by Lauren Kitchen
The launch of the Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling team took place last Friday in London! It was an exciting day, with lots of media attention, lots of photos and interviews and great company hanging out with my new team mates. It was a great opportunity to meet all the sponsors that are backing our exciting new team! After the busy day in London we headed back to the service course in Belgium before I drive back to my home in Breda in Holland to recover from a few busy days and to refresh before heading to Qatar for the start of the season with the Ladies Tour of Qatar taking place from Jan 29th until Feb 3rd.
We have just completed the first stage of 97km. It is exciting here in Qatar with the team as it is our first race together and a great opportunity to try different options before the racing in Europe begins. There was some wind today which split the peloton at approximately 60km into the race. I was in the front selection with team mate Rochelle Gilmore of 20 riders but we missed the final break of 4 that went close to 10k to go. Even though we didn’t pull off the result today, I am confident that it will all come together in the next three days here in Qatar. Today was a great indication to me that my form is on the right track heading into the spring classics and also to help out my team mates over the next three days!
Cheers Lauren
