Brother UK Cycling Podcast – Episode 56
Timothy John
“Hello and welcome to this special edition of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast with me, Timothy John, and our special guest, Frankie Hall of DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK, who joins us just two days after finishing tenth in the elite women’s road race at the national championships in Saltburn. Frankie, thank-you very much indeed for joining us today.”
Frankie Hall
“Thank-you for having me on. It’s good to be here.”
Timothy John
“Well, an amazing performance. We’re very lucky to have you with us. I think you were the only rider from a domestic team to crack a top ten which featured former world champions, Olympic champions, reigning British champions. Not bad company. Has it sunk in yet?”
Frankie Hall
“Yeah. When you say it like that, it sounds quite cool. Yeah, it has sunk in. I’ve come back from the nationals. I’m racing domestically this week, but I’ve got a big target next week, so there’s not too long to dwell on it. I’ve got to get into the last bits of work in this week before going off to Portugal next week, but, yeah, it has sunk in. I am really happy. I’m really pleased. Yeah, I am really happy.”
Timothy John
“And how about on the physical side? It was a pretty attritional race, and you were at the sharp end of it, constantly having to react to moves from within the group. How are you feeling physically?”
Frankie Hall
“Yeah, physically fine. I’ve had a big block of training where I’ve kind of been going out three or four days on the trot of hard riding, so it was kind of just like another…I mean, technically, on paper, it’s the same as a hard training day, so, physically, not too bad. I had a nice café day yesterday, back to training today and racing tomorrow. I don’t feel too bad, thankfully.”
Timothy John
“Tomorrow, I think, you’re up to Ilkley.”
Frankie Hall
“Otley tomorrow, I think, and Ilkley on Friday, so the two Yorkshire-based town centre crits to kick off the crit series which will be great fun. I really enjoy them.”
Timothy John
“That performance at the weekend [was] absolutely sensational, but would you call it your best performance to date?”
Frankie Hall
‘Yeah, in terms of results on the road, it’s definitely the best result that I’ve got, for sure, definitely, in road racing.”
Timothy John
“It was a race that had many fluctuations as it reached its climax. Sian, your team-mate, went in the early break. Lizi Brooke, I think, was the last person standing from that break, and then Anna Henderson dropped the hammer on the final lap, and suddenly the race was on.
“Tell us how you got involved in that break. You must have been pretty vigilant.”
Frankie Hall
“Yeah. I’ve always been someone who races with my legs and not necessarily with my head, which is purely down to inexperience. I joined DAS in August last year, but prior to that, I’d never raced in a high-level, elite team. I’d just not had that experience, not had the knowledge base and not really learned how to do it, and, physically, I’d never been in a position to even think about doing it.
“But I went into this race with quite a strict plan, which was purely to be patient and be smart. I kind of had to trust…As tempting as it was, especially for me, [given] how I ride, as tempting as it was to just get in one of those early moves, spend a couple of hours off the front, get your name noticed, get the team kit out there, I had to back myself with where I knew I was physically and trust in the training that I’d been doing.
learning more and more about it. I’d done a bit of research and learning through watching as well as racing it.
“I knew that all these moves were going to go early, but there were probably 15 or 20 people there who came into this race thinking, ‘I want that jersey,’ and I’d earmarked a couple of riders and said to myself, ‘If they’re not going, you’re not going.’
“I just had to gamble. If they make a mistake, then you’ve gambled and you’ve not come out on top, but the likelihood is that you will end up in the right place at the right time with that logic and then trust my legs to go with it.
there was no responsibility on us to do any work to keep that group away, and so it all came back together.
“DSM started to really…and this is what I thought would happen. As soon as they wanted to close the gap, these WorldTour girls have the power to do it, and, for sure, as soon as it came to the back end of the race and it needed to be closed, they rode. I think it was Becky [Storrie] rode an absolute stormer to shut that gap. I mean, I never went anywhere near the front, but it looked almost singlehanded. [Becky] had a great ride, and I knew then it was going to be really hard.
