Race Day in the life of Dani King – Tour Series, Redditch 19/05/2015

What does a race day look like for Dani King?

Tuesday 19^th May, Tour Series, Redditch

 

09:00 – Dani woke up this morning to heavy rain at home in Cardiff, so the rain cape was out for the mornings training – a 90 minute ride, keeping the gears light ahead of tonight’s Tour Series opener for the Women, in Redditch.

This 90-minute ride is designed to maintain fitness, whilst not tire the legs out too much before this evenings race. At Dani’s level of fitness, this will not impact her performance in the evening, but will have a positive effect in maintaining fitness for the long term.

10:30 – After the mornings ride, it’s back home, shower, change, a bite to eat and pack the car! Bike, race wheels, spare wheels, rollers to warm up on, a pump and kit bag full of your usual items, including some warm up oil, energy gels, helmet, shoes and all her other kit.

Dani had a full support crew with her for the Redditch Tour Series – her boyfriend – Matt, manager – Steve and friend Droid (actual name is Andrew – but we call him Droid).

14:00 – The sat nav was set for Redditch, which from Cardiff was less than 2 hours. A coffee stop on the way up before arriving at the sign-on at around 4pm, giving Dani enough time to get changed in to her race kit, sign on, get her race numbers pinned on to the skinsuit and attend the riders briefing.

16:30 – Riders briefing, where the race management and commissaries ran through the do’s and don’t and highlighted any key points, i.e. when the primes (hot spot sprints) were, length of the race, amongst other key points.

17:00 – 60 minutes until race start. This is roughly the time when Dani starts getting her head on (getting focused), listening to some music relaxing, sat in the car out of the rain.

17:15 – Warm up time! Dani jumps on the rollers for her warm up – roughly 20 minutes with a few varied efforts to get the heart pumping and muscles warmed up. During this time, Dani done a few interviews for various media, including ITV4 who are showing the event at 8pm Wednesday 20^thMay – tune in!

Directly after the rollers, Dani rode a few laps of the course, which was a 1.4km lap around Redditch town center, taking in a tough drag (uphill) towards a 90-degree left turn before the finish. A few laps to familiarise herself with the course and it was back to the car to take the leg warmers off, remove her jacket and get some warm up oil on the legs to keep warm and get the legs ready to race.

18:00 – Its race time and 80 riders take to the start. The first lap is neutralised behind a motorbike to ensure all riders get away from the start line ok. 1 lap later and its game on and the attacks start coming in thick and fast. Dani stays well positioned at the front, while a touch of wheels half way down the bunch causes a crash – forcing the group to splinter resulting in many riders never regaining contact with the front of the race. Moral of the story – make sure you start at the front, especially on such a tight circuit in bad weather. There are very few places to move up and gain places, so starting at the front is a huge benefit.

The race is run at around 45kmh average speed, which including a tough drag is very quick! At about half distance, a select group moved clear, including a number of pre race favorites; Nicola Juniper, Laura Trott, Elinor Barker, Katie Archibald and Dani (not forgetting Jessie Walker who forced the move away initially – aggressive riding!).

These leading 5 riders watched eachother like hawks, but working together to maintain their advantage until the bell rang, signalling one lap to go. Through the bell, Dani, Trott, Juniper, Barker and Archibald were all together suggesting a group sprint would greet the spectators the following lap at the finish.

With 400m to go, the sprint kicked off, with Dani latching on to Laura Trott’s wheel, who kicked first and kicked strong. Laura come round the final bend first, with Dani second and Juniper 3^rd, which was the order they finished.

19:00 – 2^nd place for Dani and a trip to the podium!

Dani crossed the line, caught her breath and returned to the start area where she put a long sleeve jacket on to keep warm, had a rub down to remove the oil from her legs and the dirt from her face before the podium – oh, and had her sister make sure her hair was tidy!

While waiting for the podium presentation, Dani caught up with her sister – Sarah (who works for Sweet Spot, who do a fantastic job at organising the Tour Series), Laura Trott and a few journalists, where she gave a few interviews.

19:20 – It was then the prize presentation up on stage in front of the crowd who had gathered in Redditch. The prize presentation went ahead, where Dani was awarded with a trophy and received an applause for her efforts, before stepping down and changing in to some dry clothes.

19:30 – Prize presentation over and it was time to greet some smiling fans and stars of the future! A few autographs, photographs and smiles all round.

19:45 – The Honda’s Sat Nav was set for Cardiff – home time! A 90-minute blast (at 70mph) and the trip was over. A quick unpack of the car (contents left in the hall until the morning), a cup of tea, a few chapters reading and it was bedtime.

A successful days racing (and training)!

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