Team Launch!

12 Feb Team Launch!

Over the course of three nights and two days The Women’s Racing project had its first team camp. 

It first started with what we’d like to think of as “cycling christmas” – a dinner where all 16 new riders received their new kit, helmets and shoes. Anthony Hawkins was on hand to inspire and talk about the cultural alignment and reason behind sponsoring the team. 

Assuming the sunshine and glorious Queensland summer days we then organised multiple outdoor rides on Saturday and Sunday across the hills of Mt Nebo, Glorious and Mt Mee. Unfortunately mother nature had other ideas and we incurred a biblical flood and endless storms. Thankfully some quick thinking and reorganisation lead us to being provided the opportunity to use a new top grade indoor riding facility which housed up to 40 riders. Our resident team director and coach planned a “pain session”. Effectively we all lost 14kg’s of water weight and spent the next two hours eating, yet somehow enjoyed every minute of it. 

Dusting off the sore legs while sipping on 150litres of water the team met at Balmoral Cycling Clubhouse where our dietician Marzia from Life and Performance Nutrition took us through the fundamentals of fuelling for racing, recovery which included a hands on cooking lesson (If anyone needs healthy sports snack recipes, we have them!). 

Once the food settled we took to the criterium track located next to the clubhouse for some Team Time Trial (TTT) practice. For everyone playing at home, there is a very specific set of skills required for going as fast as you can, for as long as you can in a line of five girls. Everyone has varying degrees of fitness, and effectively its teaching the girls to communicate openly to make sure by the 30minutes of riding everyone is equally as tired – even if you have some riders that are very fit, and others not so much. These types of skills and TTT events are core to winning races with multiple stages. You can lose a lot of time on a TTT, on the flip side you can gain a lot. 

Sunday was where the real magic happened, a trip to Recovery Science. Here we were treated to the answer to all of our prayers after Saturday’s events. NormaTec leg compressors, TheraGun’s and Hot/cold baths. This is what dreams are made of! One hour of team bonding while fixing our broken muscles. Off to breakfast for the final hooray and thank you. 

I know all the girls gained so much out of this weekend, and without the support of FourPL and OSG this wouldn’t be possible. Seeing the excitement, joy and drive from this team inspires us to deliver even bigger outcomes this year! 

Follow the team:
Instagram: @wrp_cycling
Facebook: The Womens Racing Project