A season summary

Without wanting to come across as a headstrong goon, this year has felt like a coming of age for me. Since hooking up with JB at TrainSharp for my coaching, (cycling and life!) everything I’ve done has felt more cohesive and more like a process. It’s become an exercise in following ‘the path’ of cycling – training right, racing right, eating right – the list is long and exhaustive, but it works. Jon has had belief in me from the start and has vocally said so which, for a sport so reliant on mental strength and confidence, is an incredible thing to do for me. I’ll try not to make this bit too boring, but I want to thank some of the people that have helped me this year, it’s only fair. 

High5 nutritional have been behind me for a couple of years now which is priceless as diet is so important for me. Between you and I, even if they didn’t sponsor me I’d buy their chocolate recovery drink because that stuff tastes divine!

The guys at the Dave Rayner Fund have been pretty pivotal in getting me where I am now too. Whatever I write here won’t really do them justice, but in summary they’ve backed me and a heck of a lot of other riders both financially and (maybe this is just me) emotionally. When you’re hacking away in a foreign country, feeling like you’re just treading water, it means a lot when someone sends a short email saying: ‘You’re doing good, stick at it’.

Some good memories.

This year when I first came out to France I had nowhere to stay, no team bike, minimal kit, but what I did have was The Mills Family. These guys are the nicest family I’ve ever met. Tony (Senior), Babs, Tony (Junior), Nick, Tim, Caroline, Seb, Amelie and Ellie are all legends! I’ve had so much help from them in different ways - Tony Senior’s pro experience, Tim’s motivational chats - I could go on.

And so to next year, when I’ll be riding for… Union Cycliste Nantes Atlantique! They are a Division 1, generally pretty bad-ass, French outfit. I am psyched!! Some positives include: No more pink kit (blue with a bit of yellow), team bike, somewhere to live, an awesome calendar, pre-race team tactics, living in a city, a training camp, wheel sponsor, team gloves and socks…….

Thanks to everyone who's followed me this year and sent nice messages of support. I'm going to let my hair down for a bit now, so you might not hear from me for a while, but I'll be back! Ciaociao.

Tour des Deux Sevres

Wow! What a busy couple of weeks. I returned to France last Monday night and being a man, I began packing on Monday afternoon, one hour and seventeen minutes before I had to leave for the ferry. Amazingly I didn't forget anything too major. Just passport, helmet, shoes, bike... Jokes! The night ferry was as fantastic a life experience as ever and I disembarked on Tuesday morning having racked up a solid zero minutes of sleep. Still, France was sunny and fresh and all new to me again.

Ferries: don't forget your pillow!

Onwards to Wednesday and I was on the road again, returning for a second year to the Tour des Deux Sevres. Last year I was 3rd overall so I was looking forward to it, although having been 'en vacance' in England for a while it was going to be a bit of a form tester as my first race back.

After the team presentation on Wednesday night, where you basically get kitted up and get on stage in front of some wrinkleys for five minutes, the race proper kicked off on Thursday lunchtime with a solid 165km. It was hot and little did I know it was going to get hotter! After a pretty mental four hours it all but came down to a gallop. Two blokes escaped just off the front by six and three seconds respectively. I did a fair bit of suffering to hang in the front quarter for the whole day; energy wasted unfortunately.

The time trial was the next morning and I was hoping the legs would return as the tour went on. As it was, they were coming back but I wasn't exactly comfortable in the TT and after nearly stacking it on the final corner I came in 3rd, eight seconds back. I was disappointed but kept reminding myself that I had been off the bike with illness not long ago. Anyway, the afternoon stage was only 88km and so sure to be fast and furious, you would have thought. Well it wasn't at the start! We pootled around with various nutters trying to clip off unsuccessfully early doors and in the end it came down to the inevitable bunch sprint, despite my best attempts at slithering off in the final few kilometres. The circuit had several technical bits but also some nice smooth, wide roads perfect for a big ol' gallop. Naturally the finish line was 50 metres after the most dangerous set of corners. I kept the bike rubber-down and myself out of the ambulance so... Successful day!

Best 2nd category rider = podium time.

Day three and 110km in I thought I'd try and win the cycling race. At this point I was 3rd on GC, a mere eight seconds back. I countered an attack over a climb, Sam was with me and we forged a group of 15 or so guys. We got 40 seconds and I was yellow jersey on the road but we got shut down by Nantes Atlantique, the strongest team in the race. We tried. Hard. When we got to the finishing circuits, having been away for about 15km going full whack I wasn't feeling so splendid any more. A small group ground off the front nearing the final and I couldn't make my legs work to get me there. I lost nine places on general classification very quickly, down to 12th overall. Gutttttttteddd.

Worse smile everrrrr as I slip down the GC.

