Belgium Calling

It's been a long time since I last wrote, I have a few excuses though! There are barely four and a half weeks now until we set sail for the Continent, and life is really getting busy now getting everything in order. It's all going on, negotiations with sponsors, arranging cars, working and even some occasional training. Not to mention the first race of the year...

Last week, Josh, Jay and myself, along with the rest of the OneLife Development Squad made the trip up to sunny Hillingdon. It was not the most successful of days! The day started well enough, after a good warm up we were all set to mix up the race, then after barely 10 laps a crash brought down both Jay and Josh. I was all but on my own, with the rest of the Development Squad getting used to the pace, I was left to fly the Flanders flag solo. After an aggressive race it was all looking like a bunch sprint, with the Cycles Dauphin team controlling the bunch with 5 laps to go. But Phil Sykes of Sigma Sport had other ideas, with 3 to go he launched off the front dragging one other with him. With 2 to go I rode across, and on the bell lap we had a good gap and I was confident of bringing home the win. But then disaster struck, Sykes led into the final lap, and on a bend the other rider had a rear tyre blow out. His excellent handling meant he didn't go down, but it forced me to slam on the brakes and waste all my momentum. I then had a 400m chase into the head wind to get back to Skyes, as we hit the finish straight Toby Meadows, a fellow Belgian based rider, had got across and launched his sprint. As I went to react, the bunch sprint caught both of us and Brixton Cycle's Joe Skelton just snuck the win with an exceptionally fast finish. Were it not for the blow out, I'm confident I had it in the bag, alas it was not to be. The good thing was the legs are definitely coming, despite the weather continuing to hamper training. The days bad luck did not end there however, while we had a post race coffee, both Josh and Jay had their cars broken into. Luckily not much was taken, but the damage to each car was no doubt exceptionally costly.

In other news we have inked a deal with Torq Fitness to provide us with exceptionally good value products for the season, so watch out for our new Torq mitts, socks and bottles on show in the near future! Also, our frames are now in Belgium, along with the rest of our kit. So team manager Jim is off to collect them at the weekend, so I should hopefully be able to pick up my frame on Monday. Watch this space for pictures! In the mean time, I have been polishing up a groupset ready to bolt on and set up...

In the mean time training has been going ok, despite the weather. Below was the scene on Radnor Road out of Peaslake in Surrey recently. The picture doesn't do it justice, you could barely see 200m at times! Generally though its all good, despite being the worst winter I've trained through, in fact the worst winter I can remember, I'm doing ok.

A big reason I haven't written in so long is that I have been putting together a proper website, so that I can keep you all informed in a much better way. It will also help me to publicise my sponsors as well. It's still ''under development'', but it's coming along nicely so once I've got it all the way I want it, I shall let you know the address so you can take a look.

Like I mentioned earlier, cars have also been causing headaches of late. So I have taken the decision to invest in a more practical car for us to use in Belgium this season. It's not quite mine yet, but the big green Berlingo below will be shortly. It's absolutely huge! It will happily take everything we can dream of needing for races and be ideal while travelling to and from the Continent. Plus, it's a diesel, so way more frugal on the juice!

2010 is here!

Almost four weeks have passed since I last wrote, which leaves barely ten left before we move to Belgie...

First off though, merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all!

Last time I wrote the weather forecast wasn't looking too good, and for once, they seemed to get it right. I'm sure you've noticed the mercury hasn't crept much above zero since then, and the persistent cold has brought more snow than is humorous. That said, I have taken to mountain biking to beat the snow, and despite being absolute rubbish at it, I love it! It's certainly hard work, but good training for the bike handling and upper body. So while it's not ideal, I'm getting by.

