Testing

Well, I did my first proper power test with Ben Wright last night including a CP1min, a CP5min and a CP20min effort and some interesting information has resulted, however I will not so bold as to put up here my power figures just yet as they are nowehere near as impressive as, for example, Peter Sagan's and I did the first test blind. Not only this, but I also got a postural assessment and body measurements done on me so the information that I will provide is thus, I have a lovely pedalling stroke although my pedalling stroke from one to the other is erratic power transfer-wise, my left-handside is the bigger, more dominant and more flexible side even though I am right-handed and stronger on my right (not that the latter was tested for, but I feel it is). My thighs are impressive in size, I am tight in my quads and hips and my heartrate can drop like a stone between efforts meaning I have great recovery. CP5min was poor, particularly in comparison to not only how well I did on my CP1min and CP20min, but what more I am capable of in these tests. In CP5min test I would not score too much more with the whole power screen etc... in front of me if I was to do it again, today, for example, whilst on the CP1min and CP20min I would score quite a bit higher.

As a result of all this I ended up being completely screwed, but pleased to have got so much out of this process and I am really looking forward to working Ben this year and a massive thanks has to go to him for this test and for the future as well. Now I can't wait to see the programme Ben concocts for me :)

On another note I have come up with a playlist for warm-up and cool-down, if there are any suggestions for tunes, please comment. Here's the list:

Warm-up:

1. Run this Town Jay-Z
2. Hit the Floor Linkin Park
3. Mountains Biffy Clyro
4. End Credits Chase & Status and Plan B
5. All of the Lights Kanye West
6. Heavy Chase & Status and Dizzee Rascal
7. Make a Beast of Myself Twin Atlantic
8. Seek Bromance Tim Berg/Avicii

Cool-down:

1. Runaway Devlin
2. A Star is Born Jay-Z
3. Remember the Days Roll Deep
4. U Were Always Roll Deep
5. Keep Ya Head Up 2Pac

These playlists will change, but for now this is what I'm going to be listening to immediately before and after a race.

Piers Morgan and what is right

Now, I'm writing this post about some rather negative and positive issues today and I shall go first with the negative. Today in the U.S. two firemen were shot whilst attending a fire and sadly killed, just weeks after the Conneticut school massacre and Piers Morgan, as ever, has not decided to avoid this issue, but tackle this problem that the U.S. with guns has head on. Now I always used to find Piers Morgan slightly creepy especially during his time at the Mirror, however since he has left I have started to like him more and more what with his class 'An Audience with...' series and now his programme on CNN.  Since i've seen the below two clips of him in action I have now really warmed to the guy and completely agree with him on the gun issue in the U.S. as just about every other sane person from the rest of the world would.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SlfRCkZt1A
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_we43-q7C7g

Unfortunately one thing I don't like about Piers in these clips is how he loses his cool too much, but one important steretotype can confirmed from these clips and the subsequent petition to deport Piers from America shows, many Americans clearly don't get irony.

On a more positive note, the UCI has decided that the effort to win the world championships in the various cycling disciplines is worthy of the same amount of prize for both sexes, this is a great step forward in the right direction as far as gender equality is concerned and is a really positive move showing that women should not be treated as second class citizens within cycling and nor should this be institutionalised.

Here's the link to this announcement http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-introduces-equal-prize-money-at-worlds

Now another easy and great step the UCI could make in the monetary department is by making the sport a more financially secure environment and fairer place for all, by introducing and enforcing a minimum wage that is nowhere near as confused as it currently is. They have made some good progress in this area recently as shown with the recent AIGCP and CPA agreement. Here's the link to a the news and a great article on it too http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/06/news/aigcp-and-cpa-agreement-may-portend-more-than-higher-salaries_225328. What the UCI really need to do is to start to helping secure riders' and teams' futures rather than continue to seemingly increase their own revenue as shown by the races being established in the Far East at the expense or risk of losing some of Europe's best known races as articulated in this article http://road.cc/content/news/53498-uci-says-mens-pro-cycling-good-health-money-problems-some-teams-and-races-suggest. The UCI should be really heading the agenda and responding to currents that control cycling, but not in such a ham-fisted, slow and ponderous manner as well as recognising and dealing with issues before they begin to build a head of steam. Secure foundations allow for greater growth in the long term and maybe, if Pat McQuaid had been such a level-headed and conciliatory president then people would not be calling for his head, nor would Change Cycling Now even exist.

