A Zwift Victory
The countdown timer for the race to start ticked over on the screen. I sat mounted on my bike, warmed up and ready to go, completely focused. I was genuinely in race mode and, after almost a month in lockdown, that was a welcome feeling. But the unfamiliarity of e-racing was making my heart beat a little faster.
I had been invited to race the Zwift Classic Trofeo Bologna but initially I was hesitant. I’ve made a big effort to embrace Zwift since lockdown but I had been watching some of the other pro races and the power stats were intimidating. I had never done an e-race before so I also wasn’t sure how to strategize or use the power-ups. Even though I had actually raced the course in real life, this really was racing in a different world, but the newly addicted Zwift athlete in me couldn’t say no.
In the comfort of my own home, I waited for the start absolutely tingling with nerves. I hadn’t been this nervous for a race in years! When the race officially began, I over-powered the start and shot right out in front. In the peloton I was like a yo-yo. As a first-time e-racer, I didn’t have a sense of the delay between pedal power and on-screen position. I would be leading the race and then almost out the back, off the front and then instantly back to 30th. Eventually, I got the balance right and as we approached the first ascent up the Madonna di San Luca, I moved to the front and set the pace. I crested with only one other rider but we were caught at the bottom of the descent by a chase group of eight riders. By then, however, I had the hang of things.
I sat in the wheels, taking my turn on the front but also saving my legs as much as I could. In the one-day Giro dell'Emilia, we race up the Madonna di San Luca so, even though I was an avatar in a computer-generated representation, I knew exactly what to do. When the gradient screamed up on a sharp hairpin around 1 kilometer to go, I attacked. In the 2016 Giro dell'Emilia, I had come up short and finished second to Elisa Longo Borghini but that wasn’t happening today. As my family stood right next to me in the grips of excitement, cheering me on, I put down the watts and claimed the victory.
My family swarmed around to congratulate me, as did the virtual community. I knew the London Dynamo Club I often rode with on Zwift were watching from England and their messages began to pour in. I had tons of messages from riders I knew in real life and riders I had only ever “met" in Watopia. A lot of people were reaching out and, maybe it’s because of lockdown and the current situation, but the response seemed bigger than some of my real-life race wins.
The race was only 41 minutes so, even though it was around 21:00, I rode on for a long time after. The house settled back to quiet but I could feel there was lift in the atmosphere, a buzz from the race. I never imagined that Zwift would be such a big part of my life and I definitely never imagined I would be the winner of an e-race! I also never imagined that physical distancing would bring the cycling community so close together or that our sport would continue on in such a new way. Change brings uncertainty, as my racing nerves reminded me, but it also brings the hope and excitement of new opportunities and that makes my heart beat a little faster too.
Finding Peace and My Place in Lockdown
So, life has changed. If you’re a human on the planet, you’ve been affected by Coronavirus. For us at Rocacorba Cycling in Spain, that has meant full lockdown. It happened with very little notice and, with the exception of groceries, medical care, or walking a pet, we are confined to our homes.
The notice of our lockdown came fast. In about 48 hours we went from rumours to “effective immediately” and with that came a lot of fear and questions. As the gravity of reality sank in, so did my fear about the future. In the big picture of life, sport is not an essential good. Everyone is vulnerable—physically, mentally, and economically—and in such unprecedented times, I was struggling to find peace and place in the global pandemic.
The biggest obvious challenge for me was shifting all my training indoors. I’ve always rather put on a jacket and trained outside, rain or snow, so, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to being stuck inside. But, whether injury, illness, the racing calendar, team decisions, training, family, work, or whatever, the best athletes are the ones that can adapt, period. Ready or not, I had to rise to this scary and extraordinary challenge.
Rocacorba Cycling has always had a top-of-the-line indoor training set up thanks to our friends at Zwift. With a Tacx smart trainer and Zwift, I knew I had the best possible tools for success. Still, I wasn’t sure how I was going to keep it together mentally. A week was one thing. I was confident I could handle three even four weeks but what if it was longer? What about the Olympics? CCC-Liv?
