Jasmijn Muller at Be The Egg Cycle Coaching

So proud of these two ultra women for their respective journeys to the start line of in Roubaix with an incredibly exciting adventure ahead of them !

Remember that the race itself - not the finish line - is the destination: your reward for all your hard work in training, your opportunity for personal growth, random encounters, stunning beauty and any answers you may be seeking. The finish line is just a great excuse for a party ! 🙌

“Whilst I have been adventuring by bike for quite a few years now, there is still plenty that I would not do right if preparing for such adventure alone”.

Thank you for such a lovely testimonial, but above all for the mutually enriching experience working with you 🥰

Claire is an awesome racer with lots of big ultra adventures under her belt - including , , , , self-supported crossings of Australia and numerous long-distance bikepacking adventures - but I love how she keeps on respecting the new challenges she sets herself. Keen to keep on learning and growing, but soon also very much ready for the !

Coaching can benefit everyone.

Whether you are new to this sport or a seasoned ultra racer like Claire. Whether you are riding for the glory or the story. Whether you call yourself an ‘athlete’ or just a regular person with a somewhat out of control hobby 😉

A little insight into my journey to, current experience at, and plans after my MSc in Sport and Exercise Science (Physiology) at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

I feel simultaneously reassured that I can successfully apply myself at MSc SES level and comfortable with questioning myself as there is always so much more to learn !

Bring on another year of part-time studies and great opportunities to align these with my full-time work as a cycling coach.

Stay tuned about plans for my dissertation research in 2025 as some of you may perhaps want to get involved ...

Each year, of 16,000 (!) starters at the only 6-7% is female.

Each year, the start order is allocated based on your ranking from previous Etape du Tour participation or other major Gran Fondos, French racing licence category and ‘your sportive objective’.

With women more likely to judge themselves conservatively (ie slower), it is not surprising that women are over-represented in the last pen.

But unfortunately that also means these women are disadvantaged from the start.

In 2024, SAS 15 (the last start pen) was set off 2 hours and 5 minutes after the 1st SAS with the fastest riders, yet had to pass the intermediate time cut-off by the same time of day…. ie more pressure on supposedly slower riders !

With a more conservative approach, women are also more likely to get in the broom wagon if they miss the cut off, rather than take their chances & proceed at their own risk.

So, in addition to all the hard work to put into your training and being uber-efficient with your refuelling stops, one can only conclude that it helps to big yourself up with a faster ‘sporting objective’ (ie faster anticipated finish time) in order to gain an earlier start time and more leeway to make the time cut offs.

This is perhaps further illustrated by a team of 14 women sponsored by Hutchinson to promote women’s participation in cycling being set off in SAS0 (ie the very first group on the road) … To encourage more female riders, you need women to be more visible and set them up for success.

Whilst tried to support women in 3 of the later start pens with 1 dedicated road captain per start pen, encouraging more women to start together in earlier start pens and being more lenient with the mid-route time cut off (especially when setting off the last pen 20 minutes behind schedule) would be more welcoming and effective for truly encouraging female participation.

I can’t help but feel both proud of and gutted for who was one of the women in the last start pen this year, missing the cut off by just a few minutes. You can read more about her experience here: https://www.waldywheelers.cc/post/l-%C3%A9tape-du-tour-2024

“I am dedicated. I am resilient enough to face my fears and make the changes I need in order to improve. I like to enjoy the journey - that is important to me, that I do it with a smile and some laughter”.

Finding balance between ‘fun’ and doing what is needed to achieve your goals can be hard, but Jo nailed this.

Meet . Jo is 49. She works full-time in a demanding role involving regular travel. She also juggles caring for ageing parents & raising teenage kids, whilst navigating the joys of perimenopause.

I highlight Jo’s story here to celebrate her amazing ride at , but also to applaud her for how she went about it.

The 1st picture sums it up nicely. Determined, but with a healthy level of respect for the massive challenge ahead.

The 2nd picture is a good metaphor for how Jo embraced the process of preparing her body & mind, from building base fitness & supporting strength through to increasing specific duration & elevation, but always focussing on process goals, not the overwhelming enormity of riding 136km with 4600m of elevation.

