Wednesday 30 March 2016

Back to The UK

After 8 weeks training in Spain it was time to come back to the UK to start the 2016 season. The 8 weeks over there was great, I was able to get a good base ready for the long season a head. In those 8 weeks I was just shy of 200 hours in the saddle.
The week I return, I unfortunately got a cold which set my planned training back. At the end of the first week back I was at Glasgow helping Planet X with some wind tunnel testing for their kit. This was a great day and I found it very interesting, the aero gains off little things can make a massive difference.
Another week of riding and not training due to the cold I was carrying, didn't look good going into Holme Valley 2 Day, luckily the cold had gone by the Wednesday. Not knowing how I would be going at the race, I just gave it my all in the first stage which was a time trial, my power was down from in Spain but was still higher than all of last year which was a positive. I managed to get 2nd in the time trail. Stage 2 on the afternoon went well with the team eventually winning the stage after many attacks, and I also held onto 2nd overall. Finally on stage 3, the team took the race on and we aimed for the win. A move went up the road with my team mate Dan Bigham in it, and the gap was going out with every mile covered, so I eventually got away from the peloton on my own thanks to the help of my team mates in there. My legs felt good and I bridged the 40 second gap in around 4 miles. Once in the break it was only me and Dan working, we still managed to take the gap out to 2 minutes 50 seconds at one point and I was the virtual leader on the road. unfortunately the on form Ryan Perry brought the gap back in 1 lap with help from his team mate. We were swept up with 10 miles to go, at what point Adam Kenway attacked and soloed to a stage win and also taking the overall and knocking me down to 3rd overall. The race was a good indicator to how well I'm going and also to how well the team are doing.
The next week I did an overload week of training with a local circuit race on the weekend which I was 2nd with Harry Tanfield of Pedal Heaven taking the win.
Now on to this week just gone, I took the week rather easy as I had the first big race of the year at the weekend (Chorley GP).  I was feeling good before the start, and after the first time over the climb I was in the front 10 down the decent. At the bottom of the decent I was 3rd wheel and rode hard out of the left had turn and got a gap so I just kept riding and this put me in a breakaway which Ian Wilkinson joined me about 2 miles down the road then Rob Partridge us a few miles later then we continued to work together and did 2 laps before getting caught by the peloton controlled by JLT. While in the break I managed to get 2nd overall in the sprints competition. At the end of the race I managed to get 24th.
Overall happy with how the legs are doing so far. Now I head over to Morocco for Le tour Da Maroc a 10 day UCI 2.2 stage race covering 1540km.