I just started out riding around Wattopia (one of the Zwift virtual worlds). Pretty quickly, I started to discover all the people; I began joining group rides and eventually started hosting meet-ups of my own. I rode with guests who were supposed to be staying with us, friends from across the planet who I never get to ride with, and I’ve even joined the London Dynamos for what’s become a regular Saturday morning ¨race¨. A whole new world of indoor training opened up to me and with real people behind every avatar, there was real engagement, real fun, and even real DOMS. I have a meet-up almost every day now and, unexpectedly, it’s actually allowed me to be more social than ever.
It took a while but I began to make peace with the situation. The Olympics weren’t gone, they were just a little bit farther away. The races would come back and I hoped women’s cycling would be able to find more ground in a post-pandemic world. We might not be racing as CCC-Liv but we were still very much a team. We had started meeting twice a week over the internet and that was actually bringing us closer together. The future of cycling was going to be different but CCC-Liv was already building a new, stronger normal and that security and support is just as comforting as it is a source of motivation.
And I had also found my place: the indoor trainer. I felt blessed to be healthy and committed to doing my part and staying home. I was grateful that technology and Zwift allowed me to continue working and more grateful it became a source of motivation that also kept me connected to so many people.
Rising to the challenge of Coronavirus, for me, has meant finding my place and making peace with reality and the unknown. Lockdown, no matter how long it will be, is always going to be hard but doing our part and staying safe from COVID-19 is about physical distance not social isolation. Whether it’s training inside and meeting-up for virtual rides, making a home office or a home gym, or picking up the phone and giving a friend or family member a call, staying together is the best way we can all rise to the challenge, stay healthy, and make it through Coronavirus.
First Look At Our All New Bike Area
Just over 12 months ago we took the high-pressure hose to the floor in the downstairs vaults. As the concrete started to emerge so did our ideas for what those rooms could become. We wanted a visually stunning but also practical bike area where we could store and work on bikes but which also doubled as a comfortable place for guests to shower, change, and sit on the sofa with a coffee after a ride.
The end result is better than we could have imagined.
Full Circle
Silvie, Wouter, Ashleigh and Carl outside the Rocacorba Cycling front door.
I didn’t even realise it was happening but there it was: a Dutch couple I’d met at the Boels Rental Women’s Tour in September last year at my doorstep. I couldn’t place them right away, but I knew I knew them. They reminded me; after I had won the QOM jersey on stage one, we met and I gave them my podium flowers. Now, here they were in Spain, at Rocacorba Cycling, and making our vision into a reality. Let me explain…
When we first started Rocacorba Cycling, I had my racing life and my business life. When we opened our doors, it was about more than being a hotel and cycling destination. Rocacorba Cycling was and is part of a big dream to bring the parts of cycling together, to marry the right hand of cycling passion with the left hand of sustainability. We wanted a place where everything could viably function together so there were no barriers between cyclists, cycling stakeholders, and everyone in between—a positive feedback loop, so to speak.
That positive feedback was loud and clear when Wouter and Silvie came to stay. We’ve had fans become guests, guests become friends, and friends become family over the years but having fans come to stay because I had connected with them in person at a race was something special.
Racing life and business life have really become symbiotic and that alignment feels so organic and fulfilling. Seeing that connection grow and gain momentum is motivating and uplifting—we hope for our guests also. We aren’t just a hotel. We aren’t just a cycling destination. There’s so much more to experience and feel, not only at Rocacorba Cycling, but beyond our ancient stone courtyard.
We welcome everyone to join us in 2020 whether it’s following my races and preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, coming for a cycling holiday, staying at the hotel and enjoying Catalunya, or connecting with us on social media and being part of our journey from afar.
From our family to yours, best wishes and we hope to see you in 2020!