“I’d worked out my nutrition, I’d fuelled accordingly. I’d stayed hydrated. Thankfully, I’d been over in France, so the heat wasn’t a factor for me. I’d prepared myself not to do anything stupid and to stay vigilant, stay smart; stay near the front, but don't go off the front and just get ready to fight when you need to fight.”
INTERLUDE
Timothy John
“You mentioned Ruth and Tammy, and you had Sian off the front. There’s a lot of strength-in-depth in this DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK team, and yet, as you say, when Becky Storrie decided to up the pace, she upped the pace, and then of course they had Josie Nelson to take things up right at the denouement.
compete with professional riders, but how would you assess the gap in quality and strength?”
Frankie Hall
“I think it’s completely individual. It’s different for different riders. For me, I’m quite happy to say, or quite confident to say, I know where I’m at, physically. I know what I’m capable of, physically, both from training with various different people, the work I’ve done with my coach and the athletes I’ve ridden with, how I’ve felt in the UCI races I’ve done, the numbers and data I get from these races, speaking to other coaches, DS-es in other teams, staff in other teams. I know where I’m at physically.
which I’m only going to develop by racing more and seeking out more opportunities and being in this position in a race. For me, that’s the biggest difference.
“Once I was in that move, I was completely overwhelmed by the company I was in. Not overwhelmed by the presence. It was more, ‘I don’t want to get in the way here. I don’t want to do something stupid and ruin it for someone else.’
“That shouldn’t be the mindset. We’ve all got the same numbers on our backs, whether you have world champ’s bands around your arms, previous national champ’s, you're in the same race. You're on the same start line. This is something that’s lived rent-free in my head: I was really pissed off with myself for having that attitude and not just racing it like it was any other race, but I’d not been in that position.
longer….
“Saltburn is quite short. I’d still call it a sprint. It’s less than a minute, getting up there, but most of the deciding moves were on the Forge Lane climb. There’s a big, wide descent into a roundabout, and you go into a two, three, four-minute drag before you come down the fast descent into Saltburn, and that’s where most of the damage was done.
“I think it was on the penultimate lap that Anna first attacked there, and I came from quite far back. I came into it maybe 30 wheels back, and I saw her go. I’ve watched it back. I saw her go, and I thought, ‘Oh, Frankie, that’s where you’ve got to be. It's now or never, and if you don’t go now, you’re never getting on.’
probably burned a few too many matches there, but I had that backing. I knew I could get to it before we went down again.
“Over the top of Saltburn, again, I was positioned poorly. I was really struggling with getting down that descent. I don’t know why. I’m quite confident descending, but I just couldn’t get on the wheels and weight doesn’t work in my favour downhill. I would have liked a bigger gear as well. I was spinning out as soon as a gap went.
“I came into the bottom of Saltburn far back. I think Lizzie [Deignan] attacked, and then Flora [Perkins]. A couple of people attacked through the finish, just after the finish, so I knew it was going to be a bit of a longer chase than it had been. On previous laps, I’d got on way before the top of Saltburn, but I knew this was going to be a bit longer.
it was more beneficial to reallly empty yourself and get on the back of it then.”
Timothy John
“Well that seemed like the pivotal moment, Frankie, as a spectator. You were riding with Sophie Wright of Fenix-Deceuninck, and then Claire Steels, she was recovering from a mechanical, and the three of you formed an effective unit, an effective fighting force, and it wasn’t long at all before you were back with the leaders.
about here?
"I mean, my goodness, there's a few to choose from: Lizzie Deignan, arguably one of the greatest riders in the history of the sport, Pfeiffer Georgi, the defending champion, Anna Henderson, who’d won the time-trial title a few days earlier. Who was on your watch list?”
Frankie Hall
“To be honest, all of them. If you’re wearing a WorldTour jersey…I’ve watched all of those girls race. I've raced with some of them before, and I admire how they race. They’re all incredible riders, but I did just pick three.
finish of the race.
