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The Emma James Diary 2004
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Welcome to one of Cyclingnews' up-and-coming female talents, Australian Emma James. Emma has spent the past two years with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) team based in Italy, and in 2004, she has graduated to a full professional contract, firstly with Team S.A.T.S. and now with Bik Gios. She's a gutsy rider who's decided that she'd rather be testing the waters of professional cycling than testing the salinity of the Sydney's waterways as an environmental scientist - which used to be her previous occupation before Emma decided to take the plunge.
March 11, 2004
Denmark at last
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Rochelle and I left Sydney with Qantas and we had three seats to comfortably get to Hong Kong nine hours later. We had enough time for a huge and beautifully warming hot chocolate, and a tour of the airport shops at around midnight to kill three hours waiting for the connection to Zurich. Thirteen hours through the night, and then our first taste of the winter that awaits us in Europe.
It was minus one degrees as we landed early in the morning in Zurich and a couple hours later it was snowing, just before we boarded for our final connection to Copenhagen. As we flew over Germany the cloud cover disappeared and we could see a beautiful big winding river (the Ede?) and towns below. We reached the coast and had clear skies over Denmark to welcome us.
Windmills! First, just a few along ridges, and then a field of about 100 huge three-bladed wind turbines for environmentally friendly electricity generation sticking up out of the ocean off one of the southern Danish islands! I think Australia has ONE of these big wind turbines like that in Newcastle, and perhaps about ten in a new development in Victoria. The Aussies have plenty of catching up to do on these Europeans on that front. I'll find out more about it some time soon - Scandinavian environmental heaven awaits?
Flat terrain stretched out below us. I had already seen enough on a map to know that very much like the Netherlands, Denmark was not renowned for mountainous terrain. The highest point is just 173m above sea level, and that is on the peninsula extending north from Germany, not on the small islands making up the rest of Denmark. I haven't seen any terrain in my first few days to warrant anything more than a fixed gear town bike - not even a bridge overpass! I have heard the cold strong winds might make gears essential - and along with that, more thermal kit than I have ever imagined.
A tiring 24 hours of flying and additional airport time has zapped my strength. The worst part was having a book so good that I didn't want to sleep! 'The Da Vinci Code'. A few more days and I may get over the jet lag, but for now we are awake from before 5am, and in the SATS gym at the base of the hotel to get to really understand the product we represent with the title sponsor of Team SATS! For those not accustomed to the cold conditions it is great to be able to train indoors in a well set up gym while we adapt our mind and our cycling wardrobe to the challenging training conditions ahead.
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We have been staying in a hotel with a wonderful view out over the city. It is in a beautiful and fairly up market suburb, Fredericksburg. Some of the buildings remind me of Paris, with apartment blocks and office buildings almost entirely at the same height across the skyline, all about five stories. There is the occasional smoke stack and some beautiful domes and spires marking out parts of the city. It has been cloudy except for the perfect clear day when we arrived, but with the sun just trying to break through the clouds now, I am hopeful for better conditions when I get hold of my bike this afternoon.
Team Presentation
Our team presentation was in front of a good media crowd with people from three television stations and numerous bike magazines as well as many of the team's sponsors. It began with a video presentation explaining the background of the team, and how it has developed from Danish riders training in spin classes at the SATS gyms to now being one of the strongest women's teams, with the two time world champion Suzanne Ljungskog, and a team of powerful riders who have the potential to work and race together to achieve something special. All the riders were presented on stage and then after a bit of casual chat with media representatives we rode on our new Pinarello bikes down the cobbled street of the nearby town to another of the SATS gyms.
There is debate about the temperature, probably around two degrees, but all I can be sure of is that I was wearing more clothes than I ever have on a bike, and after 15 minutes rolling around behind the cars filming, my hands were frozen under the two pairs of gloves, my face was numb and my desire to get indoors was rather strong! The wind chill is the bit that matters, and when you feel it on your face, and hear the sound of the wind blowing - the numbers don't matter.
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At the SATS gym a few of us were in for a new experience; a spin class with the team manager, Chris MacDonald instructing! There were 75 bikes set up in a gym room, surrounded by mirrors and filled with people motivated for a hard training session. The bikes have a fair bit of adjustment so you can get a good position - but the saddle wasn't quite right for me. It is a bit like a fixed gear bike with an internal wheel that takes a bit to kick over, but then it holds its momentum and you feel like you are on a track bike spinning your legs easily and then controlling the pressure and effort. It has a resistance control to allow you to easily change the 'terrain' during the gym class.
Chris led us through the workout, and we found the first hills in Denmark! A long climb lasting seven minutes, sections out of the saddle and times when we needed to respond to the grade getting steeper or the peloton of riders with us, keeping pace, attacking or steadily applying pressure on the group. It was an interesting visualization and training experience! The music really makes it so much better. I hope we get some of that stuff playing over the race radio from the team cars on the long climbs during races. It is so good to have the beat of the music to get your rhythm pumping through the pedals. Need a set of drums in my head!
A wonderful team dinner at RizRaz, and now a fair few loose ends to tidy up before we hit the road for the long block of racing in Italy, Spain, Belgium and Holland!
