{"id":136667,"date":"2016-03-02T14:43:52","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T12:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/?p=136667"},"modified":"2016-03-02T14:43:52","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T12:43:52","slug":"interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Hayley Simmonds: Lost 45kg and Became National Champ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>If you told UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling rider Hayley Simmonds she could be a pro cyclist and never ride in a road race, once upon a time she\u2019d have bitten your hand off.<\/strong><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Now the British National Time Trial Champion is embarking upon her first Classics seasons as a professional, with the Olympics on her mind, and plans to return to the race that changed her mind at the end of this month. These are mind-blowing goals for a cyclist who only began racing in 2013 and we\u2019re keen to find out what drives Simmonds on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t like losing, I\u2019m a very bad loser, as my family would surely tell you,\u201d she says, and we guess that\u2019s a motivation in itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I do badly in something, I feel disappointed in myself, and I also feel embarrassed. It sounds ridiculous, but I almost feel that people are looking at that result and thinking, \u2018she\u2019s a bit useless\u2019, and I really don\u2019t like that. I don\u2019t like to look weak.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She adds: \u201cThat was a big motivator for me when I started in cycling, I didn\u2019t like coming 10<sup>th<\/sup> or 15<sup>th<\/sup>, I wanted to be on the podium.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-controller-wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Nice to finish my 2015 season in black &amp; orange @VelosportMonteg <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VeloSportUK?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@VeloSportUK<\/a> @FondriestUK @SpinOnThese <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CychoCycle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CychoCycle<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ccrTfouMht\">pic.twitter.com\/ccrTfouMht<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Hayley Simmonds (@hayleyrsimmonds) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hayleyrsimmonds\/status\/658287969871241216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 25, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async data-src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Time-trialling was the Cambridge student\u2019s door into cycling back in 2011 and she began dabbling in road racing two years later. It wasn\u2019t a smooth rolling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be honest, I hated road racing,\u201d she says. \u201cEven by the end of 2014, after two years of racing in the UK, I wasn\u2019t enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you could have told me that I could be a pro cyclist just time-trialling I would have said \u2018yes please, thank you very much\u2019. But last year at Gent Wevelgem something kind of clicked. It was really attritional, the conditions were awful, and I felt being a strong rider really helped there. It is tough, but it was more like a power riders race. I guess it was the confidence that race gave me, and ever since then I\u2019ve gotten better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So good in fact that she was selected to ride for Britain at the World Championships in the US in September \u2013 and that is where her Olympics dream was put into motion. Taking a crucial stint on the front for Armitstead, Simmonds became the only other British rider to finish, coming home in 79<sup>th<\/sup> behind the new World Champion, Armitstead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI loved the World Championships road race,\u201d she beams. \u201cI just wanted to do the best job I could for Lizzie [Armitstead], and because I didn\u2019t have any pressure on myself to get a specific result, and I knew that at the end of the day it didn\u2019t even matter if I finished, I put my all into doing what I could. The atmosphere was incredible and I loved the course \u2013 there were cobbled climbs in that, like in Gent Wevelgem. I actually ended up finishing as well, which was unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/03\/CLV0SgWXAAAYXNU.jpg-large-600x800.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-136669\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/03\/CLV0SgWXAAAYXNU.jpg-large-600x800-600x800.jpeg\" alt=\"If you told UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling rider Hayley Simmonds she could be a pro cyclist and never ride in a road race, once upon a time she\u2019d have bitten your hand off.\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>That performance put her on British Cycling\u2019s map and raised eyebrows of the Olympic selection committee; making Rio 2016 now doesn\u2019t seem so impossible for the girl who has only been a professional cyclist for one month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy heart is set on getting there,\u201d she says, explaining: \u201cYou can\u2019t do the time trial without doing the road race; it\u2019s one of the stipulations, so my aim for the early races is to prove I\u2019m in form and can perform on a course like Rio, and I have already proved that I could be useful to help and support Lizzie, in a race in which she won the World Championships.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course we don\u2019t actually know until the end of May, whether we have three or four spots for the road; it could be Lizzie plus two or Lizzie plus three. Secondary to that is showing that, if they do take me a part of the road team, then I should also be selected for the time trial. That\u2019s harder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI need to think about how I could show that if Emma Pooley and I are, for example, both selected for the road squad, I should get a time trial spot ahead of her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the likes of US team mate Coryn [Rivera] also going for Rio 2016 places, UnitedHealthcare\u2019s sporting director Rachel Heal has shuffled schedules to allow the team to work for the riders in Olympic contention wherever necessary. Simmonds\u2019s task is harder than others as she does not have clear-cut criteria to match, but Heal has helped formulate a plan.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-controller-wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I have a British champions bobble hat!! Thank you <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rail_guns?