So... I think I've left too long between posts to detail every race and venture I've had so while I'm sitting in my hotel room in Majorca; I'll summarise what's been going on since September...
Well, I've had a whole cross season, that's what's been going on! I've had seven wins in the Junior eastern league, and won the overall as a first year which I'm mega happy with, and I've had a handful of podium places in the Senior races which has given me a needed confidence boost for next season. As far as National races have gone; I've been disappointed. In the week run up to the first round in Abergavenny I ended up in hospital in Belgium after a really heavy crash at Ruddervoorde Superprestige in Belgium and didn't ride between then and Abergavenny. Despite that, i finished 8th, and 3rd first year so realistically it was a good result. After that i became quite ill, and due to not really letting myself recover properly, i spent most of my time from the start of October until December trying to compensate for lost training and worked myself into a bottomless pit of fatigue.
In that fatigue though I raced for the Rapha/Great Britain Development team at the final round of the Rapha Supercross series at Alexandra Palace in London. It was a great experience and I can't thank Konrad Manning at Rapha enough for sorting it out for our team and providing us with race and warm up kit.
Still, during that dismal 2 and a half month period, I managed another 8th and 9th at national trophy races where i was also 3rd first year in both. In mid December i took some time to really recover and try to salvage a decent ride at the National Championships at Bradford in January. January came, and it all seemed to pay off. I got a great start and was sitting comfortably in the top 5 when the thing which can pretty much sum up my season perfectly happened; i crashed. I lost my front wheel on a descent and while i was on the floor another rider went into my back and my kidneys were hurting quite a bit. When i eventually got back up, I was in 13th. The last bit of the race was a huge case of just making the best of a bad job. I finished 10th in the end, again not happy but realistically a decent result.
Something that did brighten my season up however was a package from Quest Sportswear, the manufacturers of my Team Custom Kit, who sent me a few bits of their own kit to keep me comfortable training through the winter.
I've had a couple of weeks off since the Nationals, which is lucky as the weather has been bloody dreadful, and have now started training for the road season with a week here in Alcúdia with my team thanks to our sponsor Pollensa Cycling Amigos (PCA). I flew out yesterday from Stanstead pretty early which has left me for dead as I'm bad at waking up and doing things within the following few hours. The flight went pretty quick for me, although I'm not sure the lady next to me is able to say the same because i spent a large majority of the flight laughing at the film 'Step Brothers'. I'm fond of travelling by myself, it's more hassle-free than travelling with my family as collectively, we're much like a herd of Zebras; we're bad at going to airports and trying to get on a plane.
I'm planning on doing a road season from March until late June where it'll get a bit hit and miss, as I'm planning on heading off for another training period to prepare for the Cyclocross season.
So far Majorca has been great, I have a two-person room in a four star hotel all to myself. I feel like the boy from Home Alone. The weather is better than England, but it's still a bit nippy and really windy. One thing i can't fathom though; why do shops here seem to sell shaving foam, but no razors?
A huge thanks to those who has supported me and those who have made this season possible;
-Ciclos Uno
-Pollensa Cycling Amigos
-Windwave/Colnago
-Quest Sportswear
-Ivan Burch
-Kevin and Roger Barker
-Paul Sparks
-Helen and Stefan Wyman
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