O Mwmbwls i Hennebont

Sorry for the quietness on here recently, unfortunately I have not had the time nor will to write for recently there has been so much done on our sport, with it usually being so naive though. However now I do! For those of you that don't speak Welsh it translates as 'From Mumbles to Hennebont' and that is because not only did I go to Swansea University and lived next to the Mumbles, but it also happens to be twinned with a the town I am moving to, Hennebont. I've found out recently that I'm going to be living there for the eight months that I'm in France and that I am joining one of the town's two teams U.C.L.H. a.k.a. Union Cycliste Hennebont Lochrist. Here I will begin as a Second cat. rider however I will be riding some of the top level national French races and maybe (and hopefully) some of the French Cup races! Not only that but due to yesterday's announcement at the Tour de France 2013 route presentation I will be near to two of the stages and I will also be living just south of Plouay and the famous GP Plouay-Ouest race.

The best thing of all though happens to be that our team happens to be sponsored by the local biscuit factory, meaning lots of free Breton biscuits every so often. Happy Days!!!

More than just that I have managed to find out more about the culture I will be thrown into and just how massive cycling is in Brittany and all the customs of the Bretons. One of them is traditional Breton folk dancing, which Tony Mills has said assured me I will get roped into doing one evening, another that I should never eat andouilette for no-one, other than Bretons, like it and they don't only like it, they are obsessed with it. They kiss on each cheek, the women and only men do when they are familiar, but it is expected when entering a room to shake every man's hand, if not kiss them if familiar, and kiss each woman twice. That's the day-to-day culture in Brittany. Here is an image of andouilette

Their cycling culture is obsessed with the wind and as soon as there is a cross wind they line it out and hammer everyone, it is usually point to point races on closed roads with a small finishing circuit done a couple times and the roads are also closed 99% of time, definately on the finishing circuit. The local attendance for a 2/3 cat. race is usually between 200-400 people. Each village has a permanent finish line and you are expected to give at least a flower to the podium girl when up there and give the bouquet to the woman of the French family that you are staying with/have helped you out lots.

I believe that is it, other than that I am just beginning to train hard now as the racing calendar isa a bit peculiar over in France particuarly Brittany, but apparently it starts early and hard from February till the beginning of May so I plan to peak for the end of March.

It's amazing where life takes you, especially when you have the drive and ambition and it's wonderful to think how far I have come in a year, that a year after leaving Swansea I will be moving to France living like a professional cyclist, who would of thought it. It appears that Wales is not just the land of my fathers but also the land of dreams, y tir o freuddwydion.

Below is the link to my new team's website, if you struggle like I do, just use Google translate :)

http://uclhennebont.sportblog.fr/

And here is some pictures of Hennebont

That's it folks, hope training/resting is going well and that studying is as well (if you're also doing that). If you find me Welsh translations are wrong, please feel free to have a go at Google and not me. I did what they said and I couldn't care if I got it slightly wrong anyway.