Hey all, been a few weeks since I’ve whacked out a blog so thought I’d put another together, hope you enjoy.

Been quite busy by my own standards since new year. Caught a plane out to Alicante, Spain on Jan 5th for a week with some of the team and a few other cyclists. Much to Simon Deeley’s delight it turned out after a whole journey with me he also had to room with me for the week, but we also had Chris Sherriffs for company who I’d never spoke to before but turns out to be a top guy and a bloody handy bike rider, particularly on the downhills, oh and he’s a world class farter. It turned out to be a fantastic week (as expected!), we were staying at Cycling Holidays Spain – CHS run by a guy called Nozad who’s from Landan, hands down soundest guy I’ve ever met and cooks up some damn good grub. All in all was quality weeks training, got in 31 hours and a hell of climbing. We met the likes of Mr Cavendish, Sylvain Chavanel and crossed paths with just about every Pro-Tour team in the peleton. However my personal highlight of the week was meeting all round tough man and general nice guy Johnny Hoogerland (infamous for being shoved into a barbed wire fence during the Tour and getting back on his bike to finish). I also made the mistake of going out one day in a some white jersey that I picked up last season, biggest mistake of my life, crucified all day and week and to this day, should have listened to Dunlop and Chris. Cheers again to Biketreks for the bikebox, will hopefully get out there again early next season.
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Since then I’ve been doing a lot of training on me billy todd, just getting the miles in. Most Wednesdays I manage to get out with one of my best mates Steve Fidler who’s riding for Dave Hinde Racing in 2013 – check them out. Definitely wouldn’t have survived winder without my Gore Xenon 2.0 winter jacket, best bit of kit I’ve ever owned. Some days it’d be -4c descending the Cat and Fiddle in just a gore base layer and the jacket and I’d be boiling, cheers again to Dunlop for recommending and Keith at Biketreks for sorting us out. The team have also signed both Michael Ashurst and Jacob Tipper at the start of the season, two quality riders who pack some serious power and will without doubt rack up a handful of wins each this year.

At the end of January I attended the M&DTTA dinner which is always enjoyable. Time trials are whereI started racing just a few years back, TTers are generally a nice bunch and although TT’s are becoming less popular with young riders I still love them. It’s the purest form of racing there is, no excuses, you get what you deserved. I got my hand on a few bits of silverware and hope get a few TT wins under the belt this season.
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Since then I’ve been to a few bootcamps with the team accompanied by our media man and tip top photographer Ed Rollason. We had one day up in Lancaster and another where it was a day at Pimbo doing race drills; getting bottles from the team cars (which will be provided by Bowker BMW this season and look sensational), practising wheel changes and also lead-out trains. We’ve had a couple of track sessions and I’ve been back racing at the track. Coaching with Jon Taylor from Bike and Body has been going fantastic and I can honestly say I wouldn’t be in anywhere near as good shape at the start of this season if it wasn’t for him. Team Kit is set to be arriving over the next fortnight, bikes helmets and shoes off Specialized, carbon wheels off Remerx and tyres off Continental. I’m super excited to get the season under way and I’m certainly set to get a kicking early on in the likes of Clayton Velo Classic, Eddie Soens and then a few CDNW races. Hopefully they should put me in good stead for my main targets for the season which are Regional A races where I can pick up the majority of the points I need to obtain my 1st Cat race licence.

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So yeah hope you’ve enjoyed reading about what I’ve been up to recently, sorry if it’s a little long, the next one will be shorter I promise. Looks like winter is finally behind us, lets go racing, cheers
Tom
- Biketreks Racing Academy