Savage in The Garage, No wait IM ON THE ROAD AGAIN :D

So the ice and snow and general rubbish has now disappeared so i managed to get onto the road today and it was a killer 5 and a half hour murder including a crash and a puncture!

2011 Race Wheels

So for 2011 me and Brock are going to be using Reynolds Assault Tubular wheels, We've opted for 46mm wheels because they're light and will be useful in the hills/mountains in the national series and when racing abroad. Also they will be good for the cross-winds in Belgium. They Retail at just under £900 usually but we have both been given a very good deal from a company in America.

Catch Up Time

WOW, i know i shouldn't really talk about how long I haven't posted a piece on here for but apologies for not writing anything for over a month in fact i last blogged on the 23rd November! so since then the team have met up a few more times and it has snowed a lot! the full team list is now available on the website in the 2011 team riders section, but the junior team will include myself, Tom Laker, Brock Duncumb-Rogers,Tom Moore, Lewis Norris (LEWNOZ) and Jack Oliver-Blaney and im looking forward to spending a lot of time with them this year in the UK and Abroad and hopefully we will be dominating the National Series. We've also had our first squad track session at Newport which was really good. It was fun to get back onto the boards but the session was hard as it included a rapid warm up, speed work and a team pursuit 3 man KILO which we did in 1:06 which i was pretty happy with considering most peoples track legs arn't there at this time of year including myself.

Winter Bike

So Yesterday was the first outing on my new bike i got for the winter training period. It's a Boardman Team Carbon with SRAM Rival. I thought id get SRAM on my winter bike seeing as i will be using it on my race bike for next season. It took me about half an hour to get into the swing of it but i'm fine with it now. The bike doesn't seem too bad. The frames are made by giant its actually pretty stiff which is good! I haven't been able to kit it out with my computer yet so i'm not sure how many miles i did but i was riding from about 10 until half 2 which left me legs feeling pretty bad so my computer says it was enough!

Marching Through the Fog

So todays ride was pretty quick with an 18MPH average which i am pretty pleased with considering the conditions. i couldn't see my hand in front of my face which was pretty bad. good job i found my lights and threw them on otherwise i probably would have been ran over. i still find it bizarre that even though visibility is no more that 30FT motorists still don't put their lights on... whats up with that? Happy to be orange with just over 30 more miles in the legs

Weekend Of Riding

So this weekend has been a pretty savage weekend of training as far as i'm concerned. Friday i had a 3 hour gym/swimming session. Saturday i did 72 miles with a variety of people but mainly with Lawrence Carpenter (Rapha Condor Sharp) which i met along the way. we managed to get over to my old club at Hillingdon to help out with the young riders that are there and caught up with some good friends who i haven't seen for a while due to their cross commitments. luckily there was a camera on hand so i have put the picture of us in this post... i look properly cheeky i must say. Sunday showed us a different approach in the weather with torrential rain. so i returned to the turbo for an hour and a half session... that was nasty to my legs. Today im relived that my coach Dan has given me a roller session so now my legs are feeling nice and airy before a nice 35 mile or so ride tomorrow.

6th &7th November

This was the first real weekend back training after having the off season and the time off. On the Saturday me and Drew drove down from my house to his where i would be spending the night. Within an hour we was riding with his Dad Trevor and his Uncle Paul along with some other lads from the Crawley Tri Club. It was about a 2 and a half hour ride with a cafe stop which was much needed for. I'm not gonna lie i found it pretty hard and so did my legs. We then got home and went off to the cinema where we watched Jackass 3D, this is no blog on film reviews but i must say it was a hilarious film so go see it! Sunday, lovely the fool left the windows open and we were both snuggled up in the same bed not wanting to get out because it was freezing! We then managed to get out and get ourselves ready. George Pearl one of the new riders was also staying there too. We arrived at the leisure center we we planned to meet at about 9:15am. We introduced ourselves as we hadn't met some of the new members yet. The ride was 3 hours long and relatively hilly as far as i'm concerned so that wasn't too helpful and my legs were screaming. After the ride we all got showered up and changed and head to the room for our first meeting of the year which was surprisingly enjoyable. So my first weekend back and I've done about 5 and a half hours on the bike... that will do nicely!

Making The Most Out Of The Good(ish) Weather

So today was such a good day in terms of riding i managed to get out for an hour and a half. I wore my usual winter kit with a jersey then a jacket. Even then i was hot and surprisingly enough I didn't have to wear gloves which is nice. If the Winter is like this that would be nice although,.... not going to happen realistically is it :(

Gyming It To Bits

First things first, i'm pretty sure that gyming it isn't a word but its one i just made so anyone who writes dictionaries add it in please. I've been in the gym for about 2-3 weeks now and I have been hitting it pretty hard to be fair. Doing mainly core work and upper body weights. I have also been on the rowing machines which is pretty intense and is a proper burn up. Lets hope i can build up the power and then once January comes I can use it properly on the bike.

Winter Training 2010/2011

Its been a good few weeks off the bike now. I did my first ride back yesterday which came to a total of around 48 Miles. The ride itself was torrential rain and to any normal person a hellish experience. but me not being overly normal in this regard I found it some what enjoyable. However after two of us puncturing including myself was a bit of a bummer. It's the first of the Squad Training Sessions next Sunday so I am looking forward to that and getting to ride with the new team riders. Lets hope it stays dry. You can see me making a makeshift bike stand in the pouring rain with Lawrence's bike.

