My trip to Calpe was a successful one, making the most out of the winter and meeting riders from across Europe. My 1st experience of doing so in the cycling world, where things are done very differently from triathlon. One such meeting was with the Ovyta-Eijssen-Acrog team, a high level amateur Belgian team which included the Belgian junior road race and time trial champions amongst others. Impressive stuff. A few long rides over the mountains with them led to their Team Managers inviting me to be coached by him for the season, which I felt was a good move considering some of the cyclists currently being coached by him.
Upon returning to the UK it was straight into the early season races, the Springtime Pursuits. Standard. A 9 minute gap to the junior riders up front seemed like a mammoth task for the scratch group over 33 miles. Anything for a challenge right? By the time we crossed the finish line the gap was just 30 seconds for the remaining 5 riders in front, a good effort by them which meant fighting for 6th place. Yanto Barker pulled off the sprint with myself not too far behind in 7th. Not a bad day, and well done to Brennan Townshend for getting the win.
The following weekend was at Ludgershall, a criterium race. The very flat course didn't suit me as much but regardless I had some practice getting back into racing mode, a group of 6 made the breakaway and I pulled off a 3rd place in the sprint, Grant Bayton of Wilier/Goselfdrive taking the win.
I will update the last couple weeks in my next post, keeping you up to date with the race season.
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