The pictures show Jo in her element, enjoying the descends and riding strongly up hill. They show some of the process of more Broomfield Hill reps and convoluted Surrey hills than most London-based riders would dream of doing. The PBs she set on segments she had ridden hundreds of times before.

But pictures only show you the tip of the iceberg. They don’t show the hard moments. Jo never gave up despite repeated trouble to keep her food down in the humid heat. She stayed focused on the positives and all the reasons to keep going, on the small actions she had to repeat, on the memories she wanted to make for herself.

Pictures also don’t show enough of the laughter and fun she had along the way with the other girls training for the Etape. Jo is good at keeping perspective of when to usher herself (or others) to ‘put on your big boy/girl pants’ and when to cut some slack.

Jo - you are a joy to coach and should be very proud!

Jo is a self-proclaimed ‘late bloomer’ in cycling. Read more about Jo’s journey here: https://www.kingstonwheelers.com/news/meet-the-wheeler-jo-reynolds/

🙇🏽‍♀️ Academic year completed
🙌 More MSc Sport Physiology credits banked
😎 Happy with my results
🙏 Grateful for this opportunity
❤️ Bring on another year of enriching my full-time cycling coaching practice with part-time studies …

Very excited to get stuck into my final Dissertation project this coming academic year !

Most months I don’t pay too much attention to these challenges. This month this actually means something to me. A small victory. Defiance over my knee problems and still being able to ride up some beautiful climbs despite the pain.

Yesterday I saw the orthopaedic consultant. The same one I saw in January 2023 for cartilage wear and tear and a baker cyst in my left knee.

His diagnosis of the right knee was insertional quadriceps tendinosis, which can be healed in a few months with a carefully crafted eccentric loading physio programme 🎉…. will play an important role in that healing journey too 😁

… But he also noted that I have grade 4 damage to the articular cartilage lining the knee joint surface at the end of my femoral bone where essentially 10mm of cartilage has come loose of the underlying bone, forming an unstable ‘flap’ which has been causing me pain, swelling, loss of power and loss of stability 🥲 This also explains why the issues and pain with my right knee have been so different to the left knee.

Unfortunately, this flap cannot heal as this type of cartilage (hyaline) does not possess the ability to repair itself…

Crucially this cartilage acts as a shockbraker and distributor of mechanical load, which explains why walking sticks are key for hiking and why deep squats, split squats and god forbid the pistol squats (albeit TRX assisted) the PT was trying to get me to do … are absolutely out of the question for me !

For the next few months, conservative intervention with low-impact eccentric quad loading, rehab and activity modification is prescribed.

So road biking with MTB gears for now 🥰

Hopefully I can make it back to doing an ultra again one day … 🤞🏼

Longer term, an arthroscopy (key hole surgery) may be needed whereby either the loose flap is smoothed (chondroplasty) to decrease the irritation and pain and/or removal of the flap followed by a microfracture to the underlying bone can be performed to stimulate my own stem cells to form some new (fibro) cartilage. But that will set me back for longer.

To be continued upon review in 3 months time…

😍 When you beat your 100mile TT PB from 2006 (!) by a long way and pick up a podium spot in the Welsh CA 100m TT Championship on the R100/9 along the way 🤩

Well done .lindley74 , well worth getting up at silly o’clock for !

All the training paying off. Well executed pacing and fuelling plan. And a great confidence booster and stepping stone towards Michelle’s main goals for 2024 🙌


❤️

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 - I first fell in love with this country in 2003 during a dream wedding at a little known beauty spot not far from where I am now lucky to call home. And the more I explore of Wales, the more I love it here !

These photos are from day 2 of my cycling meanders in North Wales, taking in a few more climbs.

was my absolute favourite climb. Stunning. Dramatic. Hard, but not too hard.

But crucially, made even more pleasant and memorable by a couple in a car refusing to overtake me when I signalled them to do so near the bottom (when I was not struggling too much yet).

