First one of these so bear with me!
It’s been pretty horrible this January; the wind has been constantly high for ages now and there have been very few days when it hasn’t rained (although on writing this there is blue sky outside the window!)
This hasn’t hampered training though as I have continued training hard throughout. It has been better this month as my training now has some intensity and is not just literally 4-5-6 hrs of riding long miles!
The first weekend in Jan a group of us from In Gear Development squad went up to Hillingdon to test out legs on one of the Saturday crits. The weather was cold but dry which was fine. I unfortunately didn’t have a race bike yet and had to ride my steel/aluminium winter “hack” bike which was definitely an experience. After launching an early attack to test the legs, I got across to a break of 2 with another guy and we stayed away all race, nearly lapping the field by the end.
I messed up my sprint, which I kind of expected because of the bike, and came 3rd, not bad seeing as the race was thrown in at the end of a hard 18hr week! From Hillingdon I raced up to Nottingham to collect our National Time Trial team medals at champion’s night.
I am still working about 20-30hrs a week at a local hotel as a waiter + decorator; anything to earn for my bike!
I had a first experience this month also - I was involved in a car accident!
Well, I guess it was my fault mainly as when pulling out from a junction I hit another car, which just came flying around the corner. It was dark and I still don’t think she had her lights on. I had family in the car and they agree. Oh well, everybody was ok which is the main thing at the end of the day, apart from the cars unfortunately!
The rest of the month has just been more of a count down than anything else, just waiting, excited about getting out to France!
I got my new bike this last week as well. It’s a Cervelo R3 in Black/Red CSC colours with full dura ace and my god is it sweeeeeeet! I have never ridden a bike like it, it’s just so smooth and it seems very stiff.
Now I have no excuse for underperforming at the Perfs on Feb 10th ; I have done the training, I’m psyched and I’ve got the bike for it! Bring it on!!
O and I also catch the ferry over the same day so things might be a bit tight! I’ll have to cut my winning speech down to a minimum….. watch this space!
Keep pedalling.