Here's a link to a great blog post that explains the confusion that exists over riders' wages http://gerard.cc/2011/10/05/uci-rules-minimum-wage/

Hopefully this post has given plenty food for thought and everyone had a great Christmas, I know I did. Until the next one, stay safe

General news

I am pleased to announce that I will be finally training properly full time from 28th December as that will be my last day at my current part-time job, McDonald's. I have to say I am pretty pleased about leaving, not because some of the people who are there were not great, but because for the first time I am going to be able to live like a professional cyclist and athlete to a much larger extent than at any time in my life. This offically announces new beginnings for me and is signal just how close to France I am (not geographically speaking in this sense). A whole new chapter is about to written with so many new experiences it is hard for me even, with some structure in place, to get my head around this, so I will try not.

Not only that, but very soon I should be, finally getting my first powermeter this week and then get tested by Ben Wright, so over the coming weeks and with my racing season beginning so early, it signals an almost wholesale change is going to occur over the coming weeks, training will be completely re-evaluated as will to my diet, body positioning on the bike, everything... If I don't excited about this then I'm doing the wrong sport and going down the wrong path. However I love this planning and comphrensive analysis of my training methods etc... and finding out ways of improving myself as an athlete.

In other news, I also want to congratulate the BBC on their continued exposure of disabled and women's sport in this country and throughout the world, the problem they face and going some way to help solving these. They have well publicisied articles with the likes of Jonnie Peacock, whose not exactly Newton-esque idea of incorporating disabled athletics into the Diamond League is an idea that is exactly what I believe is needed. Cycling can also go some way to helping encourage this inclusiveness and similar exposure for all by not only holding women's races inconjunction with the men's race, but why not also do this with disabled cycling for I do not know a single person who did not enjoy nor failed to be inspired by the achievments of these brave individuals during the London Olympics. Seeing Alex Zanardi smashing round a course in the morning followed by Vos, Armistead and Brozhini hurting each other round the same finishing circuit at lunch to be served with an afternoon of Sagan, Boonen etc... racing, again, on the same finishing circuit, this does not sound bad at all, logisitically and especially monetarily. All of sport and cycling would benefit.

Here is the Jonnie Peacock interview http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/disability-sport/20680963

Another great piece of news that the BBC has delivered on gender equality is that they are going to be broadcasting all of England's matches at the upcoming European Women's Championships, hopefully this can build on the succes of the London 2012 Olympics and women's football in this country has seen a substantial increase not only over the last couple of years, but also as a consequence of been given the same platform as the men in the London Olympics. This piece of news was followed by a piece on women in sport in general across the ages in the country and compared us to Sweden, whose women are four times more likely to exercise. Here is the link to see the piece http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20715895. BBC Breakfast are going to continue with a theme of women in sport over the coming weeks and I for one am looking forward to what journalism and their findings are produced.

Another great piece of news is that Yorkshire has won the bid to host the start of the 2014 Tour de France! The plan is for the Tour to go through Yorkshire for a couple of stages, probably through some mines, over t'hill on t'righ't by 'eck, before heading south to the best country in the world, England. (I formally do not recognise Yorkshire as being part of the rest of England for ,as various fans of various sports have sung to any Yorkshireman, 'You can shove your Yorkshire puddings up your arse', sung to the tune of 'She'll be coming round the mountain'.) A stage promises to finish in London which is brilliant and hopefully they can make it a bit more interesting by including an uphill finish/maybe doing some circuits of some the odd hills found in London like Parliament or Shooter's Hill (Hint, please finish at the top of Shooter's Hill, I will be happy to die once I have seen a Tour stage finish at the top.)

Anyway I think that's all for now I will keep you lot updated with any further developments over the coming weeks. Stay safe and if I do not speak to any of you before Christmas, have a Merry Christmas and fruitful New Year.

The second training camp

With the onset of me feeling more and more like a professional athlete, except for having a full-time job still for the moment, what with France and me being one coming up so very shortly, there are a few other reasons for this too. One being that yesterday I took part in the second Aprire Bicycles training ride, where we also had a team photo and had a session with Ben Wright, our coach for this season.

It was a great experience riding with everyone on the team next year with some fantastic additions including William Pratt, Nick Wilkinson and Harry Evans, with everyone in the same kit riding in some good, but windy weather through Kent's heart. It promotes such a good feeling of belonging and the pleasure of seeing all this was written all over the team owner and manager's face, Phil Dempsey, who has watched this team really grow since it's rather, quite humble beginnings only a couple of years ago. Once we got back from our 65km, 2hr ride, we hit the showers which our Italian rider (every cycling team, no matter how small, has got to have an Italian onboard otherwise it's just not a proper cycling team) Fabio seemed particularly keen on. Afterwards Ben went through a lot of the exercises he has given us all in the certain sessions we will all have as part of our respective training programmes, with the sound theories and ideas behind all of them.

