So much is happening behind the scenes, but my social media has been unusually quiet, and for good reason! While the race season is already underway for most, I’ve been at home training hard, and gearing up for my first race of the year: The Hills in Italy. But the biggest reason for my silence? Who I’ll be racing for this season is still under wraps until next Thursday! Keeping it a secret this long hasn’t been easy, especially with so many of you asking (sorry, I promise it’ll be worth it!). All will be revealed soon, keep an eye out for the big announcement from Westminster next Thursday!
I’ve already announced my personal sponsors for the year, Schwalbe, Reeves James Solicitors, Restrap, Wahoo and Squirt Cycling Products. Some of these are new relationships, some are relationships that have spanned up to 10 years. I’m hugely thankful to each of these companies for their support and look forward to the adventure ahead.
I said goodbye to many of my sponsors from previous years to be part of this new project, this means there’s a lot of change and so much to get used to. A different bike brand, bike computer, crank length, power meter, chainring shape, gears, saddles, bar shape, shoes and more! I’ve been riding one of the new bikes for almost a month and it’s taken time to feel comfortable. I have even more respect now for Formula 1 drivers when they change team, I know they have time on the simulator but they get just one and a half days of driving the real car before going racing. I cannot comprehend how they adapt to all the changes from one year to another and one team to another in just 1.5 days.
In November and December I did the largest training volume I’d ever done in those months, January wasn’t quite as record breaking but wasn’t far off. February was a bit stop start with a couple of weeks illness but I’ve still managed 20 to 25 hour weeks. It’s not quite the huge hours I was doing in the years where I was out in Gran Canaria for the whole February. The illness knocked me sideways though, a bad bout of flu left me bed bound for a few days, off training for a few more and unable to do much training intensity for another week. So many friends and coaching clients have been ill this winter and there’s only so much you can do to protect yourself from getting ill when you have a poorly four year old with tonsilitis who wants cuddles and then sneezes in your face!
After being ill and all the change this winter I’m a little behind where I was last year and where I’d like to be but there’s still a few weeks till the season begins. Motivation levels are sky high. Six of the past seven rides have all been five hours long, often reaching 4000 kilojoules, so we are working hard. The regular deliveries of fresh goodies from sponsors keep me smiling even when there’s so much going on. My son is loving all the cardboard boxes, we’ve made a MET branded robot outfit he wanted to wear to a party and made a Lightening McQueen racing car complete with Schwalbe branding!
My first three races of the year will be The Hills in Italy on the 29th of March, then Sea Otter Gravel in the US on the 10th of April, and then the Traka 200 in Spain on the 3rd of May. The Traka and the Gravel Earth Series will be my main goals for the 2025 season, I love those longer races. Away from the race track I’ve got my eye on some big rides here at home and down in Dorset where Reeves James are based. More on this soon!
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