Thoughts for Paris Roubaix

Well its Thursday and only 3 days till the big event. I have been checking the weather forecast occasionaly. Yesterday they predicted heavy rain and a max of 6 degrees but today it has improved to 10 degrees and light rain. It would have been a real Museew or Kelly style roubaix with that kind of weather. Makes for good pictures though.

Just been having a light week. Same volume- around 12-15 hours, but not many efforts. Went for a long ride yesterday and going out for a few more 2 hour rides with some sprints in before Sunday. Took my custom Sidas insoles to the shop yesterday and they confirmed my suspicions they were collapsing. Makes me feel better that my core is getting worse, just my insoles. I am getting some of the specialized ones till I can see cyclefit again. They are getting in some new motion control carbon ones that never collapse! The sidas ones were really comfy but do to my excessively high arches they did not have such a long life.

Not sure what bike modifications to go for. Our race is only 120k compared to the pros 250, so it doesn't require the same amount of comfort (I think!). I will probably leave it at double bar tape, maybe double shorts. We get given wheels. Bontrager Race X lites with vittoria pave clinchers. They should work great as long as I don't abuse them. There is still a lot of tarmac in Roubaix so it pays to have fast wheels I guess.

Comments

Lazy Blogging..

Hi guys, I apologize for not updating in a long time. It is always irritating when people have out of date websites. The excuse is that I have been pretty busy, and also quite disheartened about my cycling. But I think I have turned a new stone and now everything's smooth sailing...or riding perhaps. After my race in Singapore I had a couple of local races, and my knee just didn't hold up under pressure. It was buckling under the increased intensity and I was pretty upset after all the work I had done with my physio, and I thought after a good few months I was over it. This kept going on in a weekly cycle. I would train and condition my leg during the week and then be smashed in the races because I just couldn't put any power down. Needless to say my motivation kept declining, along with my fitness, for around 2 months After an awesome family holiday in Morocco (that can come in the next blog) and a serious discussion with my coach, its looking more positive. I think I may...

Summer Travels

July started well with my first half-decent race for months. I took part in the Guildford Town centre Criterium on Wednesday night. A tiny circuit featuring a patchy tarmac descent and a sharp cobbled climb with little in between. As soon as I started I realized there was no way I was going to keep up the sterling track record of cyclefit employees (Warwick) in the race. I got stronger as the race went on though and I didn't crash -always important as my confidence was pretty low. Jon Dibben did a great ride as per usual. I drove home optimistic that my season was turning around with my new pedalling technique (no pun intended). Next up in July was the Cyclefit Etape Trip. Me and Stuart (brother) drove the Clio down to Pau in the Pyrenees and met Jules and Konrad (or Konradiator as he later become known). Due to the efficiency of the French Motorways, we made it there pretty fresh and with only 3 speeding offences (2 in Bordeaux alone). Our first job was the Expo which involved ...

Great Britain Call Up

Well its lucky I didn't stop my training during my mini- meltdown a few ago. I got a call from Max Sciandri the other day offering me the chance to do U23 Paris-Roubaix and a stint in Italy! It will be good to race with the guys again, and hopefully I can do an impressive ride.... Jules and Phil at Cyclefit have been very understanding, and there is lots of discussion as to what equipment to use. Kimberly's Zipp 303's or use the GB Mavics? Look 585 or Look 595? These are the important questions of our time... nothing to do with people called Cameron and Clegg.

Grain of Sand

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