2015 A faltering start

Its been a while since I posted on here, as much as anything probably a symptom of several factors in my cycling and non cycling worlds. In January, I changed roles in the day job and found myself working long hours in a pressure cooker environment. Despite being the worlds easiest going bloke, I found myself distracted, tired, stressed and generally struggling to balance work and home. Thankfully the worst is behind me now and normal service is slowly being resumed. As I write this in mid July, my balance is returning and the structure around my training is becoming more ordered. This summer has seen me restore some of the discipline around my training and nutrition and my head is in a generally good place.

I have very much realigned my priorities and have started racing regularly.....but less regularly if that makes sense. I no longer feel the need to race every single weekend just in case I miss a good day or the opportunity of a win because someone a little better than me has an off day. I enjoy the sense of occasion that racing twice a month brings over the relentless monotony racing twice a week for eight months brings.

Taking a step back from mid week league events has been a wise move for me. Maybe the lack of a race on Wednesday evening might blunt my form by a tiny percentage but going to every race razor keen and fresh seems to make up for this.

With my more relaxed outlook on racing, I've taken the opportunity to adopt using non round chainrings on my bikes.....For those who say they cannot tell the difference, I sit and smile - as they must have no feeling or nerve endings. Learning to pedal smoothly on these rings has brought benefits but my goodness I've had to work on my pedalling to get the smoothness I had. Utterly worth the effort.

I don't revere fast courses these days. They're not really safe and no one can convince me otherwise. But this being said, they fulfil a purpose for me. A decent qualifying time always ensures that I can get into an event, so with this in mind I travelled to Derbyshire last week to ride a one off 25mile TT on the Etwall course. To my surprise I came away with a lifetime best of 50mins 41sec.....which in all honesty I was really satisfied with, especially as most of the other competitors at the sharp end felt they were about a minute and a half slower than the week's previous event on the same course.

As ever, the cycling seasons come and go and with the last half dozen road events now entered, I'm increasingly thinking of the cyclocross season. With regards the CXM team which I founded and now co-manage with Ted, we are going from strength to strength with three supported riders this year getting two carbon framed bikes provided along with a mountain of wheels and tubulars to support them through this winter. I couldn't have every imagined that what started off as a modest idea would now be a really well known team that gets support from probably the best known UK bike manufacturer. In these days of blurred lines between pro and amateur cycling, I feel that our supported riders can justifiably look on themselves as riding at pro level, albeit entry level as their support is tangible, real and doesn't consist of just a nice jersey to ride around in.

2015 sees me make my fifth ride in the worlds toughest cyclocross race, the Three Peaks. This is a race that I dislike with a passion. However, as the rest of the CXM team will be there, it seems only correct that the rider managers Ted and I fly the flag. I am flying out to the Mediterranean for a couple of weeks warm weather training the following day so yes it'll be a steady ride round with no big risks coming down Cold Cotes / Whernside slabs / Pen-y-Gent boulders for me as I don't want to be confined to the pits one handed bike washing at the National Trophy at Southampton in mid October. For the first time, I'm going to do some focussed training for the event, not for one minute to improve performance....but simply to enable me to get round without feeling like it was an ordeal. I'm presently building a specialist (and somewhat quirky/kinky) bike for the event that I'm truly excited to race on.....but the bike and preparation is worthy of a separate  post.

So over and out and hopefully there'll be more to come soon enough.