I spent most of my childhood years in West London. In my teens, I’d watch my twin brother Luke Ray setting out from the family home for ridiculously long training rides on his bike. We were about 16 at the time and I remember thinking ‘what on earth is he doing that for, he must be mad’. Well, it must be in our genes as I caught the cycling bug at around 21 when I bought my first mountain bike. At first it was merely a tool for commuting but soon grew into a whole new challenge.   I started taking note of my journey times and trying to better them on each ride to and from my job as a Person Trainer/Sports Therapist in Putney which was a good 18 miles or so from home . I found myself hooked on this two wheeled machine and that was the start of my obsession, passion and a whole new way of life!

Christmas 1999 My mum bought me a Giant sports bike, I was so excited to get out on a lighter bike and ride this fast looking machine!  I did my first ever race on it at Hillingdon cycle circuit - it was my pride and joy! I was promoted the next year onto a Bianchi bike when I was asked to race for Gore Bike Wear team.  This was my first proper team and I instantly felt the benefits of a lighter, more responsive bike.

Since then, I’ve been competing nationally and internationally and it has been the best years of my life both mentally and physically. I have learnt so much from the challenges cycling has presented during my development into an Professional rider.   I was asked to do some races with team GB in 2003 which looking back I found a little overwhelming at the time but  I loved every minute of it, especially rubbing shoulders with the best female riders around and being pushed to another level. It made me determined to take my cycling to the highest levels, which meant an even greater commitment so  I decided to go full time into cycling.

So that’s where I am now, I’ve been a Professional cycling for 4 years and this will be my 5th season.   It’s been an incredible journey, especially my time competing in Holland and Italy, competing in some of the toughest races in the women's UCI calendar with my teams.   One of my racing highs has to be racing in the women’s Giro D’Italia  . The first time I raced it I  had crashed badly in the prologue (it was a slippery bend!) and fractured a rib but continued until the penultimate stage when the pain got too bad but I remember how hard the stages were and thinking I want to ride this race again but not with a fractured rib ! Luckily the next time I rode it  in 2007 the Giro did not feel as hard on my body which was a good sign but my job was harder in that we had a serious GC contender to look after during the 8 days of racing.

In 2007 I was racing for  team Saccarelli EMU.  I was  based in Marsciano - Italy.   We raced the Italian race calendar and also the European World Cup races.   We had a successful year with many top 10's and a Win.  They race hard and train hard in Italian team's so I hope to see the benefits of all my hard works in 2008!   Team Saccarelli have decided not to continue running as  race team for 2008 due to financial problems unfortunately.   It was late in the year to find out (October!) as most teams have been sorted already! 

After much stress with trying to sort teams out for this year (2008) I am heading to Boulder in Colorado to join team "America's Dairyland" for the season.   I am really excited about the move and racing a different race calendar.  I really wanted to be part of a solid team this year with some "happy" riders which makes for a successful team!  Thankfully my prayers have been answered as the girls are great and want to ride as a team to get results which is what it's about but thankfully we can have lots of fun achieving it!   We will be racing across America in some NRC races and UCI races like Mt.Hood.   This will be a great  year for the team as we have already had 3 win's and a Yellow Jersey! It can only get better :)  Here's to 2008!