Review of Global affairs in 2012

Hey guys, hope you're all well, just thought I'd do a final blog before 2012 draws to close. What a year it's been. This blog was basically going to be an update on how my training is going before I head off to Spain on January 5th with the team but instead I'll do that afterwards (all you need to know for now is that it's going very well).

It's only when you think about all the big news stories of 2012 that you realise what a turbulent year its been. Of course the headlines have been dominated by the negatives as per usual. The ongoing conflict in the middle east, hurricane Sandy, the war in Afghanistan, unrest in many African countries, honour killings in Islamic countries, the Greek bailout, the Newtown shooting and many, many more. But for all the bad, there has also been a whole lot of good, and I'd prefer to focus on the positives of 2012 so that's what I'll do.

For me probably the biggest success of 2012 was the Olympic Games in London. It's the only time  I'll sit and watch sports like women's beach volleyball (ooosh), tennis, athletics and gymnastics but you know what, I enjoyed watching everyone of them. Even seeing Andy-the most miserable man in the world-Murray win gold was exciting, and I don't even like him. For such a small rock the UK did sensational in comparison with some of the giants like USA and China. The sense of Patriotism amongst the whole of Great Britain was just wonderful.

Of course in joint top spot was our national hero; arise Sir Bradley Wiggins. What a man. What a man. The guy is just the epitome of everything I believe in; his hatred of all that crap on TV these days that makes people famous for achieving absolutely nothing in life, his passion for the sport of cycling, his traditionalism, his wit, everything. He didn't just win the Tour de France and yet another Olympic gold like the BBC had you believing (which alone was enough to SPOTY hands down, which he did), he also won Paris-Nice, Tour de Romadie and the Crierium du Dauphine (yes there are other races in professional cycling than just the bloody Tour de France!). He has been our talisman in 2012, a symbol of everything that's great about Great Britain, and he's ours, and he's untouchable. Oh and he'll win Giro d'Italia 2013, you heard it here first.

Barack-the lad-Obama also won the US election which was a sigh of relief  for all us reasoned individuals the world over. Can you imagine if Mitt Romney won? The man actually believes in something called the sacred book of Mormon which was found on ancient gold plates buried in a hill in New Year just outside Rochester and that these plates were translated from Egyptian to English solely by an uneducated 24 year old called Joseph Smith. Furthermore he did this by looking into a hat where his magic peeping stone was sitting on which the English words appeared with the help of god almighty... that's not faith that's insanity, imagine a man who believes in such profanities running the global super power that is the United States of America. Luckily he is not and instead Mr Obama is, a man who openly stated he believes gay couples should be able to get married, it takes balls to say something like that in a country as religiously driven as America.

Lance Armstrong, what a massive douche bag. I know I said I'd focus on the positives but sadly this lying, cheating, doping, bullying, deceitful, untruthful, two-faced, obnoxious, repulsive man just crossed my mind. For 10 long years I watched him race bicycles, I looked up to him, I believed in him and I defended him. What a waste of time that was. And more importantly what a blow for our sport. Right when we're at our cleanest and doing more to fight doping than any other sport on the planet and being successful in doing so, Lance Pharmastrong dominates the headlines for all the wrong reasons and overshadows everything we've done to rid our beautiful sport of people like him. Alas the sport is bigger than one man, but he sure sent us a whole kilometre back in the fight to clear cycling of the outdated prejudice that we're nothing but a dirty sport.

And finally the little things that made this year great; Felix Baumgartner setting a world record for skydiving from 24 miles high. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was a little worried he'd just float away, luckily he didn't, instead he plummeted to earth at mach 1.24 (834mph). Philippe Gilbert's emphatic win at the World Champs in Limburg which I had the privilege of witnessing first hand and screaming to in a drunken and joyful state. Gangnam style was pretty big too although I didn't much care for it. We didn't all die like some idiots predicted after misinterpreting the Mayan Calenders. The Hobbit came out and boy was it exciting, I saw it twice in a week, I'm excited for part 2 already. A new breed of 'hipsters' were born, hopefully they wont be around much longer. (if you're unsure what a hipster is click HERE). Carly Rae Jepson released Call Me Maybe which lets be honest is just one of the best songs ever. It also led to Orica Greenedge's parody at the Vuelta Espana which is just the best thing in procycling since Lance Arm... Oh no waaaaaiiit, he's a prick. Finally a shout out to Matteo Rabottini for his victory in stage 15 of the Giro d'Italia, OK it wasn't exactly 'World News' but it was probably the most exiting thing I've seen since birth. When you keep in mind he'd been away all day, alone, in the wet, he crashed, he got caught by one of the best riders on the planet (Rodriguez) with 400m to go, got onto his wheel and then overtook him in the last corner to take the win you realise what an incredible feat of superhuman strength he pulled off. If I ever meet him I will kiss the ground he walks on.

