1st year under 23
WSC Hand in Hand Baal
me after a muddy race! in GOOIKWell..this has been some experience!
Where to start.....
I am staying in a little town called Westemeerbeek with my two english team mates Joel Davison from yorkshire and London boy Adam Cotterell. Also i live with my Team Manager Guido Helsen so best behaviour is a must at all times when he is around!
i am now settled here in Belgium and have adjusted to their somewhat abnormal way of life! Time off the bike in Belgium is alot different to the uk! alot less lively than concert square!
My life has mainly been spent hunting bargains in the supermarkets for the best budget nutella or hanging out at southern boy Gyles Wingates house where he lets me beat him on fifa. One of Gyles's room mates is Mark Mcnally who i seem to be spending too much time with and he is turning me into a "social retard" as he describes himself..
i am sat here with saw legs from todays race and enjoying the rare time i get to spend on my own..As you may or may not know my season started well when i came into the season with good legs and managed to get myself up there in a few february cold and windy kermesses which made the team manager ( Guido) happy. From then on things went abit pear shaped! i was selected to ride Brussels-Zepperen which was a uci 1.2 and way out of my comfort zone! i was shelled out only 20km in and was thrown a winter jacket out of the team cars window as they flew past me and left me for dead , just managing to catch their words "ride to the finish for training" 130 km later! and having caught up with my team mate who had also been dropped i arrived in the finish and was greeted with silence by the manager...this was a big blow to my morale but i just believed i had a bad day in the office! the wednesday after that mammoth race i was at a muddy windy typical Belgian kermesse where i manager to hang in and finish towards the front of the bunch and was glad to get another race under my belt! After 5 weeks in Belgium i made my first trip back to the uk. This was a mistake! i managed to pick up an injury by riding my old bike which had a completely different set up! my knee was hurting but i rode through it for a week , which was another mistake! another week or two passed by in Belgium and my knee was seriously holding me back so i decided to rest it..this also was no help as everytime i jumped back on the bike i would feel pain. After recently spending to much time with some familar scouser named mark mcnally..he managed to get me an appoitment at his teams physio. I then found out that i had Patella Maltracking syndrome or more commonly known as "fucked knee". i have been given exercises to cure this and also have it taped up which allows me to ride! I then jumped straight into the deep end and tested my body in another kermesse in St truiden (also my first sighting of any sort of red light district..this was noted for future reference!) i lasted 100 km out of the 114km..90 percent of my time was spent clinging on the back rumagging in my suitcase of courage for more space! i was spat out the back but pleased i lasted so long on a tough circuit.. we then were told that we had a local evening race on the friday and all the team would be watching. during that week i started to get some more valuable training rides in with the usual bunch of local brit pro's Matt Brammeier (not sure if you century boys have heard of him? ) Adam blythe, Macca and Andy Fenn. Friday came quickly and we rode the short ten minute ride to the start and set off for another fast and furious 250 starter belgian kermesse! this race goes down as my "chopper race" and my seatpost decided to slip on only the second lap! so early bath for Greggo! on the sunday i had a hilly race! and i punctured a 3rd of the way in! which i was glad about as the circuit was so hard and i had bad legs! I was lacking form and luck due to my 3 weeks off the bike to heal my knee! tuesday i was picked to lose my team time trial virginity. I loved the description my room and team mate gave this ttt! so i will use it:
We were told just two days before that myself and my room-mate Mike were to form half of the Hand-in-Hand Baal squad for the provincial team time trial. As far as surprises go, a team time trial was down there with a parking fine. This was to be a 20 kilometre thrash around a pan flat course near St Truiden. Having not competed in any sort of time trial since the tender age of 15, I thought ‘Try everything once’ so with youthful exuberance me and Mike set off on the 40 kilometre ride to the course. Two and a half hours later and with substantially more kilometres than I’d expected due to my expert navigation, we arrived, stripped down to our shorts and slotted in our race wheels. The wind was incredible with gusts of 50mph…perfect for a bunch of road riders thrown together at the eleventh hour and told to work as smoothly as a Swiss watch. The opening 400 metres kind of set the tone. Our first rider pulled his foot out just metres in and just about regained the back of the line in time to be promptly dropped again. With the time to be taken on the third man we now had to all stay together and work well. With myself, Mike and Ward Mommaers killing ourselves into the wind we settled into the rhythm. I had been told before by Mark McNally that team time trialling was like trapping a certain part of your anatomy in a door for half an hour and I’m inclined to agree. After the opening lap we were caught by the team of Van-Gothem which had set off a minute behind us. We held it together for the remaining 10 kilometres thanks to some awesome turns on the front by Ward, our very own Cancellara. We crossed the line spent, I don’t think I have ever suffered as much for so long. We finished 6th. Our team were the only team on road bikes and not fully equipped with the latest advancements in aerodynamics so as a race we were never really in it to win it. (http://www.joeldavisonracing.blogspot.com/)
me suffering on the back!After all this negative riding i was desperate just to get a race finished and feel strong! today was that day.. It was a race near antwerp and was 120km.. pan flat with lots of tight corners. i started at the back and missed the decisive break of the day, but i managed to push and shove my way up to the front of a peloton with approx 240 riders! my legs felt good so i decided to give it a few digs and see what would happen..i got in a few small moves but we were dragged back..i ended up finishing towards the front of the bunch and was satisfied with my race .. I seem to be getting some sort of form back now! and hopefully i am on the up!
Tommorow i have a local race in Baal which is a 20 minute ride away! this blog i wrote was more of a catch up too what ive been up to! i will start to write on the blog after most races.
Hope all is well Centurions!
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