The one warm day since last time happened to be Boxing Day, so having received special dispensation from my manager to race, off to Hillingdon I went. Which turned out to be handy since I was desperate to race, and our first official race was meant to be Saturday just gone. I'm sure you can guess, it was called off! So if not for Boxing Day I'd be waiting for the 7th Feb, by then I really would have been desperate. So my last ride in orange was fairly anonymous. Pinning a number on in the middle of winter to race against guys who are competing for a £600 series prize, was quite a shock to the system. Once the main protagonists had left the bunch, I settled into the race with the new found knowledge that not turning a pedal in anger in three months has sapped all but the last dregs of speed from my legs! But, with my parents out watching I felt compelled to at least make the effort in the final, so with a couple of laps to go I got across to the chase group and out sprinted all but one of them to take 8th, not bad, but not all that great either! C'est la vie, it was only ever to be a bit of fun, and I did enjoy the race at least. And burning 1,300 calories in 70mins on Boxing Day can't be a bad thing can it!

We now have a provisional race calendar in place, so I will post up some highlights soon. Of particular note, we have gained a place in the Rás Mumhan in Ireland at Easter. Having ridden this event last year, to go back with my own team will be awesome. It is certainly going to be my first major target of 2010...

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De Fotos

Ok, as promised coming up are a few snaps from the past weekend. But first, after winter started warm and wet, the cold has arrived... in a big way! Unfortunately all that blue is headed this way, well I say headed, its bloody cold already, and as of this afternoon there is already 2cm of snow outside my house. Apparently, theres more to come... oh good. Best find me a mountain bike!So as previously shown, a slightly better photo of our house, with Jay and I waiting to get riding!

Josh soon turned into Phil O'Connor and was snapping away happily, a typical Vlaamse lane here.

Just before the coffee was brewed at the Centrum de Ronde Van Vlaanderen in Oudenaarde there was just time for the obligatory posing by the old Molteni team car, mmm a brown 70's Volvo... nice!

Amazingly, the sun came out after that, but fortunately the standard grey Belgian sky remained for this one!

Waregem is apparently a big horse racing town, I guess demonstrated by the massive equine statue above... home from home then.

And finally, one of the crew with the big old church. Josh, Andy, Me and Jay. Andy looking resplendent in his bright green Capinordic kit from this past season (he was their soigneur this year). Believe it or not, we tried to smile, but it was just too cold! Thanks again to Andy, see you in March...

Belgie

A busy week last week with work, training and a wedding thrown in for good measure, culminated in a visit to Belgium. The purpose being to go and see our house for next year and to visit our landlord Andy Hillman. Andy is a pro Soigneur, having worked for the Unibet Team a couple of seasons ago, as well as several other teams on an adhoc basis. As such he is very well connected, and knows pretty much everyone there is to know. Which is rather handy, I'm sure you can appreciate!

So as I say, busy week. Basically my Aunt got married on the Friday, at a hotel in the New Forest, which meant driving back from there on the Saturday morning. Followed by a quick turn around before Josh and Jay picked me up and we sped to Dover just in time for the boat. After which we headed straight to Waregem and onto an 'Eat Feast' in aid of Jens Vandenbogaerde, with Andy. Jens is the Junior TT Champion of Belgium, and was also 2nd in the road race, and this season was his first year as a Junior! Next year and beyond I'm sure he'll become a much, much bigger name. His results this year earned him a place on the Avia Cycling Team, which is the QuickStep junior feeder team. For those of you who don't know, QuickStep is one of the biggest pro teams and certainly the biggest squad in Belgium. Watch this space... here is Jens winning earlier in the year...

After a good sleep we were off on a tour of the local lanes with Andy, where we were joined by a few of his mates. A bitterly cold morning, but none the less, a good ride. Novelty seems to have an amazing warming effect! We also had a coffee in the Centrum de Ronde Van Vlaanderen, which is the museum of the great race that is De Ronde. After which another hour or so of Vlaamse style zig-zagging lead us to the sprint for the Waregem sign. Now Andy was desperately trying to fool us all by misleading us as to whether or not there even was a sign, to disguise his well timed attack... but to no ends. Josh was straight on him, and launched his sprint. I thought that was it, but for pretty much the first time ever, I began to come back at him... and with about a meter to spare I nipped underneath his left arm and clinched what was, I think, my first sprint victory over the sprinter himself! Of course, I didn't gloat. No really!

