It has been a busy
winter with lots of different things going on in preparation for the 2014
season, which for me starts at the end of this month. I started off
training back in November, which quickly passed, and soon it was December and I
headed on a training camp with Scottish Cycling in Girona. There were lots of
people on the camp from the track, road and mountain bike which made it good
fun, we did lots of cool rides around the local roads which were really quiet
and the weather was nice which is always a bonus.
Following this I
turned my attention to some Cyclo-Cross work over the Christmas period to
prepare myself for the final national trophy round and the National Championships
in early January. The final trophy round was being held at Shrewsbury and after
a lot of rain I knew it was going to be a muddy race with lots of bike changes.
The race started fast and with a Belgium visitor in the race he went out fast,
I thought it would be good idea to go with him in and try to keep myself at the
front of the bike race. I soon realized I didn’t quite have the pace to go with
him and dropped off and was joined by Paul Oldham. We raced together for a main
part of the race before I got distanced towards the end and I finished in 3rd
place just ahead of Nick Craig who was hunting me down.
The week after
this I headed to the National Cyclo-Cross Championships in Derby to try and
defend my title from last year. It was a cold weekend and the track was muddy
from races the day before but fortunately it had frozen over night and it
started of as a fast race before the ground softened up throughout. It was the
first time I have lined up with a number 1 board and been in a defending position
so it was new experience and I was excited to race. I started well and moved up
the race before rolling around in the mud after messing up a corner half a lap
in, which turned out to be slippier than I first thought. After this I moved back
up to the front of the race where I was joined by Kenta Gallagher and from here
it turned into a race between the two of us. It was a close race throughout
with each of us riding faster in different sections of the course. It came down
to the last lap and I made a move with about half a lap to go and held of to
win the race by 10sec over Mr. Gallagher in second and Ben Sumner in third
place, I was really pleased to win! J
Next up I spent
some time in Manchester putting some hours in before heading to Calpe for out
betch.nlsuperiorbrentjens team training camp. It was the first time I have been
to Calpe and it was exciting to have the whole team together. We did a mixture
of Mountain bike and road rides and found some cool trails, which were loose
and dusty. It was a bit different to the mud and puddles of the trails at home!
The camp involved getting new bikes and team photos for the up and coming
season which is now just around the corner.
Thanks for
reading, Grant