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@rail_guns<\/a> \ud83d\ude03 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GCIIcGZfAm\">pic.twitter.com\/GCIIcGZfAm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Hayley Simmonds (@hayleyrsimmonds) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hayleyrsimmonds\/status\/680377157793792000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 25, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async data-src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>\u201cRachel and I, between us, have quite a good idea of which races I could do with having a good showing in, so she\u2019ll be supportive of me in them to allow me to do what I need to do,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s actually a time trial in Canada when I\u2019m in America that I might try to get an entry to. Rachel has already said she would try to fit that into my calendar and take me and a car and help up to that race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By the end of June, they will know if the plan has worked. If it hasn\u2019t, Simmonds will move onto the next goal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier to go through the hard training sessions in the miserable, cold British weather if you\u2019ve got some kind of aim,\u201d she explains. \u201cWhen I started I wanted to get a full blue, which is very specific to the Oxford and Cambridge rivalry, but that\u2019s what I wanted, so I trained specifically for that. I\u2019m constantly upping my expectations and upping the training to match them. So far, I seem to have been able to hit all the goals I have aimed for, which is a bit worrying because at some point there\u2019s going to be something I can\u2019t quite do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tentatively, she adds: \u201cHopefully winning the World Championships will be a goal at some point. I\u2019ve already had a look at the courses that have been announced for the next three years, Qatar, Norway and Austria, potentially the last one, at Innsbruck, could be a pretty good course for me in 2018. That\u2019s thinking quite far ahead. But that\u2019s a back-of-the-mind goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Good luck, Hayley!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you told UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling rider Hayley Simmonds she could be a pro cyclist and never ride in a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":136670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[328,329,334],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-136667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outdoor-mountain","category-road-cycling","category-socialising-and-culture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Interview with Hayley Simmonds: Lost 45kg and Became National Champ - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you told UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling rider Hayley Simmonds she could be a pro cyclist and never ride in a road race, once upon a time she\u2019d have bitt...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview with Hayley Simmonds: Lost 45kg and Became National Champ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you told UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling rider Hayley Simmonds she could be a pro cyclist and never ride in a road race, once upon a time she\u2019d have bitt...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-02T12:43:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/03\/hayleysimmonds.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"525\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jessica Lamb\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/\",\"name\":\"Interview with Hayley Simmonds: Lost 45kg and Became National Champ - \u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/03\/hayleysimmonds.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-02T12:43:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"If you told UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling rider Hayley Simmonds she could be a pro cyclist and never ride in a road race, once upon a time she\u2019d have bitt...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/03\/hayleysimmonds.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/03\/hayleysimmonds.webp\",\"width\":525,\"height\":350},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Interview with Hayley Simmonds: Lost 45kg and Became National Champ\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine\",\"alternateName\":\"\u0160koda WLC\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Interview with Hayley Simmonds: Lost 45kg and Became National Champ - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"If you told UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling rider Hayley Simmonds she could be a pro cyclist and never ride in a road race, once upon a time she\u2019d have bitt...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Interview with Hayley Simmonds: Lost 45kg and Became National Champ","og_description":"If you told UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling rider Hayley Simmonds she could be a pro cyclist and never ride in a road race, once upon a time she\u2019d have bitt...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","article_published_time":"2016-03-02T12:43:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":525,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/03\/hayleysimmonds.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jessica Lamb","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/","name":"Interview with Hayley Simmonds: Lost 45kg and Became National Champ - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/03\/hayleysimmonds.webp","datePublished":"2016-03-02T12:43:52+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"description":"If you told UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling rider Hayley Simmonds she could be a pro cyclist and never ride in a road race, once upon a time she\u2019d have bitt...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/03\/hayleysimmonds.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/03\/hayleysimmonds.webp","width":525,"height":350},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/02\/interview-with-hayley-simmonds-lost-45kg-and-became-national-champ\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Interview with Hayley Simmonds: Lost 45kg and Became National Champ"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine","alternateName":"\u0160koda WLC","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136667"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136673,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136667\/revisions\/136673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136667"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=136667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}