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