A Busy 3 Days

Well, what a busy 3 days I have just had with the Tom Simpson Junior National Series road race on sunday, Reading Track League on Monday and The E123's at Hillingdon on Tuesday.

Sunday was a hard race with all the top Juniors in the country travelling to Yorkshire. The Race was 65 Miles long on a relatively flat/rolling circuit with a bit of a climb before the line. The circuit suited me down to the ground. It was easy enough to maintain a quick speed through out with some nice corners to kick out of and then an uphill drag to finish off. A break formed rather quickly with some top riders.

Josh Edmundson (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta) pushed the pace from the start, breaking away on the very first lap and building up a lead of 20 seconds. He was pursued for nearly two laps by six chasing riders but only Conor Dunne (Glendene CC), Jake Barrett (Stirling Bike Club) and Andy Hargroves (Hargoroves Cycles) bridged the gap to the leader. The leading group increased their lead to 40 seconds with the chasing riders being realed back by the peloton.

The riders in the peloton didn't let the leaders get too far ahead though with Joe Kelly (Team Isle of Man) and Simon Yates (Maxgear RT) giving chase, closely followed by Charlie Fawke (Onelife Cycling Develpment Squad), eventually bridging the gap to the leaders on the fourth lap. http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roa20100620-Report--Bikeline-Tom-Simpson-Junior-RR-0

The race all came back together in the end and with 1K to go i crashed out as people came down in front of me went down due to touching wheel whilst trying to get a decent spot for the sprint. I managed to fly about a metre and a half upwards then bounced of the curb then into the stinging nettles.

Monday Night at Reading was always going to be challenging with such a hard race the day before. I rode relatively well over the night improving my track experience and performing better than the week before. My best Result was 1st in the Unknown distance in the A League which im pretty happy with considering i hardly ever do track.

Tuseday at Hillingdon, Feeling pretty shabby but the race was flying for 80 minutes at a rapid pace of 26.6mph as an average. then 4 got away and i couldnt go with it and in the Bunch sprint i got 6th giving me 10th Position overall but i was the 1st -3rd cat winning me £25 so had a bit of a result there

im feeling like the form is getting here, i have a national sunday and the ras de cymru next week.

SERRL 3 Day

So what an eventful 3 days of racing, It started off with a 10 mile time trial and it was very windy and i set a pretty shabby time which threw me well gown on GC. The crit went better i was working hard on the front but only finished in mid bunch. Sunday was a very hilly road stage which was 80 miles. it split up so much but i managed to maintain a high position overall. i was the first one life rider overall and managed to scrape 3rd in what was left in the bunch sprint which was up hill. Monday was a rapid 60 mile flat stage where there was i crash that i got tangled up in and ended my race.

Long Time No Blog?

Its been a good month or so since I have written anything on here, partly becuase i have been busy and partyly becuase i have just forgotten. Since my last post I have rode the Gent Wevelgem which left me with a relatively dissapointing 22nd place but the highest position I have got out there. I have ridden a Hog Hill Crit where I got my first points of the season (4th Place) This week i am riding another National series race in Somerset so I will put in another Entry after that event.

The Season Is Coming

My season is just about to start on 27th February. My first race is going to be at the well respected Hog Hill circuit in London. After that I am spending alot of my weekend in March in Belgium and a race in Wales which is part of the national series.

Crashes Keep On Coming

Hillingdon 6th January 2010, 1st race of the season. I was in the elite race. We had been only going about 20 minutes or so when somebody crashed and it caused me to slam my foot to the ground re- whiplashing my neck... so here i am back to the start of last week. Fortunatly I will now be racing again this week.

An Eventful Weekend

Well the last weekend of January should have been a good weekend of training with a track session at calshot on Saturday and a 114k reliability ride on the Sunday with some top elite riders. Saturday started of good my legs felt fine for the session but when i got up on the boards my bike didnt feel right at all, the back wheel felt like the tire was going to roll and i couldn't corner properly! I later found out that this was due to a puncture which i had no idea how I got. Sunday... a usual early start but I still managed to get to the meeting point on some icey roads at bellow zero tempratures. We had been riding quickly for about an hour at a quick pace, i was climbing well when we hit some black sheet ice and about 12 people (including myself) came off. I hit my side hard and then my head (luckily i had a hemet on). I was taken to hospitol and they said i have whiplash to my neck so here I am after spending a chunk of my Sunday being spent at Mount Vernon A&E writing this with a severly stiff neck and an aching and bruised side.

And The Snow Keeps On Falling

For all of you that ride hard through the winter you would have been suffering from the snow unless your really lucky and i envy you of that. For me i have been on the turbo since 28th December and i just want to get back on the road

My Race Calendar 2010

My race calendar for the 2010 season has just been revealed and it looks as though I am going to be having a very busy year. I will be racing on the continent and in places all over Great Britain. You can Look at the Races on the One Life Development Squad Website (http://www.onelifedevelopmentsquad.co.uk/) I would like to say this is the finalised version but I am sure that my coach Alan will be making some changes through out the season.