Then to wrap things up Phil bought up the direction the team should undertake next year, the aims and aimbitions of/for each rider and the team's. Unfortunately for you lot I will not be shedding any light on this, but it will be pretty obvious from what's going to happen this season, all I can let on this that hopefully we will be punching well above our weight in terms of quality and certainly numbers when it comes to some of these bigger races. Just can't wait.

Also, for those of you who are interested, Aprire Bicycles should be having a stall at some of the bigger cycling events on the calendar like the London Nocturne where you can not only watch some great racing and see the team do well, but also where you can get to try out some gorgeous, custom, carbon-fibre bikes. Now, what's not to like about that?

Another interesting piece of information I recieved was from my girlfriend who was chatting to this young man at her athletic team's end of year club dinner in Italy, with this conversation sparking her into sending me this link to a piece GQ did on the famous L'Eroica sportive. It sounds amazing and looks spectactular and I can not wait to do this one day, having said that I have done some of it already, albeit on mountain bikes. Here's the link to the GQ piece http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/articles/2012-10/15/erorica-rules-and-report

Right I'm off now and I should be updating this blog again sometime soon, probably as soon as I recover from getting tested, which should be Saturday, so until next time...

Cry

This post is different to my recent two due to its sad nature, firstly Verity's dog Spot died soon after I got back from Italy and was very distressing for her and the family so our thoughts go to them.

Secondly, the importance of cardiac testing in the young as been further highlighted recently by the sudden death of Mitchell Cole. He only found out that he had a heart condition whilst he was a 17 year old trainee at West Ham only because of the regular screenings they ensure all their players undertake. However, even armed with this information no proper course of action could be taken because of the lack of knowledge about his particular condition. Only after 8 years and him suffering shortness of breath was any sort of proper diagnosis and proper course of action decided upon. Sadly it was enough and shows how more can always be done.

The John Ibbottson Fund is an active supporter of C.R.Y. (Cardiac Risk in the Young) and helps raise awareness surrounding this important issue here are links to the C.R.Y. website and to Mitchell Cole's passing.
http://www.c-r-y.org.uk/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/o/oxford_utd/9396642.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-20566207

John Ibbottson Meal and the future

The next day after my Sienese holiday I went to the John Ibbottson Fund meal, a great chance for me to meet all those who contribute to its sustained sucess, find out more about the organisation, more details about next year and meet the rider who was lucky enough to be lumbered with me on the Fund, George Moore. It was a great evening with so many people there asking about me, my recent success and wishing me luck for next year, all in all I found the experience quite humbling. The dinner took place in the lovely surroundings of the Tree at Box Hill, very apt really given that it is at the top of an iconic local climb and near where CyclesDauphin is, a shop previously owned by the Mills Family who are massive supporters over this Fund and who are now living where I will be in Brittany. There is no turning back as I have signed the contract. I also got to meet a rider who was the Fund this year who gave me and George plenty of advice for the coming year as well as meeting Deputy Editor of Cycling Weekly, Simon Richardson with whom I had a few shots with. Not shots as in tequila, my uni friends, shots as in photos.

Following on from this Tony Mills got in contact the following day with information of my upcoming races in France, the first being on 9th February. With all this happening straight after my holiday, it has been a bit of whirlwind and it has really started to dawn on me how close now my leaving date is. Pretty exciting.

It is especially exciting when considering I should be going on a 5 day training camp to South Wales staying with my good mate Graham Howell and his family, Graham is also a class cyclist and hopefully he will have similar success to what I have had this year. Then I will be undergoing a full medical in a South London hospital before I get shipped off to France. Hopefully a ride can be organised between me, George, Dan Lloyd, Simon Richardson and the Fund so as to find out more about Dan's role as a mentor and have a cracking photoshoot with them at the same time.

This leads on to my next point where on 9th December I will be going to the second Aprire team ride, this time in Maidstone. Really looking forward to this one as the team is having a photoshoot pre-team ride then after the ride we will be working on our body postioning, core and general biomechanics with the team's new coach Ben Wright.

It's all really intense right now, but I'm loving it, however I'm struggling to find the time and energy to go out and have a pint with the boys, I've forgotten what to go 'out out' is, I don't even really go 'out'. The life of a cyclist hey. Stay safe on these icy roads ladies and lads.