On Thursday 11th of June Vision 1 Racing were riding the first stage of the Emakumeen Biro which is a 4 day, 5 stage race in Spain.

The first stage was 76 km long with two Cat. 3 climbs. Vision 1 Racing had a great day with three riders finishing in the front bunch. Christel and Vicki were aggressive and worked hard to set Nicole up for the sprint finish where she was just pipped at the post by Judith Arndt and finished second.

Christel attacked at 3 km of the finish and Vicki and Christel both rode to bring Nicole on the sprint but she was just pipped at the post by Judith Arndt and finished second. Vicki came 10th and Christel 13th.
Aurore and Debby were in the second group behind and they came 66th and 67th.

Vision 1 Racing are in a strong position with 3 riders up there in the first bunch.

Today’s (12th June) 84km Stage 2 starts and finishes in Amurrio and has a second category climb about half way through.

Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

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Travelling to our latest races in Spain after a two week break from racing after Tour de L’Aude it was great to be back together again. We have a multi-national team and the first days back together mean blowing out the cobwebs from the language department of my brain and getting back into my French which is how I enjoy chatting to Aurore and Christel as I find that people express themselves naturally in their own language and even when I may not understand absolutely everything I can understand a lot more of the feelings and story if the person is describing it in their native language.

For the first few days I am still throwing in the odd Italian or German word but then this fades out and I’m able to swap between French and English without any ‘mit’ ‘con’ or ‘grazie’ thrown in. In a way I feel very lucky that through cycling I have been able to learn 3 new languages and also experience many different cultures as we travel with our races.

Durango and Emakumeen Bira are both held very close to Bilbao, Spain and it brings back some memories of 2002 when I was riding for Deia, a Ukrainian-Spanish team Sponsored by the Spanish newspaper Deia. I was based in Bilbao for 3 days before the Castilla-y-Leon World Cup and enjoyed riding up and down the climbs in the countryside surrounding the city. Yesterday we raced Durango, it was great to see the whole team riding together at the front of the peleton and I was well looked after until the decisive moment of the race on the final finishing circuit.

The race was won by Noemi Cantele (Bigla), and I was in the chasing group a few seconds behind over the top of the last climb but could not make contact in the descent and run in to the finish and finished 5th. Now, tomorrow begins Emakumeen-Bira with 5 stages over 4 days. The profile looks hilly everyday and we will go into the racing looking forward to being in the thick of the action and picking up some good results.

Nicole

Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

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News just in from the Vision 1 Racing camp.

Stefan Wyman Vision 1 Racing Team Manager has left the team by mutual agreement on 19th May. We wish him all the best in his new challenges.

Vision 1 Racing has decided that Andy Walser will now take the place of Stefan Wyman. Andy Walser guided Nicole to her successes last year and we hope things will continue to work better in Vision 1 and that we can be successful again this year.

Andy’s experience includes working with men’s teams like Team Milram and Gerolsteiner and guiding individual riders to world champion success like Michael Rich, Franco Marvulli, Karin Theurig and Hanka Kupfernagel. Vision 1 Racing are looking forward now and they know from their experience in previous years the key elements that need to be in place so that they can continue their successes like 2008 and the team think they are on the right road now!

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Here’s a quick blog update from Vision 1 Team Rider Christel Ferrier Bruneau.

Tour de L’aude

From the 16th till 24th of May I was racing at the Tour de L’ Aude, an international race with stages over 10 days. It is a really tough race and the most prestigious of women’s stage races across the world with every major professional team represented.

For me the race went well. I finished 21th in the general classification and I received on one stage the red jersey for the best sprinter but Vicki managed to keep the red jersey overall as her sprinting was amazing during the races. Vision 1 Racing rode really well as a team and Nicole came 5th.

The next race is Iuretta Emakumeen Bira – a stage race in Spain from the June 9th to the 14th. I can’t wait

Christel x

Christel and Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

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Here’s a quick update from Nicole Cooke’s Vision 1 Team Rider Dani King.

Well were do I start? Lately, all my life has consisted of is training, national and local racing and final revision for my A-level exams! Not many days to go now until I become a full time bike rider!

I’ve competed in 3 national women’s races, Cheshire Classic, Bedford 2 day and a National crit at Hillingdon. I came 2nd in Cheshire; the race consisted of 10 laps with one killer hill. I felt good in the whole race and knew if I positioned myself right at the end could have a good chance of winning. I was in the right place round the last corner but left it too late to accelerate which meant that Annie Last had the legs on me in the final 50m.

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Here’s a quick update from Nicole Cooke’s Vision 1 Team Rider Gabby Day.

I am now in Europe for 2 months with Vision 1. We are in Limoux in the South of France preparing for one of the biggest women’s stage races; the Tour D’Laude which is 10 days. So the Maxgear compression wear we are wearing will be very beneficial to aid recovery of the legs!

Our new Focus Chrono Time trial bikes arrived this week so we have been practising on them ready for the prologue and team time trial.

They look very fast!

It has taken me a bit of getting used to having not ridden a time trial bike for so long!! I will have a few achy muscles!

The weather hasn’t quite been what I hoped for, so far we have had a few wet training days! But it is still nice and warm. Hopefully the weather will be good for the racing!

