Right the title... 2014 has started very different for me as opposed to previous seasons. Firstly Ive not headed off for a season of racing in France or Belgium like previous seasons, I've had a 2 week mallorca training camp and I've been dry this winter..... oh no thats not right, I've been soaked since November.
So to kick of this blog I'll begin from January, Team wise I had multiple chats with several teams over winter but nothing came of any of them and I was set to start 2014 as a man in black, "unattached". However as the first races became ever closer the Green Jersey Bike Shop in Clitheroe told me I could ride for them, they've helped me a lot this winter with one thing or another and I was more than happy to represent them in their jersey, "its not green". Unfortunately for my first races in the UK there was no kit and I was back in Black, theres a song in see......
I had some cracking training this winter, coming into training fitter than ever carrying through from last year, spending most of it with the usual crowd, Superman Wilks, Old Hopkin AKA Big JON, Robbie P and Big Sambo. November/ Decemeber were pretty soggy, reckon I had about 3 rides with dry feet, so when my bank account told me I could go to Mallorca for 2 WHOLE weeks I was more than over the moon. I went out there on the 31st of Jan and got 2 really good weeks in, doing the majority on my own and a few days hooking up with random dudes on the sea front, sounds suspect eyyy......
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| Fair to say I didn't need overshoes on here. |
So 2 weeks in Mallorca gave me some nice dry miles and a load of climbing which was perfect and fair to say tired me out for a good week. Now unfortunately 1st race of the season was with in a week of getting home and I wasn't going too well, some illness picked up on the journey home knocked me back abit and made sure all I was doing that day was "getting" round. But I knew what it was and know it wasn't condition. 1 week later was a double weekend, Eddie Soens on the Saturday and Ronde Van Pimbo Sunday.
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| Something about Hennebont...... Misty the cat maybe |
Soens always attracts some good names and a result here was a big aim for me, get up there someones going to take notice. Cut a long story short, well 30 laps..... in the last lap around 500 meters to go, going for 4th best a top 10 definite, I was took out and straight into a horse racing fence, yes pretty painful at 50 kph+ but more painful for the bike which had been finished been built up 9:30 the previous evening. The forks were smashed but everything else was ok and a spare pair of forks slotted in "again The Green Jersey came to my rescue" and so Ronde van Pimbo was a go go.
I started the race a little nervous in the bunch but soon got back in the groove and was well away. I had good legs but not good enough, unfortunately at a crucial part, I jumped away to get to the break, 2 Rapha boys came up to me and fair play to them I just couldn't get on the wheels to bridge and that was the day done, but it's early days and they've had 2 months racing so you got take that I suppose. Managed to get away again near the end in a group and rolled 19th so from 80 I guess it wasn't too bad, but lets face it not good.
And so to my biggest adventure on a bike yet, yes I've gone to Belgium and France, but you kinda know what to expect... but my season has been properly kicked off with 3 weeks of UCI races in Algeria, YES AFRICA !!!! Lets just say it very very different to anything I have ever done or for that matter seen in my life. I've been here 10 days now and raced 7 of them.
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| Nice Matching forks |
My first race was a criterium in the capital Algers. I've never known anything like it, people wandering all over the road, kids asking you for your sunglasses, bidons and Garmins!! "MR can I have your Garmin?!! haha, As for the race it quite well considering Id had 3 days travelling and no spin to prep the legs, and a finish in the bunch was a nice opener.
Straight after this the 5 day Tour of Algeria Started, which on paper looked like it was going to be good, and it was, I'm not certain of my GC placing but out of the 120+ riders who started only 50 ish finished, I'm happy to say I finished the race, every stage was hard and racing day after day at such intensity has given me great confidence in my ability and form, and to say its only march I'm very happy. I know for definite that if some days my positioning had been better I'd have had better results avoiding splits and crashes that happened in the windy sections.
As I write this blog there is a 3 day which Im not doing, I race again wednesday in a mountainous 4
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