I hope you've enjoyed my (mostly) positive take on 2012, 2013 is just a few days away, if it's anything like this year I'll be extremely chuffed. Have a great new year, get smashed, celebrate with your family and friends, stay safe and roll on 2013.
TB

BikeTreks RT December Boot Camp

View from the kitchen on Sunday

 While OPQS were doing obstacle courses and RSNT were off reading maps we too were holding our first boot camp in preparation for the 2013 season. Its fair to say there were a few mishaps... blocked drains, very dodgy looking risotto and one unfortunate pheasant but all in all it was a fantastic weekend. It was the first time all the staff, junior squad and U23 squad have all got together, this gave us a great chance to get to know one and other better. In all honesty it felt like we'd know each other for years, everyone had a great laugh, often at the expense of Jake and his advent calender.

main room where all the discussions and presentations took place. (I've tried to merge two photo's here using 'paint', it has not worked. Obviously.)

I rocked up at just before 8:00am, a good hour before the scheduled meeting time, keen as ever. Sandy arrived shortly after, we decide to partake in a bit of ice skating, although we had neither an ice rink or ice skates, just a lethal road and some matching converse. The rest of the team soon arrived and we all unpacked and sat down in the lounge area which was to be our main meeting point for the weekend. Nic (team owner/principal) and Simon (team manager) kicked things off by welcoming us all and giving a presentation on the overview for the weekend and a  brief introduction to all the different staff members. This was shortly followed by a presentation from Phil Leigh, Phil has had over 40 years experience in cycling from running teams, setting them up and racing himself, he'll be the director sportif for the team and also coach for a number of the riders. We had planned to do a ride at 9:00am before the first presentations but due to the treacherous road conditions we re-jigged the schedule and ended up having to drive to a nearby main road cafe at mid-day and ride from there. We loaded the cars and set off, I drove accompanied by Sandy and James. Along the way a pheasant decide it would try and take off travelling against the flow of traffic on a busy road, it failed miserably, at the expense of my wing-mirror. The lads all found it very funny, I however, did not. Eventually we arrive at the cafe and set off, the ride can be found here. It was apparent upon arrival that we weren't going to get much riding done this weekend due to the weather but the emphasis for the first bootcamp was more on getting to know each other as opposed to getting massive base miles in. We got back, had lunch and then had a chat from Graham Theobald, our clinicist and physio. He specialises in sports injuries and bike positioning and gave an in-depth presentation into both of these areas. Soon after I got to have a 1-1 chat with my coach for next season; Jon Taylor. Jon is a commissaire for British Cycling and also a very experience cycling coach, we chatted about good and bad points from 2012 and also objectives for 2013. During this time the rest of the riders were making dinner, well when I say making I mean putting all the available ingredients in to one big pot, from wine to egg and butter nut squash to some questionable looking meat. As predicted it tasted horrific, however nobody died so to that degree it was a success. We then had a bit more of a chat with Graham who showed us some more horrific pictures, reviewed the day with Nic and Simon and then went to bed. Due to lack of riding we weren't very tired so continued to do impersonations of Jonny's manx/scouse accent, who knows what happened in the juniors room, apparently they didn't get to sleep till 3 because Matt was busy texting his girlfriend... standard <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Cooking, sort of.

The next day (Sunday) we were up at 7:00am for breakfast and the weather had worsened from yesterday so the staff decide it wasn't worth risking any injuries at the start of December for the sake of a steady ride. Milan Sihelsky who is team mechanic but also road captain gave us a bike maintenance presentation, Milan is from Slovakia and an extremely accomplished rider having ridden the worlds and been national champion. We then embarked on some group turbo sessions run by Simon while watching a Sufferfest video which were a little bit painful. I always say it’s good to put things in perspective and this weekend was a perfect opportunity to do so. I was lucky enough to go to Limburg for the worlds courtesy of some fantastic friends in Holland, it was the best weekend of my life but those guys (elite men) are just on another planet. I think sometimes its great to draw off inspiration that’s a bit closer to home. I did my turbo session alongside Matt Flynn, one of the best juniors in the country, and Michael Ashurst, a 1st cat and elite RR winner, made me realise what a brilliant position I'm in for next season and what a fantastic opportunity I've been given. We then grabbed some pasta prepared by Nic, fair to say it was a lot nicer than our sorry excuse for cooking. During this time riders were getting massages and some were trying out some kinesio taping (Jonny on his calf, jack on his wrist, a few lads on their backs). I also got a massage and identified with my coach that flexibility was a key area to work on considering I'm about as flexible as a wooden plank. 

