Monday 31st July 2017

Yesterday I visited my new sponsors   Richardsons Cycles   to meet all the team - and also to pick up my new wheels.

​As I said before, it is a family-run business, and you can tell that they pride themselves on this fact, because the owner's daughter, her husband, and some close family friends all work in the shop!  I think its amazing how a shop that was founded almost 100 years ago is still being run by the same family and thriving.   Its great how well respected this little shop is in the area and I think it is because of the personal service and attention to detail that they can give their customers being a family business.   They certainly know their stuff.

​They are all so welcoming, and even when I said that I have had a problem with my bike for a while (the derailleur had shifted and was slightly hitting my wheels when I pedalled) they instantly offered to fix it for me.  Once they had finished, they told me that they had basically done a whole service on the bike whilst it was there!

​Not being from a cycling background and learning as I go, I never realised how a slightly lighter wheel could effect your speed so much,  but I think I do now after chatting to the team about the benefits!  The wheels Erik (the owner) gave me are so much lighter than my old ones that overall, my bike feels a lot lighter.  For people who don't know, a lighter bike means that there is less resistance being pushed down through the floor, which results in a faster and smoother ride.  Although it doesn't seem like much having lighter wheels, every component that you can lighten adds up to an overall big difference in time saved especially on longer cycling miles, so having lighter wheels compared to my old aluminium rims, will help me hugely over the 40k bike section of a triathlon.

​Thank you so much to Eric and the team at Richardsons Cycles, cannot wait to try the new wheels in my race this weekend and I am very much looking forward to my new bike and kit in January !    Happy Triathlete :)