July

Training camp in the beautiful La Molina (Cerdanya) with the teams amazing sponsor Cenit took up the first part of this month for myself, along with the rest of the AnPost Team. 

It has to be said that Altitude treat me fairly well this year, the first days were hard as always but the rest of the training went better than I expected, with the knowledge of Marti from Cenit and how he made sure we weren't over doing it while we were there, but yet getting the correct training to bring us in a good condition was second to none, from blood tests every few days, to weight, to food, stretching and core sessions, turned this in to the most professional training camp I was ever apart of, I personally need experience with such things as altitude, going from last year riding easy around Livigno, to this year doing specific efforts almost daily was a bit of a change, but with everything that was being done for us from both Cenit and our brilliant staff I knew that to commit fully to the training wasn't going to be a problem. 

On return from La Molina it was a case of a few days rest, time to take in a lot more oxygen, spending most of my time in Belgium that was really not an issue. A few days later the teams first pro Kermisse in Ninove, last year this was a race to find back the speed after altitude camp, this year it was a race to win, and so we did with our team mate Jonas Bokeloh, with every move covered it was a text book team effort, after covering a lot of moves early on myself trying to force them away I was pretty much over my limit when I found myself in the 7 man winning move, we never established a really big gap to play with so we were constantly pushing, on the last lap my legs gave in close to the finish, thankfully I was able to hold off the chasing peloton in what I can only describe as survival mode, no doubt coming from a mountain somewhere in Spain, and Jonas was able to take the win.

The next race for me Westrozebeke pro Kermisse. A race the team won last year but on a slightly different course, this year wind played a massive part in the race, I'm not sure everybody felt as good as they did in Ninove but it was a completely different race, after most teams had a rider in the race winning move the gap went out quickly, however lap after lap riders were puncturing from the move, we were hoping our rider wasn't one of them, eventually this turned out to be the case, with only 5 of us that day, 3 guys rode the front to try and bring the move back, with myself sat up the front waiting for a possible counter move the team was nearly there, but others weren't willing to make it, with a hope of still making it across to the move myself, I attacked, hoping others would follow and we could bridge to the front, it wasn't to be and we in the peloton were to fight it out in the wind until the end, it was a good race for me but I made no result from it, disappointing, but there were still signs that the altitude training is working and I am in a good condition.

My next race is on Monday, another Pro Kermisse in which I will see what I can do towards finally getting a result I can be proud of this year. 

Cheers All