“Anna had another stellar ride in the TT. She’s had an injury-plagued start to the season, but she’s always been someone whom I’ve watched and admired in races, and she’s obviously on very good form.
“She knows how to race. She’s here as an individual rider as well, which means she’s probably racing more smartly than if there were four or five of them or if she had a team around her. [I thought] she would make quite sensible decisions about whether to follow moves or not, based on wanting to be there at the end.
Frankie, you can’t. Just chill out.’ That’s hard, especially when you feel good, but I just had to trust the process.”
Timothy John
“It was a very similar course to last year. Not identical, but not far off. How valuable was it to know the course? How similar was it, for example, to the East Cleveland Classic, which you rode in April?”
Frankie Hall
“It was a very similar course to East Cleveland, slightly easier, in terms of attrition, and much easier than the course last year.
novice rider.
“Last year, I was going well, but I got very over excited. I’m like a golden retriever or spaniel. You just kind of go with everything, you get excited by the fact that you can ride at the front of the race, you burn way too many matches in the wrong place, and, ultimately, when it went with an hour to go, I didn’t have the legs to go with it. I didn’t have the legs to follow the moves when it mattered, and I was absolutely in the right place to go with it last year; I just didn’t have the physical ability to go with it. If it had been last year’s course this year, it would have been more enjoyable for me, I think, but it was raced hard.
“It was definitely a benefit, knowing the course, but, again, you do five laps, so by the time you come round to where the race starts, you know where you’re going.”
Timothy John
“What difference does ‘the nationals’ add? What difference does that make: that it’s a nationals day, rather than a round of the National Road Series? Much bigger crowds, I guess; obviously, a higher quality field. Does it feel like more of an occasion, and does that have a physical impact?”
Frankie Hall
“Yeah, definitely. There are definitely a lot more people there, although, to be fair, Klondike was very well supported. I think it’s a massive cycling region up there. Saltburn was lined with people at the national series, even for our race in the morning.
championships]. It felt like a national series race. You’re just in much more esteemed company.
“The benefit for me, in terms of the riding, is that at the national championships, you have stronger riders, and the race is made hard without you having to make it hard, whereas the national series, I want the race to be hard, especially for our team, which has such strength-in-depth that we can have six, seven, eight riders at the front end of a national series race, at the end, when it’s really hard, but we then burn a lot of matches making it hard, so other people get a free ride. On Sunday, I didn’t have to do anything to make it hard, so I’ve saved a lot of myself to be there when it’s racing and have the autonomy to be fully riding for myself and to protect myself.
“Openly, you have your own result on your mind, and I just rode with that. It’s probably the first time then I’ve purely ridden with the intention, ‘You want a result here,’ so you’re going to ride to get yourself a result.”
INTERLUDE
Timothy John
“How did you start in this sport, Frankie? I think hockey was your first sporting love.”
Frankie Hall
“Yeah, I grew up playing hockey. My dream was to go to the Olympics, playing hockey. I was playing at a high level. Everything, seemingly, was going well.
“My first race was a campus crit; literally, around the campus. I think I was dropped about five minutes in, but I really enjoyed it and just carried on from there.”
Timothy John
“Wow. That’s amazing. I think, when we were talking earlier, that it became apparent I’d put two and two together and made five in assuming that you’d wanted to study at Loughborough because it has this incredible reputation as a sporting university, but you were there to study something quite different, I think.”
Frankie Hall
“I came and studied a maths degree. I was there just to go the university. It was the only uni I ever wanted to go to; the only uni I applied to. Ultimately, I did go for the hockey. I’d been on England camps and national camps here for training weekends, and the sporting facilities did attract me, but, at the time, when I applied and came here, I didn’t know cycling was a sport. It was kind of a method of transport. It wasn’t what drew me in.”
Timothy John
“Although you’d studied maths as an undergraduate, I think you’ve gone on to study at a higher level with more of a focus on sport and physiology.”
