LOCKDOWN! Q&A Louise Jones (UCI Comms)

Too many years ago, I would see Louise and Phil Jones when visiting their race the Five Valleys. Now the former sprint champion is in Brisbane, Australia with Phil and family. We find out what’s happening in Lockdown there…

LOCKDOWN! Q&A Louise Jones (UCI Comms)

Too many years ago, I would see Louise and Phil Jones when visiting their Premier Calendar race, the Five Valleys in South Wales. Now the former sprint champion is in Brisbane, Australia with Phil and family. We find out what’s happening in Lockdown there…

Name & clubs you rode for in Wales
Louise: My local club was Port Talbot Wheelers who I spent my social time with and rode with on training rides but I raced for GS Strada for many years with great support from Phil Griffiths

Your last race as an official was?
Louise: My last race I worked on was the Australian National Masters Track Championships as Race Director as part of my job with Cycling Australia and Cycling Queensland. This was to be the first of three National Track Championships being held at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane, during March. The Juniors were cancelled and the Elite Championships have been postponed until later in the year.

A lot of hard work had gone into the event and I felt totally deflated when we had to cancel. Cycling Australia were very proactive in this and it was definitely the correct decision to stop our Juniors / Youth riders having to fly into Brisbane just for a bike race. In Australia, the riders have to be selected for their State Team and I do feel for those riders who may have missed their only opportunity to have represented their state. (Know what you mean Louise, did that for NSW many times and proud)

With racing cancelled, what’s a typical week for you?
Louise: Even with no racing, I have been extremely busy, cancelling associated services for the remainder of the scheduled championships, daily meetings with both Cycling Australia and Cycling Queensland Colleagues setting up other activities. Next week we start delivering online Commissaire Courses so setting up the content for this, producing race calendars for later in the year with different scenarios, prioritising events to fit into a small time scale within Queensland and finally managing to clear my email in box!

Enjoying the turbo or avoiding it like the virus?
Louise: We are still able to ride outside so I have been for a couple of gentle spins to clear the head. The turbo brings back memories of training!
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If on the turbo, what’s your favourite distraction – Zwift or some other entertainment?
Louise: We have been setting up Zwift and Fulgaz sessions for our members and setting up some local courses that will be used later in the year as virtual races.

What’s the hardest thing for you about the Lock Down
Louise: We are not in total lockdown yet (in Australia) but I expect that to come in a few days. Our social life has quietened down as the pubs are closed and we do normally spent a little time at our local.

Besides cycling, what’s your biggest distraction as lock down continues?
Louise: Cycling is still filling the biggest part of life as we look forward , but I was getting slightly frustrated with the empty shelves in the supermarket

2005 and Louise waves away the riders in the Five Valleys, a brilliant race in South Wales

Having to ride solo or strictly family rides
Louise: Family rides with Hayley this week, although living together, working together and riding together is not so clever. Will hopefully ride with Phil tomorrow. We are still able to ride in groups but the guys we normally ride with are all being sensible and either not riding or riding solo.

What’s the weirdest thing you have seen since this crisis began
Louise: The weirdest thing is the empty shelves in the supermarket and only being rationed on certain items that don’t even make sense to me.

Finally, at home or still having to go to work at the velodrome?
Louise: I have been working from home for the last nine days, although have been to the Velodrome and will go again this week just to bring more work home. Both Anna Meares Velodrome and the outdoor Velodrome are closed and unable to be used by the public. My office is set upstairs and Hayley who works part time for Cycling Queensland in both the events space and our coaching programme is setup downstairs allowing us to work on different projects. Our office has been communicating very well using both Zoom and Google hangouts on a daily basis.

Louise’s Palmeres

1986
1st British National Individual Sprint Championships
1st British National Points Championships

1987
1st British National Individual Sprint Championships

1988
1st British National Individual Sprint Championships
7th Sprint Seoul Olympic Games

1989
1st British National Individual Sprint Championships
1st British National Points Championships

1990
1st Gold medal Sprint, Commonwealth Games
1st British National Individual Sprint Championships
1st British National Individual Time Trial Championships

1991
1st British National Individual Sprint Championships
1st British National Individual Time Trial Championships

1998
2nd British National Road Race Championships
4th Road Race, Commonwealth Games

Source: Wikipedia