End of season, off-season and next season

I've come to the conclusion my time keeping needs some work; I'm always late meeting mates for training rides despite beginning the process of getting ready a good half an hour before I need to leave. Getting ready for work is always a mad, chaotic rush and I was hopeless at meeting deadlines back when I was at school. Oh and I'll always arrive at a race either when everyone else is finishing their warm up or with enough time to travel all the way back home, pick up whatever it is I've forgotten and drive back still with an hour in hand before I need to sign on. So it'll come as no surprise that I planned on writing a new post a good month ago and as a result a fair bit has happened in that time in addition to what I was originally going to ramble on about but I'll try and keep it brief.

I had a fairly busy end to the season (Aug/Sept), I rode the Lancaster city centre cobbled criterium which is always a quality race with decent crowds but sadly could only manage 11th. The last three rounds of the CDNW road race league weren't as fruitful as I'd hoped, a 15th, 11th and 13th however following on from this I had a few half decent crit results; a 4th at Litherland, a 5th at Uclan, a 2nd at a very dark and dangerous Marsh Tracks and a 3rd at the CSP Autumn criterium. I also competed in the Lancaster Open Hill Climb which I managed to win and the Johnny Helms Grand Prix des Gentlemen 2-up organised by Warrington RC where myself and my partner, Jocky Johnstone managed a very respectable 3rd place to end the season on a high.

Lancaster City Centre Crit

I took a few weeks off the bike to rest up starting on the 5th October, bar the odd little ride here and there, but very quickly became rather bored. But what was easily worse than the boredom was the slothful and sluggish manner in which I carried out my days. How anybody can live without doing some form of regular exercise I'll never know. I'm never one to shy away from a take-away with mates, purely because I never have one more than once a fortnight and always know I've done plenty enough training/racing to deserve it, but during my off season I just felt guilty eating crap food. I'm under no illusions that the lethargic feeling will have also been down to the lack of exercise, the words 'endorphins' and 'exercise' go hand in hand. I missed the bike, but what surprised me was I missed the feeling of being healthy even more. I met with my coach in the middle of October to discuss this Winter's training programme and my plans for next season. I'm a couple of weeks into my programme and really enjoying it, the focus for this time of year is on endurance and power so it's damn tough (seriously I can barely walk on Mondays) but I can already begin to feel the benefits.

Condor Bottoms HC - 1st (left) and Jubilee tower HC - 2nd (right)

I'm extremely pleased to say that I'll be spending the whole of next season racing in Belgium having signed for Terra Safety Shoes. I do enjoy racing in the UK, it's nice, but the buzz around races in Belgium is something I just love, that and the savage style of racing. I'll be living in Ottenburg with my friend Andy Leigh and be competing in a selection of Top Comps, interclubs, foreign stage races (France etc) and hopefully some UCI ranked races oh and of course local kermesses. I'm very grateful to have been given this opportunity by Terra and can't wait to get over there in March next year and begin racing for them. As anyone involved in the sport will know the financial burden of pursuing a career in cycling is massive and even more so when doing so in Europe so if anyone is interested or knows someone who may be interested in sponsoring me as an athlete please check out my Sponsorship Packages tab above.

Thank you for reading, I hope you've enjoyed it, I've included a some photos from my favourite races of 2014 below along with a few important thanks,

Tom

At CHS (cycling holidays Spain) earlier in the year,
really looking forward to getting back in January.

Having crossed the line to win stage 3 of the Tour ta Malta, big thanks to Dave
at Kuota for helping me get over there and Fabio, Jason and Josef  for their help
while I was in Malta.

After the final stage of the Phil Corley 3 day stage race, looking and feeling
exhausted after managing to hold on to 6th on GC, cheers to the BikeBox boys for
their help and Dave (DS). Brilliant weekend with my friend Paul from Exsa and his fam.

Hanging onto a motoring break in a Belgian kermesse, quality race that one.

In the main bunch in the closing stages of the Stockton GP, the weather was abysmal
that day but all my extremities were warm and I've GripGrab to thank for that, cheers for
the support in 2014, roll on 2015! Photo:VeloUK

And finally during the Helms 2-up pacing my friend Jocky, I dare you to find another
72y/o who can average 25mph round Cheshire lanes.