Nothing to lose in the final stage then. I was only 29 seconds down, but with riders from two strong teams ahead of me it wasn't going to be a doddle. My plan was to sit tight all day, clip off at the end and use others to win the stage and maybe move up on general too. Easy peasy. The problem is: cycling is never easy. If it's easy, you're not doing it right! There was a humoungous crosswind section after about 5km and, obviously, we didn't get told about this. Cue: massive shredding of the peloton. I was in the second group and thinking that was race over I broke my own personal racing mantra of 'Never Panic'. I panicked. I tried to ride across a 30 second gap, to a group of 35, with one other guy. Cyclists will understand what this situation means well. It means you've lost your mind! To any normal people imagine the pain of shutting your finger in a door. Then imagine doing this to the beat of a song, or the beat of your pounding heart, repeatedly squashing those digits. Left crack, right crack, left crack.... Foolish! We didn't make it and then, and THEN, it came back together later anyway. Oh man, I was happy about that. I toasted my legs and then we all got toasted later by mother nature. It was 37 degrees and there was a hot wind; people were bombing out left and right. Again a small group escaped annoyingly late in the stage, about 4km from the finish but I couldn't get there. 

I suppose cycling has a few perks.

I finished the tour 10th overall, which isn't bad and I got plenty of podium time for being first 2nd category rider which is all good fun. My tan is looking sick and the form is returning, which makes me happy.

The final podium.

South Downs Bikes time trial

First race done, and hopefully the first win of many! Here I am warming up in the car park before the start. It took me about 15 minutes to actually get any feeling in my legs as there was a pretty cold wind. (I'm afraid that same wind forced me to race in leg warmers so negative man points to me!)

I felt a little bit awkward on the bike, as apart from the spin I went for the day before it was the first time I’d ridden a time trial machine in four months. Coupled with the fact that the legs are always a bit iffy in the first few races of the season I was a little nervous about how I’d get on. I really felt like I was crawling up the hills on the course but I guess I must have been going better than I thought!

Thanks to Clive Jarman (@CliveJarman) for this picture

I shaved 47seconds off the old course record in the process of winning the event and it definitely made it worth dragging my girlfriend Emily out of bed at 7:30 on a Sunday morning (at least I think so)! Thanks to the guys at South Down Bikes for a great event and a great prize fund! I will be back next year.

Check out these links yo!
www.velouk.net
http://blog.sportsmassagebournemouth.co.uk/2013/02/larry-hickmott-held-this-morning-on.html?m=1

A pre-season update

I know I have been rubbish recently with posting anything; I’m sorry! My excuses are that I’ve been training pretty hard, playing in the snow and getting distracted by this little chap (Alfie).

Yeah that's right, snow dog!

Snow dog with a tasty head (Alf is a cannibal apparently).

The good news is that I’ve finally finished Sheddy! I put the final few slats on the other day so other than paint, of which she definitely needs a lick, she’s good to go. She’s already functioning pretty well as a turbo training dungeon (and has been for a while now!) as well as a tool and bike store. I’m a seriously proud Daddy, so below are some snaps of her growing up (so fast, sob).

The path is the next job on the list, as a muddy track isn't a garden design choice! The snow did get in the way a bit though...

In other news, I went down to see the big boss man JB at TrainSharp for a catch up, to set season targets and to discuss some ideas. It was a good day out with Paul and Sean there too. I got out on the bike for a little ride to do a hill test for Sean and he seemed pretty pleased with how it went. Nothing like having Sean Yates following in a team car to make you go deep in a max test!

Once the torture was over we headed back and checked over my TT position, before my first test on Sunday in the Southdowns 34k TT. We discussed what we did right last year, what we can learn and what my goals are for this year. It was a very busy and constructive day all round. Now I can't wait to get stuck into my targets!

I've booked my Ferry to St Malo for Monday the 11th so that's when I'm off to race again: very exciting times! I will definitely do another post before I leave to share a few of my targets for the year and what I'm really looking forward to. 

Until then...

Note to self: What I would tell the me of Yesteryear

On a long ride the other day I was thinking about what I learnt last season. It's always important to try and progress from past experiences and mistakes so here's my attempt. Hopefully I can take my own advice this season and be the better for it.

1) Don't roll up your shorts another inch, they're pretty high as it is and that extra inch is just too far!

2) Plan a mid season break now. You're going to crack mid season; you know you are because you always do, so make sure you've got something good to look forward to.

3) Don't bother taking a training bike, loads of clothes and other junk with you.You'll immediately break the bike and never bother to fix it and when not in lycra you'll resort to wearing awful holey undervests and boxers anyway!

4) Before every race be prepared to hit the deck, get ready for it. There's no point in being scared of it because it's going to happen, may as well be blasé!

5) Sleep more. Eat more. Stretch more.

6) Take lots of books to read and try and get some time to yourself as this might slow the rate of mental decline.

7) If in doubt take a pack lunch; motorway services are rubbish!

8) You're racing in Belgium. BELGIUM. You will need to buy a rain cape. (This will still apply this year because I'm certain Bretagne is just as wet as Belgium!)

9) Facebook is not a hobby so stop scrolling down endlessly and do something useful you bum.