Follow our progress on: www.tour-aude-cycliste-feminin.com

After Tour D’Laude I will be staying in Limoux for 2 weeks to recover and start training again ready for the next race in Spain a 1 day and stage race. I will keep updating with reports as the tour progresses.

Gabby x

Gabby Day & Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

Time Trial Frame: Focus Izalco Chrono 2009

Road Bike Frame: Focus Cayo 2009

Turbo Trainers & Rollers:
To help the team train Paligap have sponsored the Vision 1 Racing Team with: CycleOps Turbo Trainers & Rollers.

Components:
For various cycle components Paligap have sponsored the Vision 1 Racing Team with: Ritchey Cycle Components

Just arrived at Wiggle HQ is a very exclusive frame and fork set created specially for Nicole Cooke, founder of the Vision1 Racing team. Nicole Cooke, who stormed to victory at the Beijing Olympics, has set up Vision 1 Racing with the goal of developing the next generation of cyclists ready for London 2012 and is the current world and Olympic road race champion.

Here are a few shots of this exclusive Focus Izalco frame and fork with a one off Nicole Cooke signature paint job. This superbly gorgeous frame and fork set is one out of five frames worldwide in this design! Wiggle have one of them to auction off this year! We will keep you posted with more news on this, so keep your eyes pealed for more info via the Wiggle Bloggle.

The frame size is 50cm designed with Nicole Cooke in mind and features some strategically placed Focus logos only found on team race bikes, more importantly you will notice Nicole’s signature 2008 Beijing Olympic logos and Vision 1 Racing Stripes.

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Last week I went training with some cycling friends in Italy, a great country for cycling with it’s fantastic terrain and countryside, and also for it’s passion for cycling. The pink banners “Qui passa il Giro…” were already up on barriers and railings along the route for the Giro D’Italia stage in our area and the excitement was building just 2 weeks before the Giro began. Normally entering a shop in cycling kit means I get some funny looks, but in Italy it usually means the beginning of a series of questions, do you race? have you done the Giro?

All friendly banter and from people who can remember watching different races pass through their area in the past and are happy to start discussing Cunego verses Basso or Luperini verses Longo with their first hand experiences of having watched them race. These few days left me looking forward to my next race which is the Tour de L’Aude which is 10 days long and one of the few women’s races which are more than a week long. It would be great for the Giro, Tour and other stage races to go back up to the 2 week format that was normal up until just a few years ago, it certainly gives the races another dimension!

Also last week Vision 1 Racing were excited to collect their new Mazda 6 TS2, in gleaming white, courtesy of Victoria Park Mazda in Cardiff. The car is beautiful and a dream to drive and so spacious! It’s got built in blue tooth, cruise control and lots of brilliant gadgets and I can’t wait for us to use it at the Tour of Bern World Cup and then Tour de L’Aude. Thank you Andrew and the guys at Victoria Park Mazda in Cardiff!

Nicole

Here’s a quick update from Nicole Cooke’s Vision 1 Team Rider Vicki Whitelaw who’s been answering some questions about her experiences and being on the Vision 1 Team.

What is your background in Cycling?

I have now entered my 5th year on the bike. For 3 years I raced domestically within Australia, developing my road racing skills. Last year was my first time in Europe and I was based in Italy with the Australian National team. Vision 1 is my first professional team and I’m really enjoying things so far. We have a really tough racing calendar that incorporates some big tours and several World Cup races. Racing here in Europe is where it all happens.

What would you like to achieve in the next 5 years?

With each year, selection to represent Australia at the Road World Championships is a big goal. I want to continue to establish myself as a strong time trialist and capable road rider. I’m going to have a real crack at being selected for the 2012 London Olympics.

What are your strongest and weakest points?

In cycling terms my strength lies in my ability to maintain a high power output for an extended length of time. This has proved useful in time trials, breaks and working for the team.

Perhaps a more important strength I have is the support network I have outside of cycling. My faith, my husband, my family, my friends. They all help to keep me grounded and focused through the ups and downs of cycling.

My weak points: I can be impatient, wanting to see results now rather than accepting that development takes time and I have a tendency to over analyse. I’m a scientist by training which can be of great benefit but also a burden.

What would you say is your most prized cycling possession?

My long awaited Focus time trial bike. I’ve only had it a few days and have already raced it to 5th in the Grand Prix de Suisse. I like it… I like it a lot!

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Here’s a quick update from Nicole Cookes Vision 1 Rider Aurore Verhoeven who’s been out training on her Focus bike.

My season began with a training camp in Belgium with my new team Vision 1 Racing in February. During this week, we visited the factory BioRacer and we received our new Vision1 kit which was stunning!!

Another training camp took place in Tuscany with very good weather about 25°C and alot of wind. During this training camp, we received our news bikes FOCUS equipped Sram Red, very very good bikes! Some days later, 60 boxes of Nike clothing arrived at the hotel, rather impressive!!!

The first race for me and the team was the Trofeo Costa Etrusca, 3 days of racing in Tuscany. A very hard race with very long hills. The result isn’t important because it was my first race of the season with the elite and my first year, I am only 19 years old. It was a very good experience for me, with Nicole and the rest of team.

The next weekend, it was my first World Cup, the Trofeo Alfredo Binda.
During the race, the weather was very bad, 5°C with the rain, extreme conditions in comparison with the past weeks and I do not finish the race.

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