Instead, they patiently sat behind me on the steep, long and narrow incline. Then they gave me the biggest ‘woohoo’ and wave at the top and even came over later in the day when we stopped at the same cafe to give me praise on getting up there on my bike. If only I could have told them how much that gesture meant. 💖

Quite the contrast with the “what you waving at?!” aggression I got from a white van man who was racing way too fast through high-hedged little empty lanes later in the day … The only effective response to that is a big smile and a cheery “You! Have a nice day”.

No white van man is gonna ruin these Snowdonia cycling highs ! 🙌





❤️

Happiness … is cycling (and running) up hills !

I have coached since 2020.

Most years Jo sets herself a hilly challenge. Maratona, Marmotte, Fred Whitton … the list goes on.

This year was no different with the as a hilly target.

Event goals were:

1) have fun !

2) ride smart at the start and strong at the end

3) complete within time limit

4) finish

For years and years I just chucked these in a drawer, always focused on ‘what is next?’ Until, one day, you realise there may not be (m)any next bike achievements or adventures anymore …

Time to put these on a wall and take anything else as a bonus gifted by my knees which are now both full-blown stage 4 osteoarthritis :-(

Good job I long since switched from personal goals to deriving pleasure and satisfaction out of seeing the riders I coach thrive !

Yesterday was an amazing and mostly sunny day in Wales tackling hills, hills and more hills with , including some of those lovely long hills she just doesn’t have access to in her local training grounds of Surrey and Kent.

From signing up for coaching with me at the beginning of the year, Jo’s body, mind and bike are now ready to tackle the big challenge of the . Less than 1 month to go. Bring it on 🙌

Today I should have been in Astoria, Oregon (USA), ready to start the on 2 June. Instead I visited this thing. Amazing what you find at an ASDA superstore carpark !

For all my Dutch-speaking followers and keen runners: check out the most recent edition of (available in store through to 27 June)

It includes an article titled ‘Bloed, zweet en tranen - sporten en de cyclus’ written by to which I was grateful to contribute some of my knowledge and experience as an endurance coach 🙏

If you don’t buy it for the words, it is worth it for the illustrations by .ski alone; they are amazing !

DNS - Did Not Start.

I can’t quite express how sad I am not to start and miss out on the opportunity to explore another continent by bike.

Since diagnosis and Bakers cyst in winter 2022, Pilates and gym have helped to stabilise the osteoarthritis pain in my left knee.

But for the last few months something has been increasingly aggravating my right knee to the point that walking, sitting and sleeping is now worryingly painful on some days and frustratingly manageable on other days.

The pain and swelling move around the knee. The intensity comes and goes. The knee gives out, locks, mis-tracks and crunches. Cycling with luggage particularly aggravates things. Cycling without luggage relies on my left leg doing most of the work.

So an MRI is finally scheduled to find the underlying cause.

I had hoped it would heal in time for - and everything else is prepared …

The riding during was a final test, but I have to admit defeat before even starting my race

We put so much energy and effort into these races, but showing up at the start line of a 5,600km race miles away from home when you are already in pain is not a wise decision…

A shorter race nearer to home is tempting but - until I know what is wrong with me - not a great alternative either.

I am gutted. All year round I am there to support my coaching clients with their cycling goals, but I also need something to look forward to for myself.

A little dangerous voice still says ‘but what if you just raced with minimal luggage?’

If it was a ‘sprint’ race in Europe perhaps I would give into that voice. But for such a big ultra far away from home too much is at stake.

So fingers crossed my body, work and life will give me the opportunity to race across the USA some other time….

In the meantime, there are worse places than beautiful Wales to feel sorry for yourself !

Land’s End John o’Groats. LEJOG. The End to End.

Between 2017 and 2018 - whilst unsuccessfully chasing a record time - this journey took up a lot of physical, mental and emotional energy with cherished peak memories and soul-searching lows along the way.

This image - taken by Chris Godfrey on the Okehampton by-pass on the A30 - accurately reflects the balance between the fun and the stress factor I was experiencing whilst riding the ‘fast’ route back then.

But to break records you can’t bumble along the back roads. If successful, a more rose-tinted view of that experience may have lingered by now. But as it was, it was the needed and now much appreciated wake-up call for me to seek out different ultra challenges going forward.

