Tenerife December 09

This is Mr D Moore at the top of the road to Mt Teide and me on the road to the top waiting in the shade, not bad considering its middle of December and and snowing at home and we are riding in shorts and short sleeves, well up to 1500m that is, as the temperature drops considerably at that altitude.

Tenerife December 09

This is one of the pictures from the recent trip to Tenerife. This particular point is a 2000m ridge along from the Volcano. At different places along this road which meanders east along the island ridge you can look down 2000m to the sea on both sides. Awesome!!

This was part of a 7h00 ride with 5000m climbing a real epic day. I was accompanied by my good friend Darren Moore.

Monday Morning and as I had a bit of a session on Saturday night we only did 2h00 on Sunday. So today was another training day. 3h30 on the MTB to Box Hill and back. Its really good when you get to know where your going as you can do almost all tracks and only cross main roads.

Also today was good as we finalized the team roster for next year for the Pendragon-Le Col-Colnago team. This is very exciting and a big step in the right direction for Le Col.

Been a while since I posted anything here. I am running a business and it has taken priority with a few issues that needed sorting out over the past few weeks. Back now though!

I have been getting in the training quite a bit. I felt like this season was a bit up and down with my form because I had very few miles under my belt after starting training again in November last year for this season. So with 3 years worth of extra motivation to use up I decided to train right through this winter without a break. I am doing 15-20 hours a week at the moment usually averaging out at about 375miles/week. I am working on position, staying aero and low, plus power, so lots of SE hill efforts in big gear on the drops. Makes you suffer if you begin doing them from the start after 5h00!! Advice from the big man Jez Hunt so I trust it will pay off. Any way if its hurting its working...... Thats the secret to getting the best out of yourself!

This week has been a difficult one. So many things to get right it has made my head spin. We have got it all sorted now but it was not simple. Luckily, my good work in picking good guys to work with from manufacturing to wholesalers has paid off! I would like to thank all the Guys from Harrods, Cycles Dauphin, Colin Lewis Cycles, South Fork, Hewitts and Sigma. They have been great!

Have not had much time for training but could probably do with taking it steady for a week. This Thursday is the start of the bike show in London so I will be hoping to finalize some details for what and who I will be racing for and with next year. Watch this space.

This was a chance to pose for the camera for both Jeremy and my self as we took the ferry from Kingswear to Dartmouth. This was 5 mins before I realized I had punctured for the second time today. Being both Useless when it comes to spares neither Jez or I had a pump and tube between us. Jez brought a tube but no pump and I had nothing. Dartmouth has no bike shop so I did 12 miles on Jez's wheel at 20mph to Totnes on a flat back tire. In all fairness the tire held up fine, thankfully Jeremy was going through a bad patch on this long 6h00 ride so I kept up. (I got a kicking later at about 5h30). I truly great ride if you are ever in Devon there are some beautiful roads to choose from!

Here is a quick shot of Myself Colin Lewis, mentor and friend, plus Big Jez who gave me a kicking all week over Dartmoore.

The not so exciting part of running your own business, today has been spent mostly dealing with Vat payments and very boring paper work. Its all part of it though! I did manage an early morning cofffe with Darren Moore and also a quick spin round Richmond park as the weather was actually quite good. Job done!

Richmond Park team Le Col

Here are a couple of the guys in some of the Team kit. This was a megga day, warm, sunny, good coffee as you can see and great company. We had real laugh!

Tea with the Queen

This weekend I have done some good riding. With my knee starting to feel quite a bit better on a diet of mostly steady training, myself and some of the guys have been out on a couple of good rides in the park. Then today out to Windsor, a nice 120k flat run with just a bit of wind to contend with. But with a good caffe there (the Queen was out) it was a good days training at 32k/h average.

London commuting with the Green Marine!

This is a short clip riding home with the Green Marine Mr Pye.

Today is Wednesday and I have not ridden since Saturday last week due to an injury sustained messing about on the MTB and going over the handlebars. Well its still not better 3 weeks later and I went to the physio to get some advice, He explained that I have bruised the cartilage under the kneecap and that when I ride it inflames by rubbing together. He said if I just keep riding I will rough the cartilage and then it will be 3-6month off the bike for sure. So I am more then a little frustrated to be indoors as the weather is beautiful outside!

