Interview: Jos Lowden

Post race chat with the women’s winner of the 10 Champs Jos Lowden who after a long spell off the time trial bike came out and raced her way to a new personal best for the distance

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Interview: Jos Lowden

Before the start of today’s 10 championship, Jos was not outwardly confident of the win saying “I hadn’t ridden my time trial bike since the British nationals at the end of June when I wasn’t fit and did not go well.”

Jos (left) with her teammates Emily Meakin  and Emma Lewis who won the team award with a provisional comp record …

“Since then, I have had good block of training and road racing so I knew I going well on the road bike, but had no expectations for this. So I went out there to see what the legs would say and obviously they said they were good.”

Jos was also the only rider in the women’s championship to go under 20 minutes. “Going under 20 minutes was a PB for me too. I don’t ride these courses normally. I ride slow lumpy sporting courses so that was a huge PB. At the finish, I looked down and had to disconnect myself from the potential result and say to myself I am pleased with that ride, and I was pleased with the power and time. Then when I saw the result I was surprised because there is a great selection of girls here today.”

The conditions for the race were head wind out and tail wind back. Jos explained it was very fast on the return leg and even with the massive gears Jos and others were riding (60 tooth chainring) Jos says she ran out of gears on the way back! “I had a pretty smooth ride, the roundabout was quick and there was nothing to hold me back for the race” Jos added.

Jos has just come back from a women’s international stage race in Norway and when asked if a race like that helps give her more depth to the strength she has, Jos replied “I went into Norway not feeling well at all so I kind of rode myself into that race and by the end I was feeling really strong and fresh so I never came off the back of those four days feeling fatigued.

If anything, I felt ready for the next big effort after a few days off. A couple of big sessions and my coach Sean (Yates) is really good for getting me ready for the races and we got it right”.

Jos has had an interesting year, starting out with a domestic based team (Brother UK/Fusion RT) and then moving to the Drops UCI team which itself had a struggle to get funding after losing some sponsorship unexpectedly at the start of the year. Asked the difference between domestic and international racing, Jos replied it’s very different.

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“The races are faster and the way the teams work together is very very different. The way they control the racing and the tactics is very different to here and it’s not just about how strong you are or your bike handling as there is so much going on in those races.”

Jos also explained how helpful the other teams were to Drops and others saying they were being given energy products by one team. “That was one great thing about the Tour of Norway, seeing how well the different teams supported the other teams really well.”

International racing is a key goal for Jos who says “I like the stage races, I like the opportunity to have good hard race days and we’re off to Italy next week which is a prologue and two hilly stages and I’m looking forward to that! It will be very different to Norway says Jos which was flat, technical and fast… Probably the perfect race to set her up for the win at the 10 champs!

Thanks Jos for the chat! – more to come soon on VeloUK….

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