Talkingshop: World Champion Lucy Garner doing the stripes proud

The 2011 World Junior Women’s Road Race Champion Lucy Garner (Node 4 Giordana-Subaru) had her first big weekend of racing on the road in Holland and came away with a second and third from two races.

Related links: Day 1 in Holland | Day 2 in Holland

Lucy explained that as a second year junior, she will be doing as many races as she can in 2012 to help her prepare for when she becomes a senior (Under 23) next season. “I’d like to get abroad a bit more and race with the women” she explained to VeloUK. Last weekend were Junior road races but Lucy is hoping to do what she has done in Britain and that’s race with the seniors.

“During the winter I have done some GB training camps and also been to three six day races (track) which were a really good experience and gave me time racing with the women. Now I’m just getting ready for the road season by getting more miles in.”

Lucy with her rainbow stripes — great to be wearing them as long as its not raining!

Lucy will do a lot of her racing, certainly the events in the UK, for her trade team Node 4 Giordana-Subaru. In that team, she will be racing with good friend Harriett Owen along with Corrine Hall, Sarah King and Hannah Shenton. Having raced with the girls before and being good friends, Lucy admits it was great being able to come together in a team which will be formidable in the Women’s Team Series and also the Women’s racing at the Halfords Tour Series.

The big race in 2012 though will be defending her rainbow stripes in the World Road Championships being held in the hilly Limberg area of Holland. Lucy admits that it’s great being able to race in the stripes just as long as the weather is dry as its not good getting the white shorts dirty during a wet race! A girl with priorities!

Talking about riding in the rainbow jersey, Lucy says, “it is a weird feeling because it’s every cyclists dream to wear the rainbow stripes but it didn’t feel real until I started racing.”

The Road Worlds this year will be hilly and we’ve seen Lucy winning races on both hilly and flat circuits. Does she have a preference we asked? “I feel I am average when it comes to my climbing but when I get into the racing, my mindset is really different and I quite enjoy them actually. I think if I am training towards that, which I will, I should be okay on the hills at the Worlds.”

Lucy says she may well be doing some events at Darley Moor as well as the National Series in April which kicks off with the Cheshire Classic. Lucy won the race by more than a few lengths last year which was all the more extraordinary when you consider she had just come out of the Youth ranks.

This year, sees Lucy start her second year as a junior and being of that age, she still has to balance school work with her training and racing. “I’m doing my first year A levels so I could have another year at school but I’m not sure how it will work out yet.”

“I did start doing four subjects and but was too hard to fit in so I dropped down to three and I do get a lot of ‘frees’ now so I either get my work done or go training. The school is very supportive in giving me the time off I need and helping me catch up.”

“Because of college, I’m on the turbo a lot more through the winter and then on the weekend, I’ll usually go out on the Parrot run on the Saturday and then Sunday, out with the local club run trying to get the miles in.”

Having watched Lucy have a pretty easy time of it in women’s racing, I asked does she ride with the men at all to help make the racing harder. “I will do” she replies. “Mallory Park with either the category 3 / 4 or the Elite /1 2 men probably and it’s good to do that as it’s good fun getting stuck in as they are faster.”

“It is a different style of racing as when the girls go, everyone chases after them but when the guys attack, the peloton usually lets them go and builds it up and the race get faster and faster.”

It’s still six months plus to the Road Worlds but Lucy is already showing the world why she deserves to be wearing those stripes with that success on the weekend and it will be great for the sport in Britain to have a World Champion in its midst during 2012, especially one as special as Lucy Garner.

It shouldn’t be forgotten though Lucy has a younger sister called Grace who races for RST Clothing/Trigon bikes. Grace is still a youth rider but it will interesting to see how see she progresses as the season goes just as Lucy did only a few years ago. Good luck to them both for 2012 …