Frankie Hall
“I did my undergrad in maths. It was actually joint honours. I did maths and sports science. My masters, I went on to do, it was called “Exercise and Medicine.” It was using physical activity in general health; essentially, how can you use physical activity and lack of inactivity in general health. How can we save the NHS money by people being more active and using less medicine, is essentially what that was, probably with quite a big focus on Covid, just because of the time that I did my masters.
specific element of physiology, so I was still pursuing quite an academic route until this season.”
Timothy John
“Again, we were discussing off-air, and a recurring theme of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast, because of our investments in the sport - we sponsor, effectively, two development teams - DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK and Brother UK-OnForm - and we’re constantly amazed and impressed by a) how hard the riders work simply to compete at an elite level, and secondly by how diverse and often inspiring is their time spent off the bike
“I think you’re living that double-edged sword, aren’t you? You’ve had to at least postpone PhD studies so you can focus on being the best cyclist you can be.”
Frankie Hall
“Throughout the last three or four years, since Covid, I’ve been juggling university, working, training and racing. You kind of have three and then four, if you want to chuck in some sort of personal and social life.
have to work to fund uni and living like that.
“Cycling is not a cheap sport, so you have to work to fund going to races, petrol, transport, everything that your bike might need, training, and then ‘life’ expenses.
cycling, to deal with some personal things. then I came back to my PhD, which was work
“Loughborough University were great. I was kind of on a sports scholarship programme. so I was supported financially and within the sport, which did allow me to progress. It was a massive stepping stone to where I am now. The cycling performance programme there gave me the opportunity and the race exposure to step up to DAS.
in life.
“I knew, physically, that I have some weird physiology where I just seem to be able to train and train and train, and the more I train, the better I get. A lot of teams, a lot of people I’ve spoken to say, ‘Oh, you’re too old, you’re not going to go any further,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m still progressing, physically, year-on-year, and the more racing I’m doing, the more I’m going to learn, and I still believe I have a lot development within myself, and so until I feel satisfied with my development, or I'm satisfied that, you know what, I’ve given this everything, and I’m not going to make it, I’m not going to go any further, I want to keep doing it.
do whatever I need to do to make it work. Yeah, you have to miss some things. You miss a lot of life outside of cycling.
“I’m going to have to miss some races for work commitments, but I’m going to have the priority races and races that I can have confirmed in advance from the team, and then I just work around that to do the best I can, and that’s all that anyone, at this level, [can do].
“Maybe some of the younger athletes, if they’re living at home, don’t necessarily have so many of the day-to-day living expenses that you have when you’re an adult, but I just have to make it work, and I’ll continue to do so until I’m satisfied that I’ve gone as far as I can.
“I don't feel that I’m there yet, and I’m still loving it, and I still feel that I’m progressing, so that’s what I’m going to do.”
Timothy John
“Super impressive. As I say, it’s become a bit of a recurring theme on the podcast, and I’m constantly amazed by just how hard riders work at this level to compete against WorldTour professionals, a least once a year. You’ll be doing a number of UCI races overseas. The Volta a Portugal Feminina coming up. It’s impressive.
Deignan, whom you raced against at the weekend. Is that an inspiration? That you can find so many riders at the very highest level who are in their mid to late 30s?”
Frankie Hall
“Yeah, and I think it’s becoming more and more so. For me, especially: I didn’t start riding until I was 22. I didn’t have the time as an U23. If I was this age, and I’d been racing since I was 16, then maybe, but I don’t feel like that.
“Another one who, again, was on a Brother team was Claire Steels, who’s had quite a similar pathway. She came from hockey and then went to duathlon.
“You know within yourself. I’ve been in sport my whole life. You can tell where you’re at. It does show that it is possible, if you’re good enough. It might come down to that I’m not good enough, and that’s fine, but I don’t want to just think, ‘What if I’d tried a bit more? What if I’d explored this? What if I’d given it a full shot?’'
