An ode to suffering - Part 1 of a review

I have enjoyed a lot of suffering in my time:

I've raced the Tour of Flanders, two Giro d'Italias and all the while had Italian team directors yelling abuse at me in a dialect I couldn't understand (I learned later it was bastardo).

I've sadistically enjoyed seeing others fall off the back of echelons in cross wins in Belgium and, in turn, they've revelled in my grovelling up the Stelvio, the Mortirolo, the Gavia and all the other ridiculous climbs thrown in for the amusement of women <50kg or race directors.

And, it must be said, I've done some pretty damn hard ergo sessions along the way.

2 x 20min at 265W, 5 x 5min at >300W, 30mins of 10s max/50s recovery and my latest & greatest pain-fest, 8 x 70s @ 400W (for the male readers, multiply my seemingly achievable power outputs by 1.5 and see how THAT makes you feel!)

Anyway, I believed I was one tough gal.

Then I was sent a link from the kind and sensitive souls at The Sufferfest asking if I would review their newest cycling workout video using footage of the entire 2011 season of the UCI Women's World Cup, aptly named Hell Hath No Fury.

(I had to put that in bold, the writers and producers at The Sufferfest wouldn't stand for anything less).

In fact, once you've purchased a training video from these peeps (with drill Seargent David McQuillen listed as chief Pain Instructor), you receive the download instructions with the most wonderful email.

These guys obviously love their work. It feels remiss of me that I've never quoted Plato or Proust when waxing lyrical about why I train really, really hard. But it made my morning, seriously!

Just watching the promotion for this new training video got me excited. There was cutesy musak, shots of some hot chicks, cute chicks, directors praising athletes and LOTS of smiley faces.

Then, we see Evelyn Stevens (HTC Highroad Women).

Her face is twisted in that characteristic grimace, grinding up the last climb of Plouay World Cup. She's escaping from the front break, trying to prevent two-time winner Emma Pooley (Garmin Cervélo) from going for a 3^rd victory.

Eventual winner and overall World Cup leader, Annemiek van Vleuten (Nederland Bloeit) is on her wheel, and we all know how a 2-up sprint between the US National TT champion & the superfast Dutchie is going to go.

Van Vleuten is a teammate of Marianne Vos, arguably the phenomenon of the sport. Their team showed extraordinary discipline, comraderie and nous to win nearly every race this season.

But I digress ....

Perfectly matched electronica music is paired up with footage of these world class riders trying to kill each other (in a sanctioned way, of course) and I was feeling pretty inspired to check out the video.

It takes a while to download, even with a fast internet connection. So don't go getting kitted up & clocking up the chamois time til you're ready to go.

This morning, as I was waiting for the file to arrive, I thought a lot about professional women roadies and their attitudes to racing.

For anyone who's worked in and around our teams, it comes as no surprise. But for those who haven't, maybe they don't know that women suffer the same as men.

They grovel back through convoys, they ride with bleeding limbs/faces and they enjoy seeing opponents get punished as much as the next protour guy.

In my experience, Teutenberg wins the 'making you suffer because I can' award, Vos the 'silent assassin' award and Cooke the 'putting it in the gutter to try to make you cry' award.

Plain ol' wholesome suffering.

But we can also be guilty of having that personal, sadistic streak. The one where we remember something you did last season and we're not going to let you forget it.

Usually, the women trying to actually win the race aren't bothered with it, but those fighting each other for National Team selection (Italians racing each other, for example), well that's another story.

SO!

I have to go motorpacing on Beach Road, just me vs the motorbike.

Then I'll come home, watch Hell Hath No Fury and hope to sweet baby jesus that I gave as much of myself into the session as I could have.

To be continued!