The weekend also gave us a chance to get a closer look at some more of our sponsor’s products. On arrival we were all given some tubs of Udderly Smooth chamois cream, we trained on the turbos using The Sufferfest’s videos and sampled the kinesio taping courtesy of Jon at Bike and Body. Milan also brought along some of his wheels from Remerx for us to look at and some catalogues with all the other wheels they produce. Having spoken with all the other riders we can’t stress enough how appreciative we all are of all the help from our sponsors, this sport depends on support from sponsors much like ours and without them investing in grassroots development cycling team like the Biketreks Racing Team the world of cycling would be much poorer in the long term.

After all this we got packed and had a debrief of the weekend where we listed good points (lots of them), bad points (few and far between) and changes for next time. I believe the next boot camp is 19th-20th Jan which is right after our training camp in Spain 5th-12th Jan, can't wait for both!
Hope you've enjoyed reading all the above and it's given you an insight into the sort of things that happen on a racing team's boot camp early in December. I'm sure all the pro-teams suffer blocked drains and poorly prepared rider meals, probably not high speed collisions with pheasants though...
TB

Milan and Si, Jon during his and Phil's presentation, Phil, some of the lads and Nic relaxing.

Turbo sessions, (top left) - Milan, Sandy, Jonny, Fabio. (top right) - Matt, Mike , myself

Room, pheasant damage, myself, sandy the handy man

The Bigger Picture

Been a few weeks since I did my last blog so I figure since I've recently got back in training for 2013 I should get one done. Wouldn't normally do one this late but I forgot to put yesterdays kit wash on and so am now waiting for it to finish so I can hang it up before bed so I have something to wear on the road tomorrow. Sunday 11th was my first day back on the bike after my short but much needed fortnight of rest at the end of what's been a long season. After being advised by a good handful of experienced riders to take a few weeks off I did and am as a result very happy I did, gave me chance to recover physically but also gave me a chance to do away with 2012 and begin preparing for 2013. I'm back racing in the Manchester Regional Track League on Friday evenings to continually build speed and power in the legs and getting in plenty of base miles on the road and turbo in-between work and sleep. Before my break I was in group 3 on the track (1 is slowest 4 is fastest) and regularly winning at least 2 races a night and contesting all the rest but on my first week back (tonight) I was moved up to group 4 (maybe the organisers thought I'd been training in Mallorca or something...) Clearly I haven't, I knew I hadn't, and it was probably very apparent to everyone else racing I hadn't too. I got a right royal hammering, but it was great training. Got off the front in a few races and took points here and there but nothing notable. In all honesty though I'd much rather be in the fastest group where the average speeds are always around 30mph and get no wins but a great workout than be in second fastest group, average only 27mph and win every other race. After all, it is just training. If I was there to win races I'd sell my road bikes and be on the track 5 times a week like some of the lads there, but I'm not. I chatted to another roadie from Velocity 3in1 after getting changed and he'd evidently done exactly what I'd done; taken 2 weeks off, he was suffering like a dog all night too. In his own words "You need a break at the end of the season, I've just had 2 weeks off, this is just training really". It's easy to get disheartened but at the end of the day you've got to look at the bigger picture which is racing on the road next season on Sunday mornings against the pros for the new team not going round in circles on a Friday night. TB

BikeTreks RT Cycling Weekly Photo Shoot.