"I just don't want to have any….I’d rather regret not making it than not trying.”
INTERLUDE
Timothy John
“Well, that’s a really succinct way of putting it.
ultimately, is channelled. It’s a financial sponsorship. It’s not value-in-kind. How valuable is that to you as a rider?”
Frankie Hall
“Oh yeah, it’s beyond…Ultimately, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if I wasn’t on the team. You just couldn’t….well, personally, I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t be racing. It’s as long and short as that. I just wouldn’t be racing.”
Timothy John
“It’s fascinating to hear you say that, Frankie, because, from the outside, you had a mid-season transfer last year from Loughborough Lightning to what was then DAS-Handsling and is now DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK, and I think, as an observer, you’d think, ‘Well, that makes a lot of sense from a sporting perspective. It's a UCI Continental team. Frankie will get a lot more opportunities on the sporting side,’ but it’s interesting to hear you say that it’s keeping you in the sport.
“Racing for a UCI Continental team with a blue chip backer like Brother, is actually allowing you to race, rather than give up and do something else.”
Frankie Hall
“Loughborough are great. They support all domestic National A and a couple of UCI races; I think they had one UCI trip this year. They support all National A racing with transport, accommodation and race entry, but, ultimately, you’re still buying your own bikes and everything. I didn’t see much progression. If I wanted to stay in the sport, I needed to progress, and I needed to step up.
“It was getting to the stage where [I thought], ‘Do I commit to my PhD for a time and go that way? Or do I still try to progress in cycling?” And it’s given me the opportunity to do that. I wouldn’t be doing the higher-level races, I wouldn’t be doing these multi-day stage races and probably more insightfully, the things that I’ve learned from being in the team.
“I’m very fortunate with the team-mates I have. Everyone gets on very well, and you do grow another little family. You’ve got a great group of friends and everything like that, but I’m fortunate to race with some very talented and very experienced riders, and the amount I’ve learned in my almost a year within the team has been almost beyond measurable.
“In the first week of racing I did with the team last year, maybe when we went across to Ireland, I learned more than I’d learned in the last three years. It brings you on. Riding and racing with better people is, for me, one of the only ways to progress.
“It gives you the desire. When you keep improving and you keep seeing marked results, improvements, progress, where you’re at, it makes you want to keep going. I’m very lucky that I absolutely love training. I’d be more than happy to go out and ride my bike all day, every day. My coach will confirm that the my worst days in any two or three week block are days when I’m not allowed to ride my bike. I hate it.
“I’m very much loving this process.”
INTERLUDE
Timothy John
“One of the harder lessons that you’ve had to learn this year is recovering from injury. You had a crash at the Antwerp Ports Classic in which, I think, you dislocated your shoulder, and then in the next race, the Tour de Feminin, in the Czech Republic, you had to withdraw after a couple of days.
“Talk us through that process. How dispiriting was that, or were you able to recover your spirits, recover your form quite quickly?”
Frankie Hall
“It was hard. I had a little peak in the end of February for track, and then I had a week or two weeks off. I went out and raced in Oetingen, having not raced since the track nationals, and I wasn’t in a road form at all. I didn’t get many races. I wasn’t good enough to be put in the races the team was doing, ultimately.
strong riders. You have to fight for selection, and if you’re not good enough, you’re not good enough, and you’ve just got to get better.
“I wasn’t good enough to be in the races they were doing. I wasn’t getting the race selections. I had to go away and do some work, focus on what I could bring to the team, what I could do. I came into Antwerp: I knew I’d done a lot of work. I knew my legs were good. I made all the front splits. I was in the right groups. I had a bike change and got back into the front group. I was riding well. You get the reassurance of, 'Oh, actually I can do this.’
“Apart from Oetingen, where I just wasn’t fit enough, that was the first UCI race I’d done. It was all very new and overwhelming, but I thought, 'I’m enjoying this. I feel good.’ and then I crashed, took my shoulder out, whacked my head a bit, and it’s kind of like, everything that you've worked towards has just gone.
