Back in Belgium

With injury and illness pounding my fitness over the last month I was happy to get an email saying "there,s a spot for you in Belgium on the 17th, its yours if you want it" with a lot of criticism from people about me riding in Belgium I still said yes, I needed something to test myself and to hopefully prove I hadn't undone my winters hard work, be it not having the form and putting on weight, this was my chance.

Going to Belgium is always a lottery. For us Northerners it's at least a 4hr plus Journey down to the channel tunnel, so when we go for a weekend you spend most of it travelling and in the car, and thats where peoples critcism comes in, its not a free trip and we/our parents pay for it, anything can go wrong on a trip to Belgium, but thats the risk I feel needed to be taken if I wanted to prove I could ride a cobbled race, and I cant thank people enough who give me these opportunities.

To ride the cobbles isn't just like riding a local race down the road where some people can just get by, and the skills that I have learnt over the years and over the winter definitley helped me this weekend, from bike handling skills to positioning, this helped keep me out of trouble.

Starting the race from the back the idea was not to panic, move up slowly and don't get caught out on the wrong side, the first cobbles were 13 km away close enough to panic on the thin roads in a 200 man/junior bunch, but far enough away to move up gradually. Coming in to the first cobbled section on lap 1 of 2 thirty seven km loops it started to rain, I was in a good position and there was no need to rush, but further behind there was carnage, this ended up causing a fair few splits, but eating well during the first 74km loops I was well fuelled for the 7km circuits coming up.

From there the race was on. With the tougher section being that little bit rougher and coming up more consistent the bunch was to split again, and with the wind hittting us from the side on the back section of roads it soon got grippy (Perfect) but with 3 laps to go I found my self in a back split going over the cobbles, with at least a 15 second gap to a smaller group in front, and another 20 to the leaders, Bang time to go, now or never, after chasing the front group for a lap and attacking my chase group on the cobbles I was across, the gap grew to the bunch and it was time to refuel with some CNP products. with 1 lap to go I felt good, with some messing about going on I hit the front to keep the pace, now to rest up and get out the wind for the last 3- 4km, feeling good I was ready for the sprint, then 400 meters to go following a move I was soon left on the front, hammer down, go for it and see what result I could salvage, fair to say it was a perfect lead out for the few behind me.

I wanted to do better and felt dissapointment at the end but thats racing, it was then taking what I had done in the race and turning it in to a positive.

Thanks for reading

Looking ahead

My first go at blogging.

With the season coming up quickly the chances to train are dissolving fast, as my season is starting earlier this year (February 24^th) at Kuurne Bruxelles Kuurne in Belgium, it brings a different structure to my training programme,aswell as a whole other challenge to contend with.

 I will be heading to Mallorca this Monday for a good 7 days of training in the mountains, with this training camp it will give me the opportunity to top up on my endurance training, plus other structured training that will help me through the season.

 Going out to Mallorca will also bring a different opportunity, something I have never done or had the opportunity to do before, watching my first ever Professional race abroad, to say the training camp wasn’t planned to coincide with the race it was a nice surprise to find out. This will also give me the opportunities to watch the likes of Josh Edmondson and guys that are only a few years older than me in there first professional race year, proving that the professional peloton can be in reach, you just have to commit to get there.

 A new challenge for this season is my diet, looking back at last year some may say I had a pork pie diet, this is definitely not true, but you may guess it was certainly not what it should of being. This is where CNP professional comes in; with the help they are providing this year it is impossible not to want to look after my diet and aspire to be better.

 I will make sure I improve my blogging in the next few weeks or so, until then both the training and the diet will continue, thanks for reading.