guard on it,' and he said, 'd'you know what, don't bring your bike, I'll sort one out for you.'
So, I got into mountain biking and did that two or three times a week. Then got a job down south, needed to stay fit so I joined Twickenham CC, thinking that road riding would be the easy option, I was so wrong! I ended up going out with the women and the juniors feeling almost put out, because, 'didn't they know who I was!? ...no!' I got pushed up all the first hills and pushed home and quickly realised that road riding was not the easy option and then from there I did a bit of time trialing and, how did I get in to track? Well, track was a weird one. The Twickenham put in a team for the divisional pursuit, won that and said they'd come to Manchester. I said to my husband, 'if you're going to Manchester I'll come and support you' and he said, 'don't be silly Janet, you don't support, I'll enter you for some rides' and that was about a year ago today. I turned up and just lost out in a medal ride off for the sprint and it's really fired me up to have a go and get serious about it because I think, if I can do that with such little experience, maybe with a bit more experience I could make a fist of it and have a go. What I didn't realise was that the standard of women's cycling in the last year has taken a real step change, for the better, so great for women's cycling but it's a lot harder- you've only got to look at the times this year on last year to realise how it's improved but it's been a real driver for me to get a medal at these championships.
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How hard has it been juggling cycling with a full time career?
It is hard, but I suppose I often hear athletes talking in terms of sacrifices. The truth is, It's not a sacrifice, it's a choice. I don't make money from it but the choices I make are to not have a social life, to work and train. Very often I'll work all day, I tend to get up around 6.30-7 o'clock, go to work, I'm lucky in that sometimes I'll get a gym session in at lunchtime, I'll come home, I'll get straight on the bike and then it's shower eat and bed. I'm very tired all the time- you know, at 39 years old. In the winter I was training 15 hours a week and it's all you do and that's the choice I make. But I find for me it's difficult to do it and not be competitive, and to be competitive you have to do it to that level.
On the upside, how did you feel when you won your world title this year?
The world's was a serious peak. I guess it's a tough call because you start training in November and I've had the benefit of a lot of help, primarily from my husband who's been fantastic, but also from some guys from the club who have helped me put my calendar together. And the World's and the National's were the thing at the end of the season, well my season started in late April and I've been working from then until now with the world's and the National's very much on my mind. The competition's been a great boost for me because I've seen my times improve every time I've gone out and throughout the omnium series but it's a long hall- so when I got to the World's and won two jerseys, I was beside myself, absolutely beside myself!
Have you been approached by other teams or are you sticking with Twickenham?
No I haven't actually, I'm almost put out! Seriously though, no I haven't. I think that most people who would know me at all would know how much support I get from the team and its actually quite bad practice to go around poaching members. I know there are teams out there looking for female members, obviously I'm entitled to say no if I want to and equally I'm entitled to go looking if I want to but Twickenham's an old school team. It's a club as opposed to a team and I think that's the difference. There are club rooms, there's a club run, we have some training weekends, things I believe that the sponsored teams don't get, and that's something that I don't take for granted. Like I said, I'm new to the cycling world and so I assume this is how it is but by looking around at the teams, Twickenham's quite unique in that respect and I really appreciate the social side of it. I mean, you just need to look around today at the people here, there are few other clubs with that kind of support.
What advice on joining a club would you give to women who are starting out?
Women need an infrastructure around them, I mean I've been extremely lucky to meet my husband through the club, which has definitely been an added bonus and worth every penny of the membership fee! But that aside, what the club does is it exposes you to different types of riding, we've got mountain biking, we've got road riding, time trialing, circuit racing, track, the team organises so many different things that you can have a play, find out what you like, what you don't like, in a very safe, controlled environment, always with top class coaches on hand and you can just pitch up and meet people and you'll be made to feel welcome and be given support from day one. I'm almost embarrassed to say this, but very early on someone asked me, 'Jan, how much air have you got in your tyres?' and I was embarrassed to say, 'well, whatever they put in at the shop,' I mean, I didn't know! And embarrassment aside, we've all been there in a moment of ignorance and there are people there that will show you how to change your gear levers, will show you how to do things so that you can do it yourself next time and that's not to be underestimated if you're new to a sport.
Do you have any advice for women who are new to the sport or looking to have a go?
I'm surrounded by people who are 'give it a go' girls and there are no sponsored riders in the club and we all have full time jobs to do. We've got to keep it fun but I would say to anyone that wants to give it a go, give it a go!
Track is probably the most friendly of the cycling environments I've been in and the omnium series has been a blast. I've got to know people over the period of the year and because people have different specialisms you can maybe be gunning for me, I'm going for the 500m and the sprints and if I see someone else do well in the pursuit I can be genuinely happy for them because it's not something that I've trained for or particularly want to fight for so I'd just say to anyone, if at my age, with my lack of experience and everything else that goes on with work I can have a go at it then anyone can. In my opinion, I don't think the people that do well in sport are necessarily the best, they're the people that just want to give it a go and are prepared to commit to it. The more women that come into it, the better for everyone and I really hope more people give it a go.