I guess the only consolation is that I have directed my energy else where and been very productive with the business side of things. As this season draws to a close we are already having a look at new products and styles for next year, they take so long to put into production you have to prepare early! Check out www.lecol.net

Today (Wednesday the 2nd of September) I set off for my ride in the dry, only for it to start raining after about 15 mins. Normally this would get right on my nerves but today I relished the opportunity to turn right round and head straight home........ to get my windstopper jacket that I have been waiting for an opportunity to wear for months and head right back out again to finish my training. Sad?....... Probably. But now at least I know the changes I made have improved the garment in the way I wanted.

The other exciting thing that happened today was my team caps arrived. Black with white gold white stripe and white with white gold white stripe and they look great! Its all coming together so by the end of this month it should all be ready to go, fingers crossed.

Today is the first day for 8 days I have gone out to do anything longer then 3h00 since cracking my knee on my MTB as I went over the handlebars. It just so happened I set of at 7:30am and snapped my rear gear cable after 15mins. So I kept riding till it was 9:00am and I could go to a shop and buy a new one. So I spent 1h15 riding around Dartmoore on 39/12. It is actually quite a big gear!! I could feel my knee starting to give me a bit of a niggle after 2h00 or so but thought nothing of it. You know I thought I will just go harder so as the pain in my muscles takes over my attention. (stupid fool I am) Any way caried on as you do and got to 3h15 and my knee is really starting to give me pain. I stop at a friends house and take a double dose of ibuprofen and carry on. finished my ride 6h10 with heaps of climbs. Am I stupid or hard or both??? Some time I wonder! After shower iced knee and resting and don't feel too bad now painkillers have stopped working. We will see. If i have to take 6months off with knee trouble I will know it was the wrong decision!

Sore head.

Yesterday (Sunday), I did my second MTB race at Huntingdon. Now it is all a bit new to me but when it's £20 to enter and the win does not even give your race entry back something is a little wrong in my opinion! It all went well apart from getting stung by a wasp right between the eyes on the penultimate lap to add to my injuries. Now I have a sore head to go with my sore elbows, knees and hip!!

Some photo's from the Brighton Big Dog MTB enduro.

London City training

Here are some of the places I have been out training recently. Inner city landmarks are the theme.

Eat eat eat!!!

Today is Tuesday, I have been eating like crazy since the MTB Enduro on saturday. I was trying to think why , then I realized, on the day of the race I had breakfast, then started the race and then had a small sandwich on the way home with only a couple of musely bars inbetween. Considering it was quite possibly a 7000 calory day that means there was some serious calory deficit to make up. Well I have been making up big time! Breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, pudding! Ahh the benefits of being an edurance athlete.

Its the morning after my first proper MTB race in Brighton called the Brighton Big Dog and it was an enduro 6h00 event. Sounds like fun, well I seriously questioned that after 25mins when the pain in my back grew unbearibly as I tried to keep up with the teams doing a relay. I did the solo category and 6h00 on your own with soo much single track gets very tiring, especially for a roady like me! After 1h30 I settled into a rythm and time seamed to pass fairly quick. The Colnago Ibex was fantastic and reliable. I was very pleased not to fall off as it is easy to do especially when you are tired, a few close calls was all but your not racing unless you get those. Kept repeating to my self, 'you make up more time not loosing time,' just incase I got carried away and tried to ride beyond my self.

Good days work though, met lots a very friendly people and it was nice to arrive at such a relaxed atmosphere at the event. I think that is when you have people doing a fun ride at the same event as the seriouse racing it helps keep the atmosphere light, some alcohol and music at the finish and everyone is happy. Also when the corse is in the woods and not on public roads apart from up setting a few dog walkers, you can afford to be more relaxed as you are not sharing the space with so many other people trying to go on their summer holidays and getting stressed about being held up.

Thank you to Magnus Backstedt and the team for all the support and the race number. Would have a been a much more dificult without them.

Bull

Today was a good training day. I did 3h45 on the MTB. I was wearing my new red kit for the first time and as I crested a sharp rise on Dartmoor a huge bull came into view facing me. Baring in mind I am on the moor and there is no fences or hedges. I made a sharp U turn and headed back down the track. Managed to avoid him after that but definitely got the adrenalin spike out there on my own ha ha. Getting used to the MTB after my crash yesterday.

First Post

First post on the new blog. I just set this up to give a bit of an insight into my life/job and progress.
I hope you enjoy.