Q&A: Hannah Walker (Team WNT)

The VeloUK question and answer with Hannah Walker of Team WNT Pro Cycling

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Q&A: Hannah Walker (Team WNT)

1. How did you get into cycle racing?
Hannah: I got into racing when I was 16 after having a taster session at the Manchester Velodrome. I sustained a long term knee injury when I was competing in athletics and cross country which turned out to be arthritis. I started racing first at the Manchester track league and progressed from there into road racing.

2. What’s your favourite discipline in cycling?
Hannah: I do both road and track, but I think my favourite is the road as I love the variations of the races.

3. What is the best thing about bike racing?
Hannah: The sense of achievement after you’ve put so much effort into your training.

4. What was the highlight of 2016 for you and why?
Hannah: My personal highlight was getting a silver medal at the National Derny Championships after breaking my wrist, elbow and separating my shoulder and collarbone eight weeks previously in the final round of the Matrix Fitness GP Tour Series.

5. What was your favourite/most fun race of 2016
Hannah: The Lincoln GP was my favourite. I loved the cobbled climb, it was different to any other women’s National Series event.

6. What was the toughest race of 2016 for you and why?
Hannah: The toughest race for me in 2016 was the Energiewacht Tour. It was one of the first races of the season for me and I felt out of my depth racing against all the pro teams who’d be racing all the classics. Then I crashed out, so it wasn’t an enjoyable race to do!

7. If there was one thing you learned most in 2016 to help you go faster/better, what was that?
Hannah: Train harder? ha ha

8. What is the best piece of equipment (clothing/bike/gadget) to do with racing you are proud of most?
Hannah: My favourite piece of equipment is probably my Rotor INpower cranks. Rotor use WNT cutting tools to make their components, pretty cool!
… continued after advert

2016_ShuttVeloRapideAdvert

9. What is your warm up routine for races – rollers or turbo? Music or no music?
Hannah: Rollers and always with music, I have a set playlist with songs that get me raring to go!

10. Will you stay in the UK to prepare for next season during the winter or get in a training camp or two abroad to get in some serious miles?
Hannah: I have been away to Girona in November, and I am planning to go away again before we go on our team training camp at the end of February. Other than that, I have been in the UK, the weather hasn’t been too bad I guess!

11. What bike will you ride in 2017?
Hannah: I’ll be riding a Specialized Tarmac, Hope Technology wheels with custom hubs, Rotor 2 INpower power cranks, Continental tyres, and Shimano Di2.

12. What are the goals for 2017?
Hannah: My goals are to help out our hitters on the team as much as possible. I also want to develop as much as I can and I’ll try get a result myself!

13. Does winter training consist only of riding the bike or running/swimming/gym work (cross training)
Hannah: I go to the gym, and I’ve just come back from 5 days cross-country skiing with Team WNT, it was a team building trip, but it was good training for cycling.

14. Finally, what have you learnt over the years to best deal with the winter months on a bike!
Hannah: Always try and get a warm weather training camp in at some point. It will help to break the winter up. I do gym and ride on the velodrome as well which is always a bonus when the weather is really bad.

AlpsCyclesMidstory

 

Send your results as well as club, team & event news here

Cero

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: