Juliet Wolfe competed in her first ever road race in Spain at the weekend; jumping from riding sportives and Gran Fondos straight into the European pro scene.
While Wolfe had never taken part in a road race before last Sunday that didn’t stop her lining out in Vuelta CV Feminas (1.1).
It
featured some of the biggest teams in the world and was won by Marta
Bastianelli, the former world road racing champion and reigning Italian
champion riding for Alé BTC Ljubljana.
Wolfe has been living in Mallorca in recent years where
she has worked in the cycling industry as a tour guide.
And while she had ridden Gran Fondos and sportives “in competitive mode”, she had never entered a road race of any description before last weekend.
She finished in the 74-rider bunch in Valencia, placing 54th of the 114 starters. It was a very solid performance considering the opposition and the fact that some 40 riders were distanced on the day.
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Her first foray into cycling came in 2012 when she rode with two friends from Dublin to Cape Town; some 17,500km on mountain bikes to raise money for HIV-Aids charities.
In 2016 she
entered her first event; the Sa Calobra TT series in Mallorca. She also tackled the Wicklow 200 that year, when she worked for
Stephen Roche as a ride captain on his training camps in Mallorca.
In 2017 she was sponsored by Storck South Africa to race
the Johannesburg Telkom 947 and won the vets category.
Wolfe was sponsored last year by Goldcar to ride the 225km distance event at Mallorca 312; crossing the line as leading woman and 14th in the mixed field.
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She told stickybottle she worked for Stephen Roche for 2½
years before becoming a self-employed guide in Mallorca; a career she continues
to pursue.
She has worked with Global Cycling Network as a guide and
on company trips organised by Ineos.
However, while she cycles for a living, she has now
become something of an accidental road racer.
“The nature of my work is not so conducive to race training as it's fairly dependent on my clients’ level and it can also be quite fatiguing so I wasn't really planning to race,” she said.
“About two weeks ago the elite Spanish team, Belori
Vipeq, contacted me to race with them at Vuelta CV Feminas.
“I thought ‘I can't let the opportunity go’ so I threw
myself in at the deep end - my first crack at a road race was a UCI.
“It was an amazing experience, racing side-by-side with
some of the best girls in the world; pretty hairy and stressful to say the
least.
“I got caught behind a spill up in the hills at one point
and ended up in the ditch and by the time I got back on the bike the group was
gone.
“So I had to spend a lot of energy getting back to the
group. I didn't know the course either and being a climber it was not ideal for
me.”
Wolfe added she was caught out by a sharp turn close to
the finish, which cost her
positions in the run to the line.
“But all-round it was a really exhilarating experience and now I’ve caught the bug I have to continue, right?” she said.
“We've got another UCI race in Valencia from February 20th to 23rd and then I might do the Copa de España and Torneo Euskau if work allows me to squeeze it all in.
“I’m considering giving the UCI Swiss Gran Fondo a bash as I've been told I'd be in with a good chance at the World Champs.”
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