Once back at Andy's we all lined up for a massage/shower/food before packing up for the journey back home. None of us wanted to go, we could have all happily stayed and finished off the winter there! I even felt a little bit Belgian sitting eating my pasta watching Niels Albert storm to victory in the cross. Roll on March...

There were many pictures taken of the weekend, though all on Josh's camera. I will in due course get some posted up here. Ciao for now!

Four Hours in the Rain

Nothing as exciting as last week to tell you this week I'm affraid. Good news though, my cold from last week didn't hang about long and I'm right back into my second block of training now. Wasn't it beautiful out there today, four hours in the rain is not fun. Well it's ok if somehow you can keep your body temperature up, this is something I'm going to have to work on I think! I was really warm for the first part of the ride, before it really started raining, but after about 90mins of rain my upper half of clothing had become too damp to really keep me warm. So it came down to a bit of a survival mission to get home without getting too cold!

Still, I suppose it is December now so what can I expect. It was certainly pretty chilly yesterday morning, there were still puddles frozen in Richmond park at gone 11am! There was a bright blue sky to behold though, it's not all bad...

This was White Lodge in the heart of the park yesterday morning, not bad for the back of the house is it!

I came across this little gem the other day, just by clicking the next tab at the top of the page, which directs you to another random blog. I assume by Talent, the author means ''form'', either way I thought its pretty clever...

"Talent must be a fanatical mistress. She's beautiful; when you're with her, people watch you, they notice. But she bangs on you door at odd hours, and she disappears for long stretches, and she has no patience for the rest of your existence: your wife, your children, your friends. She is the most thrilling evening of your week, but some day she will leave you for good. One night after she's gone for years, you will see her on the arm of a younger man, and she will pretend not to recognize you." From the book CITY OF THIEVES by David Benioff

Ok, so last time in my recapping of 2009, I just finished the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan, a couple of weeks later was a local favourite: The Les Ingman Memorial on the super tough Bletchingly circuit. This race has been won by the likes of Cervelo pro Dan Lloyd before, so has a reasonable amount of prestige attached. I was looking for a top ride, as the form was good, and the race is also organised by a local club, Norwood Paragon, with which I have a few connections.

Eventually I made the winning break along with a few London Dynamo's and Steve Calland, and later Alex Higham and Dan Felstead. The race was over 130km long, and I spent 80 of those in a break off the front, it was a tough day! It was also pretty warm for April, my face was covered in salt by the finish, mmm. So eventually, the break having nearly been caught on the penultimate lap, came to the last few miles as a group of 7. I knew I had worked hard in this race, but I was fairly confident I had a shot at the win.

Tom Hemmant from Dynamo attacked solo with about 2 miles to go, he had to, Dynamo had 3 riders in a break of 7. Unfortunately for me I was at the front at this point, me swinging off was no use, there was an obvious reluctance by the non-Dynamo riders to take it up. Tom was not getting away though, and eventually with less than a mile to go, Steve Calland made his move on the final drag before the finish. I was perfectly placed to react and go with him, and the bridge said go, however the engine room would not respond. I was in pure pain until I crossed the line in the second half of the group to claim 5th. I was pretty pleased to do well, but I felt maybe I could have won the race in different circumstances. But if's and but's are of course no use to anyone. It would not be the last time Steve Calland showed his class either. Next time, my Premier Calendar debut... haha!

Nobody Said It Was Easy

Almost at the close of my first 4-week block of training, and it's hardly been all plain sailing. There was of course the knee troubles in the early part, and now since last Sunday, my first cold of the 09/10 winter. I'm hoping it'll be the last too. Sunday's squad ride was never going to be all that enjoyable, after my work at the Chalk Lane Hotel dragged on until the small hours. Not much more that 4 hours is far from ideal when you have a 4 hour ride on the cards. Added to this, as the ride got into it's third hour the weather closed in. Squally (!) showers accompanied by strong winds and a falling temperature left me in a state of mild hypothermia! I was not in a good place. After showering we had our usual post ride workshop on goal setting, I'd warmed up a little, but was far from ok as it later transpired. A rough nights sleep left me feeling really groggy come Monday, which developed into a cold by Tuesday, and it's still hampering me now. Still, who said this life is easy?