Fast forward to 2024, with 5 years of working as a full-time cycling coaching under my belt and the benefit of hindsight, I looking forward to The End to End once more.

But this time in a different format. Riding the Babble organised by . I look forward to the prospect of riding the slower more scenic route and share the journey with fellow long-distance lovers.

The other day I had the opportunity to share coaching advice for how to approach training for such a multi-day endurance ride whilst some of the riders virtually rode a part of the route in

👆🏼See link in bio for a great write-up by of

Earlier this week Ride Across Britain organised a virtual ROUVY ride in the Cairngorms on a part of the RAB route.

I had the pleasure of watching the riders put in a good training session whilst I answered questions about training for such a big multi-day endurance endeavour as the RAB from the comfort of my desk.

Brilliant to see CW picking up on the positive, fun and encouraging vibes of the RAB and all the preparation that goes into making it happen.

Grateful for being given the opportunity to make my own small contribution to that journey and joining the other riders for the big adventure come September ❤️

Coach's corner: chunking, avoiding the trap, and other ways to get through your longest summer ride Ultra-distance champion turned coach Jasmijn Muller dishes out some advice for your biggest ride yet

Different ultra races and different strategies call for different setups 🤩

👉🏼 The 5L Racing Saddle Pack was perfect for Oman and by

ie sprint’ distance ultras in good weather, with indoor sleep options or a strategy with minimal sleep and emergency sleep in the bus stops

It also worked well for by but only because I relied on either sleeping at hotels or cycling through the night.

Ideally, for a 2000km ultra you’d want a bit more capacity for sleep kit or layers …

👉🏼 The 9L Expedition Saddle Pack was great for (1700km shorter distance) where I carried full sleep kit - consisting of mat, hooped bivy, sleeping bag, liner and pillow.

It was even ample for the 7,400km but I posted all of my sleep kit home once the knee and shoe problems had started.

👉🏼 The 14L Expidition Saddle Pack will be my setup for the this summer.

The additional capacity will make packing and unpacking my sleep kit a bit less of a workout each time 😅 I also quite fancy the additional capacity for extra food for longer, more remote stretches of the route.

🙌 2.5 weeks until the start of the 2nd edition of !!! There is still time to grab yourself a place 👉🏼 𝘄𝘄𝘄.𝗱𝗼𝘁𝗯𝗼𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Dotbooster is a unique training camp for ultra cyclists, led by experienced coaches & racers.

Maybe you can’t make it this year, but please share this post if you think any of your cycling friends might benefit 🙏

Riders will receive:

> A full week of bespoke coaching

> A week of accommodation

> Daily laundry

> Secure car & bike parking

> Tasty & plentiful breakfasts & dinners

> 12 unique hands-on workshops & useful handouts

> Insight from ultras we have coached & raced

> A library full of well-recced gpx routes

> 5 or 6 day rides (varying length, with options to ride solo in pairs or small groups) + 1 night ride in a stunning part of Wales

> Supportive network of other ultra cyclists to keep
in touch with & share learnings

> Well-filled goodie bag courtesey of and

> The obligatory cycling cap ;-)

> Professional photos & video by to relive it all

This is a great way to prepare for ultras, whether you are new to the scene or already got a few ultras under your belt.

Yes, it will take a week of your time. But it does take that longer, in person, immersive experience to really benefit and see accellerated learning in ways you simply could not during a weekend, or from distance.

We received excellent feedback from last year's Dotbooster alumni and strive to make this second edition even better.

We hope to start drawing increasingly more awareness of the unique added value we provide through this preparation compared to riders just entering lots of races.

Our goals are to see more riders make it to the finishers' party, racing stronger, smarter and better prepared !

👀👂If you are interested but not attending Dotbooster this year, please tell us in the comments or via DM why not so we can promote Dotbooster better again next year.

❤️ growing up in the countryside
❤️ still having a grandparent in my 40s
❤️ now having this photo as a memory

Replaced horse for bike ;-)

Awesome achievement by - so proud of her ! This was her third year in a row racing the , the third year of finishing 2nd 🚴‍♀️ & third year of finishing in the ~Top 20 overall.

