Best of Moments: Anna Kay (CX Star)

Bronze medalist in the 2020 World Championships (U23 Women), Anna Kay, ‘the new British sensation’ said the UCI in an article last year, has been at the forefront of the sport of cyclocross and in our Best of Memories series, gives us an awesome account of her best memories so far in her young career

Best of Moments: Anna Kay (CX Star)

Anna Kay, the new British sensation said the UCI in an article last year, has been at the forefront of the sport and in our Best of Memories series, gives us her best memories so far in her young career

Anna in her new colours – great pic!

Anna writes …

Racing best moments….

It has to be the highlight of my short cycling career so far in making the elite women’s podium in Switzerland at World Cup Bern! I always get an idea of how the race will go in the first 5/10 seconds of the race. If my legs feel sharp in the initial sprint from the line, I know I’m feeling good and this was one of those days!

I felt as if I could just keep on sprinting, so I just kept pushing and pushing on the first lap, and every lap I was just thinking come on just one more lap, hold on Anna, but in the back of my head I was thinking ‘nah, I’ll die the next lap’, but was able to just hold it. For me, I think I hit a bit of a peak in that early season block of racing! Which is really cool and it means I can build on this next year knowing what I did and what I can do to hold that peak for longer !

This was an amazing feeling, it almost felt like a dream. It was also so special to be able to pull on that white leaders jersey and even talk to the girls who I shared the podium with as I look to them as role models ;-) Having watched Cyclocross on the TV from such a young age with my family, it felt so surreal to actually be stood on the podium in that white jersey that I’d seen Lars and Sophie de boer wear!

Anna racing during the 2019/2020 season

Another great memory
I have also got to give the Hetton National Champs a shout out for being one of my highlights as this was my first national championship podium so it was very special and meant I was in with a good chance to ride my first World Champs too! But the main reason was because the atmosphere in the race (in the North East where Anna is from) was just amazing.

There were people shouting on every corner and just being able to race through woods and tracks that I’d been coached on for years before hand was very special. And to have so many of the young Hetton Hawks riders there watching and shouting was so lovely.

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Best Training camps …
I think my first ever training camp was one of my highlights as I felt so lucky to be able to travel to a sunny country to ride my bike, having never ridden in a different country (other then Belgium to race) and having only finished school not even a year before, I was just taking in every moment. I went to Lanzarote with my Storey Racing team and I think having such amazing girls there to share the training camp with the likes of Beth & Ffion (cyclocross buddies) and Becks Durrell and Monica and others made the training camp so special too. We all got on so well and it was just lovely to ride and train as a team!

More recently, I have to say the most amazing place I’ve ridden my bike is at Helen and Stef Wyman’s house in the South France! I was lucky enough to go there three times last summer. Once early season, once in May (for a smaller camp with Emily Wadsworth and Helen which was amazing) and then again with the full Experza team in July after Nationals.

And this was the best weather I’d ever experienced for riding and Helen took us to some amazing places to ride and training as a team made for some very good training. Me and Alicia Frank trained very well together pushing each other on in the efforts!

Best Ever Rides !….

I think one of my best ever rides was in the week after the 2020 World Champs in Switzerland. I had just won a Bronze medal (Women’s Under 23 World Champs) and was on a massive high after this result but also after an amazing season, I had travelled back home with my family for the week before travelling back out to Belgium to finish the final two weeks of my season.

After not riding my MTB too much in the season as I was doing more specific training and a lot of racing, my dad and I decided to take our MTB bikes out to Hamsterley Forest. The weather was cold and rainy and the trails were muddy but it was one of the best rides ever. I had so much fun on the descents and had forgotten how fun MTB was in the mud and techy trails. You don’t even get cold either because you get hot riding up hill and forget about it when your shredding downhill ;-)

Also, I have to say the past two months has been great when I’ve been at home during lockdown when there have been minimal cars on the road while the weather has been amazing. I have really enjoyed exploring where I live a lot more and really really appreciate my home. I live in such an amazing area for training and it’s taken two months of some really good training on my home roads to realise this.

If that’s one positive from this whole pandemic, I’ll take that! So yes, riding the last two months has to be some of the best rides I’ve done. Home roads, blue skies, no cars and on my SWorks is all you need!

Thank you too Anna for those lovely memories and good luck to her in 2020 and fingers crossed we see some cyclocross during the next winter for her to shine in.