Tamina Oliver

Tamina Oliver

Full Name: Tamina Kate Oliver
Nationality: British
Rider Category: 1st
Disciplines: Cyclo-cross and road racing.
Career highlights:

• Winning the South of England Cyclo-cross Championships in both 2011/2012 and 2012/2013.
• Placing 3rd in National Individual Women’s Road Racing series in 2012, despite only competing in 3 of 6 counting events.
• Winning the Wessex Cyclo-Cross League in 2012/2013.
• Completing my first two major UCI tours – Lotto Decca Tour (Belgium) and Tour de l’Ardeche (France) – and gaining respectable general classifications within them.

Rider strengths: Climbing; endurance; tenacity; commitment to a plan; thoughtfulness and attentiveness; determination; focus; communication with team members; openness to constructive criticism and readiness to try new things.

Areas to improve: Sprinting; attacking without towing others; confidence to ‘ride my own race; positioning in bunch sprints.

Ambitions for 2013:
Improve and learn as much as I possibly can, and contribute to some excellent team results.
Participate in as many UCI races as I can, to push myself in the highest standard of racing.

Greatest cycling achievement: Beating my best friend to the top of the Col de Marie-Blanc riding a shopper with dodgy gears!

Favourite race and why: One of this season’s Wessex Cyclo-Cross League races, when everything just seemed to click into place technically.

First bike:  A little purple brute of a bike salvaged by my dad from Lifford Lane rubbish tip in Birmingham when I was about 3 or 4 years old.

How did you get into cycling? I was brought up on the back of my mum’s bike – we didn’t own a car. Racing came after being encouraged by my partner, who strategically gave me a book by Nicole Cook and a turbo trainer for Christmas 3 years back. 

What’s your daily commute like? Easy-peasy! I work just a couple of miles away from where I live!

Favourite cycling memory? Too many to choose from! One amongst them would be of pothole dodging through streets of Havana (Cuba) on a traditional Chinese-imported, single speed sit-up-and-beg hefty beast of a bike, under a torrential downpour of WARM rain, with sounds of a salsa band clipping out their beat drifting across the air, competing with the din of the storm...

Touring tales: As a child my mum and I toured around Northern France by bike. I’ve also followed several Sustrans routes, and ridden a coast to coast route and parts of LEJOG. My dream is to cycle from the north of California to the southern-most tip of South America.

Tips to women thinking about giving cycling a go or getting back on a bike:
Get in touch with Team CTC! Take it step-by-step and go on social rides – it can be an exciting journey to do with others. If racing is an aim, get a turbo trainer and make sure you ride in a bunch a few times before your first race. Ask others about the etiquette of bunch riding.