More encouragingly, we did meet our new sponsor this last Sunday. Jim Chisman, importer of Flanders Frames from Belgium. Jim has very kindly offered to provide us with frames and clothing for the coming season, for which we are of course, extremely grateful. So the plan is for the three of us moving to Belgium, i.e Josh Cunningham, James Bowtell and myself are to ride for a newly formed team, called Flanders Racing. Our new jerseys should look pretty similar to the picture above, but as soon as I receive it I'll post up some proper pictures that aren't lifted from the Flanders Fietsen website! Essentially for us there is little change, our calendar will be largely unaffected by the change in jersey, and we will be continuing to train with the OneLife Development Squad as usual. Jim is also pledging support to them also, so you will see the Flanders logo on their kit too. Some of you will have known the Pacific Flanders RT of a few seasons past, we are effectively picking up where they left off. So the old website at http://www.pacificracing.co.uk/ will in time be renamed and become our own new website.

So now I have the nice problem of which frame size to choose! As I mentioned before I am somewhat obsessive when it comes to position, so I want to be absolutely sure of the right size! To this end I am currently drawing up each relevant frame size in order to ascertain which size is best for me, geeky, I know! The 'Pro Team', as shown above and what we are hoping to receive has relatively straightforward geometry, the other options though are a little more tricky, if like me you are a freak! By this I mean of course that your body is not exactly proportioned of course! My trouble being I have long legs, but a short body and arms... Anyhow, I'm told the frames are of excellent quality, and I certainly can't wait to get to find out for myself. They are race proven over the years by a string of professional and amateur teams in Belgium. Jim hopes to have the frames to us by the exiting side of Christmas, so fingers crossed you'll see me out on my Flanders frame very soon. As I posted before, check out http://www.flandersfietsen.be/ for more information on the bikes and the shop.

The best part about this latest development is that it gives us another contact to call upon in Belgium. I don't think the enormity of moving to a foreign country has escaped any of us, so to have friendly bike shop with easy reach will be of enormous benefit to us. Flanders Fietsen is the shop that the frames come from, and is situated less than 40km away from our house (pictured above). Jim assures us that they will be able to help us out with any problems with our bikes should there be any, but more likely just give us a hand with some of the mechanical things that often go wrong. Now I'm an ok mechanic, but I cant fix a snapped mech hanger! So things like that will be no problem with this back-up. In addition to this, and most importantly of all. The shop is a key supporter to a top amateur team based in Oudenaarde, just 10km from us, called Asfra RT. So there may be opportunities to ride for them if we progress in the correct manner, which will be an excellent stepping stone in our development. Just being associated with them through the shop may be a benefit in itself. 2010 really is looking full of promise just now. Finally, the three amigo's have finally set a date to go and visit our new landlord and see our house in Belgium, the 12th & 13th of December. So watch this space for further details of the house, and a better picture than the dodgy camera phone variety above!

A New Sponsor?

A week on from my knee falling off, and so far, it seems like its ok. This week I have been able to train as normal, albeit I have been incredibly conscious of my knee. Only just now I ran up the stairs, and at the top, my knee felt like it clicked. So again I'm really paranoid about it! It's probably nothing, and for 3.5 hours in yesterdays gales, it was fine. So hopefully it was just a blip down to a school boy error in positioning!

