Ahead of the women’s time trial at the British road championships, much of the expectation centred on the likes of Katie Archibald and Sarah Storey but Hayley Simmonds, by her own admission, flew under the radar to clinch the title by over a minute.
The 27-year-old, riding for Velosport, is currently balancing life on two wheels with life in the lab as she’s working towards a doctorate in organic chemistry at Cambridge University. It was at Cambridge as an undergraduate where Simmonds first took up cycling, just six years ago, having switched from rowing, which had become too time-consuming.
Despite the academic pedigree, her ambition is to make a living as a full-time cyclist and she hopes this title will be a career-making achievement.
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“The latest submission date for my PhD is next March but I could submit before then. I’d love to go full-time in cycling after that,” Simmonds told Cyclingnews while sporting her newly acquired national champion’s jersey.
“I think there are more opportunities now. The women’s side of the sport is growing massively so I think I’ve come into it at a really good time and hopefully I’ve got a big result at an optimal time. So I’m hoping today’s result will help me with the ambition of going full-time.”
Simmonds claims she slipped under the radar to some extent, but quite how much that can be true of someone who won both the CTT national 50 and 10-mile titles last year is up for debate.
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