"I know that’s part of racing, but then I missed four days of work. I couldn’t go to work either because I’d put my shoulder out. You’ve then got a double battle: ‘I can’t race, and now I can’t work.’
road bike. I didn’t have a TT bike. I was mid-pack, somewhere, which is respectable on a road bike.
“I started the [second] stage and got knocked in the neutral [zone] and the pain [was such] that I knew I was going to be able to race how I wanted to race, and I would end up being in poor positions because I was scared of getting hit, getting injured again. It was only three days since I’d done it. My shoulder was delicate. I didn’t have the strength or the stability in it. I knew that if anything happened, or if I tried to take a bottle and crashed, the damage would be a lot [more severe] and I could potentially put myself out for the rest of the season.
“After that race, I withdrew my interest in the Tour of Britain and just thought, 'I need to take a step away from the racing and recover and train and come back.'”
Timothy John
“And taking that step away, Frankie, in the most literal sense; you took yourself to France, based yourself in Nice, which is a Mecca for professional cyclists - all those climbs in the Alpes Maritimes - and then came back in force at the national championships.
weekend. Is that the way the sport is developing? That you can put in focussed training and come back and be competitive in races?”
Frankie Hall
“I don’t know. I think maybe for someone like Van der Poel, who’s had such much race experience. For me, I don’t know. I still feel very new to it, mentally, so it was a big gamble.
been able to be in the bunch, and it’s been great.’ You get confidence, and it builds and builds.
“I didn’t have that. Usually, in June, I hammer all the Nat Bs and get some success. I come into form in June and July. I do well, and I get confidence from that.
bit more of a stimulus than Nat B, domestic racing in order to progress physically.
“I’ve got a bit of a mental block being where I am in the UK, at the moment. I’m absolutely petrified of riding on the roads here with the cars and the drivers. I’ve had a couple of issues with crashes and being hit, and you see a lot more of it every day at the moment, unfortunately.
“I’ve learned a lot more about myself, and I know where I need to put myself and where I need to not be in order to be in the best place. We just gambled, and so far... I’ve had two races days. The first race day, I got wiped out, so I’m kind of writing that off, and the second one went alright.”
Timothy John
“I was going to ask about that, Frankie. You crashed in the National Circuit Championships a couple of days before and fell on that right shoulder. What was going through your mind?”
Frankie Hall
“I won’t say the words that were going through my mind at the time!”
Timothy John
“It’s a family show!”
Frankie Hall
“[I thought]: "Not again.’ I just tried to put that out of my mind as quickly as I could. I knew I didn’t really hit my head. I feel quite strongly about concussion and riding on, but I knew I didn’t hit my head.
in and rolled round to the pits.
“In a race that short, the front group is coming round again. I had big goals for the race on Sunday, and for me it wasn’t worth ruining myself for a 20 minutes chasing for twentieth place. I’d rather get off, get iced, sort my body out, get on the rollers for half-an-hour, cool down, reset, refocus and go again.
“You can’t dwell on it. You sign up for crashes when you enter a race. It is what it is. It happens. It’s annoying, but you’ve just got to deal with it and focus on what’s next and prepare yourself as best as you can.
“I think the most frustrating thing is a) you spend money on racing and then don’t get to race it, and b) it takes a lot of your body when you crash, whether you break a bone or not. Your body is battered. The whiplash in your neck. You’re stiff. I didn’t sleep for the two nights between the crit and the road race, and it just uses a lot more energy.. You’re recovering a lot harder.
say anything else. You’ve got a DNF. That was at the back of my mind.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself to get a result. I knew I was capable of it. I put a lot of pressure on myself. I had a lot of self-doubt in my head: ‘Maybe, I’m not cut out to race a bike,’ but it seemed to come together on the day. It’s just one day, isn’t it? I’ve got a lot more races to work on.”