Anyhow, in more exciting news there are plans afoot for a new sponsor for the team. I probably shouldn't go into too much detail, as to be honest, I don't have many details to tell! The plan is for the new sponsor to meet us after our next team ride this Sunday, so hopefully after that I'll be able to fill you in with the real news... In the meantime, have a look here:

http://www.flandersfietsen.be/

Back on the road this week I discovered another excellent little farm track nearby to keep me entertained this winter, it literally goes on for ages! I am really just a kid sometimes, and there is something quite comical about riding a bike designed to speed along pristine tarmac along gravelly, muddy and potholed lanes that are less than 3 meters wide! For one, there are no cars about. Even better, you traverse across fields and the like without any recognisable feature in sight most of the time, they are in many ways just like being in Belgium. Which is a thought that is never far from my mind. I have been trying to get my two idiosyncratic team mates organised for a trip to our house next year, just for a little recce. That said, getting these two to say yes to being in the same place at the same time is quite a challenge. I'm beginning to think they might not like each other! Of course I jest, though at this rate the first we see of the house will be the day we move in properly!!

In other disappointing news, I found out the address for the house this week, 18 Churchilllaan, Waregem. So I'm going to live in the heartland of cycling, and in effect I'm living on Winston's own lane! An example of what I was hoping for perhaps can be found just at the end of the road, Jan Bouckaertstraat, now that's much more like it! Still, if you have a look, Waregem seems to be a really cool place, I cannot wait to see it for myself.

Last time in my recapping of 2009, I ended on the eve of my trip to Ireland. I could write for hours about this experience, of course no one would actually read it though! So I set of with my 5 companions, Simon McNamara, Steve Saunders, Roger Smith, John Heaton-Armstrong and our team leader the evergreen Gary Dodd. After one of the roughest ferry crossings I hope ever to have to endure, and countless hours in the car, we arrived at our accommodation. A beautiful farmhouse just outside the race town of Killorglin, Kerry. Our generous host, John Magner, a former rider himself with an impressive collection of trophies as well as an incredibly strong accent! This was a Surrey Cycle Racing League composite team, as such we were in the white and grey jerseys as you see above.

There were 4 stages, over 4 days. The first afternoons racing saw my lack of experience at this level cost me over a minute. Coming to the final climb I was too far back, as a result missed the split which both Gary and Steve made, and arrived at the finish 15th of 17 U23 riders. I'd had the idea of being in contention for this classement... haha! The next day saw us cross the epic Connor Pass around halfway through the stage. The whole peloton was nervous, you could sense it, as it was a large group came to the final 20km chasing a rapidly disintegrating break away. Eventually we came to the line to sprint for around 8/9th. The run in was fast, with just one tight right hander, I was positioned well and lined up to seriously contest for a top 1o. Until that is, one of the Irish academy lads decided to cut me up through the corner. I had 3 options, hop a kerb at 55km/h, ride into him and likely bring most of the bunch down, or brake. I chose the later since my bunny hoping just ain't that great! As a result I placed 25th, I was fuming.

The next day was a slightly shorter stage, but the wind was up, big time. This was only really the second time I have been put in the position of having to ride echelons in a race. I learnt the hard way. Essentially, I just about survived the crosswinds, but the damage was done and I ended up getting dropped on the penultimate climb, with about 35km to go. Watching the convoy just slip out of my grasp was one of the more hard hitting learning curves of this year. I eventually made the finish just over 12 minutes down on the winner, and over 10 minutes down on the others. I felt humiliated. From then on, learning how to ride the cross winds became a major part of my development. Later on in the year, in Belgium, I had just about worked it out. The final stage saw any thoughts I had of doing anything special were ruled out by my not being party to the deal that was done that saw a break go that was of no danger to the GC men. I made the finish circuits ideally placed, 6th wheel, just behind the yellow jersey and his team. Ultimately though, I knew there wasn't a great deal of point in working so hard to stay up front and go for 15th place. My legs were already on the way home. I drifted back, got held up briefly by a crash on the last lap, but it mattered little. I remained 54th on GC, moving to 17'59 from the winner, a number not without significance... it was the year Arthur Guinness signed the lease to St. James Gate.

Only now can I begin to appreciate the things I learnt that weekend, and for the experience I must express my gratitude to the Surrey League, in particular Keith Butler for giving me the opportunity. The form this race provided me with did not go unused, the season was about to pick up...