Hello from Down Under! I am currently back home in Australia and enjoying the lovely weather and time with my friends and family. I’ve also recently started training again, which has been delightful. This post-offy period coming into the Aussie summer is always my favourite time of the year, with bunch rides and crits galore, and everyone’s fitness going up by the week.
I enjoyed this period last year too, but this time round is a whole lot less stressful. Having just signed a two-year extension with AG Insurance Soudal, I feel very stable and supported heading into 2025, rather than hunting for a team and still trying to organise bikes for Nationals. Last December now feels like a world away!
For this blog, I decided to ask my Instagram followers about what they wanted to hear about regarding my 2024 season.
First up, there is a clear group of followers who seem to love the numbers and stats as much as I do!
- Kilometres ridden in 2024: about 29,000km, as of mid-November. This means that by the end of December, I’ll likely have ridden the equivalent of Melbourne to Girona and back to Melbourne. I have an idea about how to save on airfares between my two homes next year…
- Longest ride: 231 kilometres, with 4200 metres of climbing. This seven-hour adventure took place in my February ‘offseason’, a wonderfully unstructured period of riding with friends after focusing so hard on the big Aussie races.
- TSS per week: My 7-day TSS varied from 0 TSS in October all the way to 1810 TSS during the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. My hardest training weeks were in the 1400s.
- Race days: 40 UCI race days. This isn’t super high, but was still the third most race days out of my team. It’s not an in-house competition of course, but I was proud of this number compared to my past seasons, in which I only managed 13, 11, 18 and 5 days respectively!
- Fastest race: The echelon-filled Stage 4 of La Vuelta, with 145km at 45.5kph for me and at nearly 47kph for the winner (and my old housemate) Kristen Faulkner.
- Current Duolingo streak: 659 days.
- How many pairs of Safety Joggers do I own: 2. I’m the only rider who prefers the blue runners over the white ones!
Other followers are more keen to hear about the journey rather than the destination.
- Funnily enough, my favourite and least favourite moments both came at the very start of the year. Winning up Willunga Hill at the Tour Down Under with my exceptionally supportive new team was like no other emotion in the world. It wasn’t the victory that gave me goosebumps for weeks, but it was the feeling of knowing I was back to my old self and was also fully supported by a group of new friends and awesome staff. My least favourite moment came the week before, when I had a mechanical at the start line of the National Time Trial Championship and had to jump on a road bike for the full 29km. It felt like a nightmare for days, after preparing almost exclusively for that very race all of December. It’s easy to say it was ‘just’ a national championship (there is one every year, after all) but I had really set my heart on that being my comeback race. My inner circle and I had spent countless hours and thousands of dollars making sure I was ready, only for it all to fall apart with just a couple minutes to go. Luckily the distraction of the TDU came very soon after!
- The hardest race I did was La Flèche Wallone in Belgium. I have never been close to that cold in my life and hope I never will be again! That was the only time I have ever considered willingly pulling out of a competition. Even that night, hours after the race had finished, I was still so freezing that I went to bed in about ten layers of clothing, including my thick puffer jacket and beanie. I then totally overcompensated for Liège three days later. I not only wore tons of layers (with my DS Jolien bringing woolly reinforcements for me between the two races!), but I also went to town with stick-on heating pads and embro cream all over my body. I won’t forget that week in the Ardennes very quickly.
- My biggest surprise this year was just how huge the crowds in the Netherlands were for the beginning of the Tour de France. I was blown away by the thousands of eager fans who showed up to cheer us on. According to the ASO, on Stage 1 alone, 47,000 fans came to the start, with 122,000 along the route and 77,000 at the finish – amazing!
- It’s hard to choose my favourite non-racing moments in such a fabulous year, but I’ll give it a go. Firstly, I was very lucky to have a few marvellous training buddies this year. This made the cycling playground of Girona even more fun. My riding buddy Matt and my coach Dylan both came over from Australia to train with me in May and July respectively, and this year I also met fellow Girona-based rider Maddie Le Roux. It turns out that we both love riding hard and get along super well, so we started training together multiple times per week until she sadly broke her collarbone. I am already looking forward to being reunited next year! Secondly, after the Road World Championships, I did a three-day bikepacking adventure with my mum. We rode to France, across to the Andorran border and then back to Girona. I am normally super (overly!) focused on sticking to my training zones, so to ignore the watts and dawdle along for hours in the mountainous countryside with my number one supporter was such a special experience. Thirdly, this was the first season where I could take healthy and planned time off the bike. I loved spending a few days at PortAventura World, one of the best theme parks in Europe. I am one of the biggest rollercoaster adrenaline junkies out there…and I’m already planning next year’s theme park.
- It’s hard to pick a favourite roommate, but this year I shared mostly with Anya Louw, Julie Van de Velde and Mireia Benito, who are all exceptionally considerate and lovely company. Zero complaints!
And finally, some followers are even more focused than I am, putting aside the recap question and already asking about goals for next year!
- Of course, I am very keen to improve! Although the crits, bunchies and gravel rides that I am lucky enough to have access to here in Melbourne are all super fun, hopefully they will also help me improve my confidence in the bunch for 2025. I am also looking forward to honing my mountain descending in Bright in a couple of weeks. Practice makes progress.
- My first target will be the Aussie Summer again, with Nationals, the Tour Down Under and Cadel’s making for a brilliant start to the year.
- The route for next year’s Tour indeed looks amazing. Climbing Alpe d’Huez was very special this year, but honestly, Col de la Madeleine probably looks even harder!
Until next year….and it sounds weird to be saying this already, but have a wonderful holiday period, and I will see you in 2025!
Sarah