Timothy John
“Absolutely. And what a day. That decision to abandon the crit race to focus on the road race two days later, gives us a nice window to discuss the type of rider that Frankie Hall is, and, I have to admit, I’m as guilty as the next person in thinking you were a bit of a crit specialist.
“I remember tuning into the Tour Series and watching you off the front with Sammie Stewart in Guildford; sorry, Guildford. What am I talking about? Guisborough.
“And at last year’s [national circuit championships], you were on and off the front constantly, and coming back to your very honest characterisation of being a labrador or a spaniel or something like that, that was the archetypal performance, and yet, you are not a crit specialist. You proved that with some emphasis on Sunday.”
Frankie Hall
“Yeah. I think it’s just because that’s the most racing I’ve done. I think that is it. It was also the racing that, as an individual rider, you can still do ok. Last year, I was, essentially, racing as an individual at the front of these races against complete teams. In the road races, it was a difficult thing to do as an individual rider. You kind of get schooled out when It’s one versus six or seven riders. And they [crits] were hard and fast races. It was more attritional than tactical and technical at points. It was just the most [frequent] racing opportunity I had.
to.’What can I do to get a result for the team?’ being my first thought, or “How can I help x, y or z within the team to get a result?’
“The road is where I want to be. Maybe, I don’t know, in another world, if the finances of the team worked out, I’d love to go and hammer some of the American pro crits. I’d love to try them, race them, but, ultimately, you’re not going to get a WorldTour contract by racing a load of crits.”
Timothy John
“Very true! Another discipline in which you’ve been very successful is on the track. You took two medals, I think, at the recent at the British national championships, but where does that fit into the jigsaw of your rider type?”
Frankie Hall
“Again, I don’t know. I spend very little time on the track. I can’t afford to ride it. It’s stupidly expensive. I did two track sessions before the nationals.
and set up for the first time that Tuesday, and the second time in the race.
“My bunch position, I rode for the first time in the qualifiers, and then completely changed it: put on a new front end and a new set up for the final. Again, in that points race, I felt mega. I made a silly mistake halfway round and potentially cost myself a jersey. It’s just experience in making decisions at that point in the race. You do it once, you learn. You’re not going to do it again.
“But, yeah, I really enjoy track. If there was scope, if I had the opportunity, I’d ride it a lot more, but I just can’t afford it. It’s not an option that I can really pursue, but I can’t afford it.”
INTERLUDE
Timothy John
“Well, from somebody who can win a silver medal in the individual pursuit and a bronze in the points race at a national championship, that is sad to hear.
“More positively, you’re going great guns on the road. You won the Harrogate Nova race earlier in the year, you were top-10 at Lincoln, and now top-10 at the road nationals.
“What are your ambitions for the rest of the year, Frankie? We’re sort of at peak season now, aren’t we?”
Frankie Hall
“Yeah. I still feel like I’m literally at the start of my road season. For me, it does feel very much like the start of my main race block. Otley and Ilkley this week, I’m using as training to get through, and then Portugal is a big focus for me. It’s got some hillier stages, which is where my strengths lie. As a team, we’ve not done any hilly races, essentially. There have been punchy climbs. In the British races, the longest climb you’re going to get is four or five minutes.
“So, yeah, hopefully get an bit of an opportunity there [Portugal], and then we’ll see. The team has got so many strong riders. We don’t know our race calendar. I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s quite an anxiety-inducing experience. You can say, ‘I want to do this race,’ but, ultimately, they’re going to take the strongest team, and if you're not good enough, you’re not making it.
“So, yeah, Portugal will be my next focus, and then see how I go there and see what other races come up. Yeah.”
Timothy John
“Well, given everything that you’ve achieved this year, injury setbacks and coming back in fine style, who would bet against more impressive performances to come?
“Frankie, thank-you very much indeed for joining us today and very best of luck for the rest of the season.”
Frankie Hall
“Thank-you very much for having me.”
OUTRO
Phil Jones
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