My father used to race when he was in his early 20s, so when my brother, Greg, became interested in racing he was keen for him to follow suit. At that time of my life I wanted to do everything my brother did (much to his annoyance!) so I too took up racing when I was 14 years old. My first race was Bungay Crits, a race in Suffolk (which has now become part of the National Criterium Series), I have ridden this race every year since and won it all but once!!

As an under 16 and 18 year old I raced quite regularly competing against the likes of Nicole Cooke, Ruisine Airstone, Ceris Gilfilian (do I need to carry on!). During this time I think my most memorable results included:

Winner of the ESCA Internationals 1996
Youth Week winner 1996
2nd and 3rd Junior BBAR 1998, 1999
3rd Junior national MTB round 1998
2nd GHS 10mile time trial 1995,1996
2nd National Junior 10mtt and 25mtt 1999
Oh and not forgetting Bungay crits 1st 1995-1999!
I left sixth form college in 1999 with A-level Sport Studies, Biology and Chemistry to study physiotherapy at University of Hertfordshire. During this time I reduced my racing to just cyclo-cross due to time commitments in the summer, placements and getting in to the uni life!!! In the winter of 2000 I rode my first cyclo-cross bike (due to rule changes you were no longer allowed to use a mountain bike) and got 4th place in the first round of the National Trophy Series. This was also the race where I first met my husband, Stefan (ahh) (In a service station in south Wales!!!) The same season I rode two world cups for Great Britain, one in Zolder, Belgium and the other in Zeddam, Holland, my very first taste of international racing.

From then I concentrated hard to gain my degree, Bsc(Hons) Physiotherapy and graduated in 2002. I moved up to Lancashire where I worked at Royal Preston Hospital, Preston, Lancs. During the next two years I raced when I could but this usually meant in the winter. In the 2003/4 cyclo-cross season I achieved my best results so far:

1st National Trophy Round 3, Mallory
2nd Overall National trophy series
4th National Cyclo Cross Championships
24th World Cyclo-cross Championships
14th World Cup Cyclo-Cross, Pijnaker, Holland
18th World Cup Cyclo-Cross, Weitzikon, Switzerland
Plus others which are on the results section of this site.
Off the back of a successful cyclo-cross season I was selected to ride in the Ronde-Van-Drenthe in Holland this year (2004) which was fantastic. This race was my first taste at international road racing and I loved it. It was hard and fast but it was awesome.

From here on you can check out my race reports to see what I have been up to but you can see that I am starting to get used to it. For the future it is difficult to say, I know what I want to achieve and how I need to go about it, so maybe when I write the next update on my history I will let you know what my goal is now! Until then……watch this space!!!