First official blog (ignore the other waffle). Yesterday was my first ride with some of my new team-mates for next season and although I already know many of them from racing this year it was great to properly chat to them. Some were doing the national HC champs and others were unable to make it but there were 7 of us riding in total (3 from the U23 squad, 3 from the JNR squad and Nic - manager @Nichbuick. We met at the BikeTreks shop in Ambleside on what can only be described as a typical day in the Lakes; wet. After chatting to a very nice gentleman upstairs in the shop (who's name I sadly didn't catch) about another potential big sponsor for 2013 I headed downstairs to meet the rest of the team and the photographer for the day from Cycling Weekly.
We took a few team shots outside the shop and then headed off towards Thilmere lake where we took our first shots and its safe to say we weren't very good... it took a few attempts to get 'the shot' but oh did we get it, probably. It's quite hard to look pro when you're frozen cold and thoroughly soaked but we were all in good spirits. Simon Deeley @SimonDeeley (who's an absolutely top bloke) was in the car following for the day providing food, drinks and rain capes, oh and Kendal mint cake which was an experience as I've never had it before. One bite and I'd ODed on sugar but its OK because according to Sandy @SandyLockett (definitely team joker) you can get it coated with chocolate, brilliant. We then continued on towards Keswick where I chatted and joked about racing in 2012 with two extremely strong members of the junior squad; Matt @Matt95Flynn and Fabio @FabioClose1996 who both have an extremely lengthy list of wins to their names from this season. We continued onto Whinlatter Forest where we took some more photos climbing as a team. Shortly after I had a chance to chat with James @JwDunlop who'll be on the U23 squad with me next year and who I've raced against at a few E/1/2 crits with at Preston this season. He's another talented rider and got his 1st cat licence this year, we discussed things like racing in Premier Calender races next year and a few of our sponsors including riding Remerx wheels - http://www.sihelcycling.com/ @MilanSihelsky in 2013, all exciting stuff.
We then continued to ride and looped back round towards Keswick where we stopped at a cafe much to the disappointment of the two women working there, we were soaked to the bone. We proceeded to ruin their wooden floor and leather chairs and cover their radiators in our clothing. After a bit of food we took our cold, wet clothes off the radiators and put them back on (it was even worse than it sounds) during which Sandy assured us the pretty blonde waitress had the hots for him, I wasn't so sure, I think she hated us all. We headed back to Thilmere Lake where I chatted with Jake @J_T_Cowen, a nice lad who I rode against in the NW regionals where Matt won. (you can already tell we're shaping up to be a formidable force in 2013, and that's not including the riders who weren't able to make it including one from the Irish national squad and another from the Isle of Man squad!) We all hammered it back to the shop in Ambleside where we had a chat and then I got changed into warm dry clothes for the two hour drive home. All in all an absolutely brilliant day, we all had a great laugh and hopefully got some decent shots for the magazine. I'm taking a two week break off the bike after tomorrow after which I'll get back into shape for the team's first boot camp at the start of December. Just want to take the time again to thank Nic and everyone else involved in selecting me for the team in 2013, I feel extremely privileged to be part of such a strong squad with such a great bunch of lads. TB 

Generalisations, impossible to avoid.

Ok my next blog was meant to be my first proper one for BikeTreks Specialized RT after the photo shoot yesterday but after reading something at work this morning I just have to do one. My first blog about how people are offended too easily largely received positive comments but a few people were not overly happy (which is to be expected). The main problem they had is that I generalised all old people as bad drivers, workmen as transit drivers and chavs as dangerous Vauxhall Corsa drivers. This was not my aim and I accept the criticism but there's a problem, in this day and age it seems utterly impossible to make a reference to a group of people without making a generalisation. I accept not all old people are bad drivers and not all bad drivers are old people, its just that in recent months I've had so many close calls with elderly drivers that my honest opinion is that a lot of them should not be on the road. If I said the words 'sports car' to you what are the first words that pop into your head? For many of you they'll be negative words such as boring or unexciting, and that's fine. And for others they'll be positive words like creative or unique, and again that's fine. Those with negative words might not think all sports cars are boring but its the first word they associate with it. My mum isn't particularly interested in sports cars, but I know she wouldn't turn down a red Ferrari given the chance, and neither would you. As humans we naturally assign cars/people/places ect to groups and quickly form opinions. I'm not saying that's right its just what we subconsciously do. And so I felt a degree of joy while reading an article on Twitter this morning that completely backed up what I was saying (sadly the feeling of joy was soon relinquished due to the subject of the article). The tweet read: "Cyclist dies when hit by second driver while exchanging details with first to hit him…third driver steals bike http://road.cc/69638  #cycling" (the link to the article cane be found in red). Now bear in mind I wrote my first blog on the 27th and read this article today - 29th.
 I decided in my first blog to address the van driver as a Transit driver and the chav as a Vauxhall Corsa driver. I did this simply because It's the first thing that popped into my head, in the same way if I said to you "what does a business man drive?" I bet you thought Merc, BMW or Audi. Don't lie you did. And that's exactly what I did but of course I'm wrong to do so... Anyway in the article about the poor gentleman who lost his life reads: "While Mr Coates was exchanging details with the first driver, he was hit by another. Both cars were Vauxhall Corsas." So you see I was spot on with my generalisation, two young drivers, both involved in a collision with a cyclist and both driving Vauxhall Corsas. I went on to read: "Meanwhile, two men who claimed to know Mr Coates picked up his bike from the roadside - but have since gone missing with the bicycle. The two men, in a grey Transit van, "looked as if they had just finished work", according to police, who are seeking witnesses." Again my generalisation seems to fit the bill; two workmen in a Transit. OK a large percentage of the time my generalisation would be incorrect, just like yours about business drivers would be, but an awful lot of the time it would be bang on. I don't want to have to list every single type of van ever manufactured when I'm asked what a workman drives, and neither would you, instead I'd prefer to just make a generalisation based on my own experiences.
I understand you shouldn't tarnish everyone with the same brush; not all cyclists are dopers, not all footballers are pansies, not all workmen are Transit drivers and not all chavs are Corsa drivers. I know plenty of extremely nice workmen and some very nice chavs, they don't all drive Transits and Corsas, but guess what, a lot of them do.
My thoughts are with the family and friends of Stan Coates. TB  