Those are cool stats. But more importantly, she has kept improving and beating her own times, daily distances and power every single year 💪 Always keeping the fun front of mind, doing her own thing and doing it well.

What’s more, this year she suffered from a tooth extraction prior to the race and was tested on her creative problem-solving skills when her carbon handlebars broke and she had to ride the final 500km with a tyre level and gaffa tape botch !

More exciting ultra racing fun to come for Elise this summer, but first party time !! 🎉

Cocentaina’s feminist mural of 7 women breaking ceilings and inspiring future generations 🤩

Comment below if you know who they are and in which professional fields they made their mark.

What a week ! Train in Spain with Be The Egg Cycle Coaching clients. Plenty of sunny kilometers and beautiful long climbs. So much riding variety, so little traffic and far away from the cycling masses of Mallorca or the touristic buzz of the coast. A gem of a place and an ace bunch of people to spend quality time with both on and off the bike. Thank you all for lifting my heart ❤️

And a big thank you to our hosts Marjorie & Peter for looking after us so well

Today should have been the day I’d set off on a multi-day cycling journey, from in Wales to , its twin town in Brittany.

Accompanied by riders from the at the start, and welcomed in by riders from the at the other end, with kind involvement from the -GouesnouTwinningAssociation too.

It should have been a gentle start to some longer distance riding again, after a winter focusing on strength work to take care of my knee and off-road MTB skills to take care of my fears.

It should have ended in Fouesnant to spend a few nice days with my mum who lives out there and who I don’t see anywhere near enough. I had even bought an iPad mini for it so I could do a little work whilst out there.

Instead, I have been in a lot of pain and had to have a cracked tooth extracted with a lot of wrangling. I am finally off the pain killers and can do some gentle riding again, but a bigger journey like the one I had planned is too much risk this early in the healing process, so sadly shelved for another day 😢

Miss you mum 🥰

PS: I always enjoy these energy pouches, but never was there a better time than now that I can only eat soft food 🙌

After a tooth extraction you are supposed to refrain from heavy exercise for a few days, but that doesn’t stop me from putting other riders through VO2max and Maximal Lactate Steady State testing in the physiology lab 😜

Big thank you to and for making the journey over and putting in all the hard work 🙌

Time for data analysis and write up now for my MSc in Sport & Exercise Science project 👩🏻‍🎓🙇‍♀️🧐

Coaching is for riders who want to feel fit and well-prepared for whatever challenge they set themselves.

Last September, two of the riders I coach set off on their separate multi-day cycling adventures.

Nia on her 1500km end to end crossing of France, from St Malo to Nice over 13 days

Rodrigo on his 1080km journey from London to Turin over 10 days

Both riders had an amazing cycling adventure, but importantly felt fit and ready to really enjoy it.

In addition to the testimonials in the images, here are some quotes of their successful and memorable experiences.

Nia - “The Gorges de l’Ardèche, Gorges de la Nesque and Gorges du Verdun made for some of the best days I have ever had on a bike. Vive la France!”

Nia loved her St Malo to Nice experience so much that she has picked herself not one but two similar A to B cycling journeys as challenges for this year: Mizen to Malinhead in Ireland and San Sebastian to Tarifa in Spain. Having ridden some of those roads as part of in 2023 and in 2022, I am very much looking forward to reliving those landscapes through Nia's experiences!

Rodrigo - "My favourite days of the trip were the last two days. Every drop of sweat on those climbs was worth it. My body held up very well. I listened to my body during the ride and also got better at finding places for coffee and sandwiches."

I echo Nia's words and encourage anyone to give a multi-day cycling adventure a go!

If you'd appreciate bespoke coaching support in preparation, drop me a line.

Good memories from a training weekend for cycling coaching clients I organised here in Wales in April 2023.

This year, some of my clients will be joining me for a training camp in Spain in April or the training camp in Wales in May.

But because I can’t get enough of showing off the beauty of the Brecon Beacons, there will be 2 training weekends for clients in September too this year. One for the roadies and one for those keen to mix in a solid amount of off-road fun !