Track National, National Hill Climb, and the Team News

I was training pretty hard for track nationals, combining lots of training with physio and core exercises but alas, it was pointless. My leg was useless and come the races I had very little power. I raced the full week (with no results), all the way through to the National Hill Climb champs, but I wouldn't have been racing if it wasn't the end of season.

I have taken two weeks off and set about fixing myself. I have discovered through an x-ray that my femur is 8mm short, and that one glute is producing half the power of the other. I am now doing lots of gym and physio work, and made the appropriate changes to my cleats and bike. Today was my first ride in 2 weeks. 3:30 was too long and I blew after 2 hours! Maybe a steadier approach is needed. I am not supposed to do intervals until December so as to allow for recovery.

On a lighter topic, Look at this cycling themed cheese my Dad found in London, Mont Ventoux. It stinks really badly and tastes pretty bad.

Here is Tim and I in the madison off the front of the race. I couldn't concentrate with my knee playing up, and was annoyed as I let Tim down.

I have managed to get a place on the Continental Team Endura Cyclevox for 2010. I am pretty happy about this as they are doing some big races next year and I should learn a lot. I am not sure about all the details yet but will put them up when I find out.

I have put together a collection from the bike garage. I needed to photo them anyway.

Here is my brother's turbomatic 4, a six day riders favorite. This one has duct tape to repair the Tour of Wales Crash damage

My Trek MTB complete with Rolls saddle

My Planet X TT bike with Turbo wheels

My winter training bike.

My commuter bike

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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 ...

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...

National Junior Road Championships

Yesterday was the National Junior Road Race championships, one of my main goals for this second half of the season and probably a lot of other riders'. The race was being run by Doug Collins, famous Twickenham CC member and ex-pro rider, and he had chosen a brutally hard course that would certainly split the field of 86 starters to smithereens! I did a recce of the course last weekend in the rain and was in 39-26 on some sections. I was looking forward to it though as I am pretty good on the climbs and my stamina is good. It was also my Dad's birthday so I was extra motivated to do a good ride so as not to waste the day. The race started with me skipping my chain on the first climb. I had to hop off and put it back on but was soon back in the bunch after a kilometre or so. My plan for the first part of the race was to sit back and conserve my energy. A break got away with a few dangerous riders, Erick Rowsell and Tim Kennaugh, but no one else so I knew they would be easy to ca...

Grain of Sand

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