NIKKI Metcalfe will be co-manager and rider for Team Boompods Elite Women’s Cycling Team in 2019. She talked to me about how this came about and her hopes for the season ahead.

How has the 2018 season gone for you and what were the highlights?

The plan for the 2018 season was to compete in more road races and less criteriums. It began with the Gifford Road Race in Scotland where the weather was extremely cold and wet and along with two other riders I was dropped during the neutralisation. This race, unfortunately, seemed to set a precedent for the rest of the season and I was dropped in most races as new riders joined the scene, the ladies' races appearing to all of a sudden jump up in pace and speed leaving me in their wake.

Next year you will join the Boompods team as ride and joint team manager. How did that come about?

I have known the previous team manager Tony Mcdonagh, of Manilla PR, since 2015 when I raced for his team Wattcycle and then Manilla in 2016. He approached me to help out with managing the team, which was formerly known as EDCO in 2016 and Boompods EDCO in 2017. I wasn’t ready to take a step back from riding at the time. However, with the 2018 season not quite going to plan and with me getting older and the girls coming into the sport younger and faster, I was losing motivation fast. When Tony approached me about co-managing the team alongside Hannah Farran I knew it was a natural progression. Tony had done a superb job over the last two seasons.

What was it that attracted you to the idea?

I knew moving into managing a team was what I intended on doing in the long term, but losing motivation during the last season meant it seemed like this was the right time for me to make the move. It was a natural progression to motivate and help support the younger generation to fulfil their goals.

How will you divide your time between riding and managing?

Dividing my time between riding and managing will be simple. When the girls require support at the big races like the Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour Series, if hopefully we are invited back for the 2019 season, I will be there looking after them, at their beck and call. When they are racing the local and regional races, I should be able to race alongside my team-mates. There will be some challenges ahead, such as trying to gain sponsorship to keep the team going forward in the right direction and trying to work our way around the British Cycling website.

What will the aim be for you, personally, as a team member and secondly for the team speaking as joint manager?

My personal aim will be to support my fellow team-mates in whichever way they may need it. Hopefully, I will be able to find a healthy balance of racing to keep me motivated. I feel that being surrounded by this great bunch of girls my motivation will be there in abundance.

As a team we would love to race the Tour de Yorkshire, The Tour of Scotland and the Tour Series. We would also like to see the team have a strong presence at the women's national road series and team series. We want to showcase the team as being unique in the way we conduct ourselves and race – always with a smile on our faces and with a positive attitude - a women's race team run and managed by women. We feel the team are a great mix of youth and experience over various disciplines, concentrating on road. We have 13 riders for next season. The team are predominantly based in the North-East but we have riders as far south as Brighton.

What do you think of the health of women’s cycling at the moment and what do you think yourself and Boompods can do to further progress it?

Women's cycling is currently up and down – it’s so hard for cycling in general at the moment. With the amount of men’s teams disbanding this year we are lucky to have so many ladies teams coming onto the scene in 2019. Providing guidance and support to the younger generation can only help the future for women’s road and circuit races.

I have recently completed a Circuit Commissaire course as there is also a need for more commissaires across all disciplines, especially the female variety. On the sponsorship front, Hannah and I have already found how hard it is to gain funds for a female cycling team, however we have been extremely lucky with the current sponsors who are moving forward into 2019 with us.

As it’s nearly Christmas, and I am notoriously hard to buy for, tell me one thing someone could buy me that would improve my cycling experience in 2019?

Our main sponsor Boompods have some absolutely awesome products from bluetooth speakers to bluetooth earphones. Their Boombuds are true Wireless Earphones, five-hour play time on one charge and up to 15 hours with charging case are great for turbo sessions. Out on the road you can use the Aquapod speaker which is compact, tough and waterproof. You can mount one on your bike, hang off your bag, or even use one in the shower! Get yourself over to https://www.boompods.com/