First ever blog - offence, it's overrated.

Right OK, well hello whoever you are reading this (probably no-one). This is my first official blog and I'm basically just doing it to spice things up a bit and see what's what because at the moment I haven't got a clue what's going on here. Feels good to just type continuously without having to check to see I've not gone over 140 characters. Yes that's right I use Twitter, its been three sentences and I'm already putting in a shameless self-promotion to my Twitter page - https://twitter.com/Bracey94 don't lie you'd do the same. It used to be Bracey111 but after slating some pretty American girls for tweeting philosophical drivel like they were Aristotle's great granddaughter I was bombarded by nonsensical followers and tweets from 'jocks' and 'chicks' like it was Iwo-bloody-Jima. Anyway that's me in a nutshell, if I don't like something I say so, why? Because I can and so should you, don't be afraid of saying something that might offend someone because in all honesty no matter what you say someone, somewhere will be offended. 

EXAMPLE:  Every time I don my lycra and go for a ride on British roads I will be given the finger, fingers, w*nker sign, cursed at or spat at approximately 7.8 times every hour. Not really that stat is a lie and so are 97% of other facts, apparently, that's probably not true either. But you get the idea, Whether its an old man who quite frankly shouldn't be on the road, a white van driver or a dirty chav in a Vauxhall Corsa, they all hate me cause I ride a bike and if you do too then guess what, yeah, they hate you too. Why you ask? Well if its the old guy - 'eeerr you don't pay road tax so get off the road you little sh*t'. Yeah well nice one granddad but road tax was abolished in 1937 and no longer exists, roads are paid for through local and general taxation (we have Winston to thank for that). If its the Transit driver its because you're getting in his way and stopping him from getting to 65 Acacia Ave and robbing some poor old lady blind for a bit of maintenance work that only costs a fraction of what he's charging. And finally if its the chav with his cheating girlfriend in the passenger seat posing for a self photo to upload to her Facebook where she knows she'll get sh*t loads of likes even though she's wearing more make-up than clothes and looks like a duck. Innit innit. The chav in question will overtake stupidly close and tell me I look something stupid despite the fact my bicycle is worth 4 of his cars. 

So you see everyday I am offended, big deal. They can shout whatever they like, if its any of the above then they're either close to finding out what happens when your time runs out, living an un-fulfilling life or on they're way to one. So they can shout whatever they want because I'm doing what I love and don't care what they think of me (just so long as they don't try and kill me), just like I can tell some college girl from Utah what I think of her tweets without being unnecessarily rude or personal and she shouldn't care. Its content that's important, who she is or what she believes on or where she was born has nothing to do with it, all I'm criticising is her tweet. If she's offended personally that's her own prerogative. When a motorist shouts at me he's not really shouting at me he's shouting at the 'cyclist'. So you see how everyone is offended but its how each individual deals with being offended that's important. Don't take it personally. 

Wish you could see what I can see right now, moon looks as clear as the sun. Reminds me I watched Prometheus last night; great film go watch it. Right I'm going to wrap this up now because I can smell food, you're getting bored and I've got kit to prepare for my first training ride tomorrow up in Ambleside with my new team for 2013 - http://biketreksracing.com/ who I can't wait to get racing for, hopefully the start of something big. Hope you've enjoyed my ramblings, if you've not and have been offended in anyway I just want you to know from the bottom of my heart, I couldn't care less. Peace out kids and remember; guidarla come te l'ha rubata. TB