Returning as Cyclists
It was a pleasure to welcome Anastasia and Kirill back to Rocacorba Cycling. They first stayed with us back in August 2018 and recently they returned, but it wasn’t the Anastasia and Kirill we had initially met.
Last year our guests from Moscow, Russia arrived as pure holiday-makers. They had found us on AirBnB and used us as a base to explore the Girona area and experience Catalonia. They stayed in the apartment of the grand old house Can Campolier and were quite taken with the property, the building, drinks on the balcony, views from the tower and, of course, Mila. They explored Besalu, old town Girona, the Costa Brava, and then they discovered something they weren’t expecting on their Spanish holiday: cycling.
Anastasia and Kirill were not cyclists at all but when you stay with us, it’s hard to miss that we are a cycling destination. Other guests were in and out with hire bikes and their curiosity was sparked. We introduced them to cycling, showed them our Cervelo R3s and what made them a road bike versus the 3T Exploro gravel bikes. We told them about the great routes and things they could see and experience while cycling Girona and the surrounding area. It didn’t take long before they gave into their curiosity, first going for a spin around Lake Banyoles on the town bikes and then venturing out on the 3T Exploros to explore the La Garrotxa area, and that was just the beginning.
Fast forward to April 2019 and when they returned, they were not just holiday-makers anymore. They told us since their first visit their lives had changed. They had bought bikes, proper kit, GoPros, joined Strava… Anastasia and Kirill had come back as proper cyclists. Not only did they enjoy a few days of gravel riding on the 3T Exploros again, but they also ventured out on the Cervelo R3s, some rides even nudging up to 100km! We helped them plan out the best routes over all four days and by the end of the week they had conquered the iconic Rocacorba, ridden the Costa Brava, and experienced Catalonia in a whole new way.
It was a whole new experience off the bike too. Although they were keen to return to the same apartment they had stayed in before, we were excited to have them as our first guests in the newly renovated masia, Cal Germa. While the familiar charm of the property and cuteness of Mila remained the same, they were taken with the comfortable modern rooms and garden backyard of Germa. The combination of privacy and spaciousness, modern and historic, gives the house a really special feeling. It’s the perfect place to relax, recover, and enjoy the surrounding nature and views of the mountain especially, they told us, after a long ride.
Anastasia and Kirill may have been returning guests, but nothing was repeated. Their transformation was nothing short of incredible and we’re absolutely delighted to be a part of their story. If their return visit and riding adventures aren’t convincing enough, Kirill also told us he already wanted a new, better, faster bike: a Cervelo R3. We have a feeling they will be back soon and that they will be taking more than good memories home! Don’t worry Kirill, we’ve got an R3 waiting for you!
The Rocacorba Cycling Jersey… all the way in Moscow.
Only The Best
Riding somewhere new can be great. It can also be terrible. There is nothing worse than showing up to ride a route or climb you have dreamed about only to end up on the busiest roads, going the wrong way, at the worst time. We’ve all been there. A lot of people come to Girona and waste precious kilometres when they could be riding the good stuff.
I never realized the value of a guide until I became one. After riding in Girona for many years, it’s second nature for me to put together routes. From the Costa Brava to the Pyrenees and every back-lane, not-on-Google-Maps road, I’ve ridden it. There are certain things that you just have to find out and experience first-hand on two wheels. Of course I know all the climbs, how to fix any road-side mechanical, and the best places to stop for coffee but it’s more than that. Its creating rides even the seasoned Girona rider would be excited by, knowing where the water taps are on abandoned back roads, the most picturesque places to stop for photos, where all the friendly donkeys are, and, of course, the inevitable conversations along the way.
I’ve ridden with dentists, accountants, geologists, stay-at-home parents, lawyers, photographers. . . from all around the world. After a long ride it’s hard to remember I’m a guide because after the ride we’re all just tired, happy, and ready for a piece of chocolate cake or (and, in some cases) a beer. I can get you from A to B on the best and most incredibly quiet roads you’ve ever ridden but you’ll find out the really good stuff is along the way.