Chris Opie - Rutland Cicle classic

An Image from the Cicle classic at Rutland. This was a couple of weeks ago now but not a good race for the team. We had almost everyone suffer from a crash a puncture or both. This is one of those races where fortune does have a great deal of influence on the final outcome. I have been fortunate enough to have had two almost perfect races in the last three years and finished on the podium on both occasions so it was no surprise this year was not a success as it doesn't take a mathematician to work out the odds of having a third lucky race in three years was always going to be an unlikely chance. Another picture here is of Chris Opie thinking he could corner quicker then he could. We call this Out breaking ones self ha ha.

The C59 is beautiful. Its my team bike for the season. I am meeting my sponsors at the bike show in Earls Court its a hub of activity with every bike brand and piece of kit available on show. With this in mind I walk up to the Colnago stand to the best bike on that stand and look at the beautiful machine I'll be riding for the season. The feeling of excitement floods through me as the realization sinks in. I get the best and most exciting bike available today. I once had a conversation with a guy at a race who complemented my bike, I complemented his back (which was also a Colnago) to which he replied, "But I paid for mine". I was taken a back and said "nothing is free in this life. I have a look at the Brochure and check out colors. I went for the Bastile day special edition. Its white with touches of red and blue, an up to date and on trend color scheme that will also match our kit for the season. I am all for matching things up as best I can.

The team is riding Campag so that's what I'll get with it. An all Italian bike when full K-Force carbon components are added bars/stem/seat post. When it arrives I'm not disappointed. Like a child who dreams for months about something it delivers on every level. The bike is light stiff with internal carbon layers running down the center of the down tube to stiffen the ride. Carbon cross weaved to maximize rigidity and efficiency without rattling you to pieces in the process. One of the things that strikes you as you look closer, they have gone back to using a kind of Colnago club shaped tubes. In my opinion they are beautiful and the perfect size. I've ridden other bikes with over sized down tubes and huge bottom bracket area to make it more efficient but it feels like an MTB and cumbersome. Then you get old steel frames with the Reynolds tubing where the tubes now feel much too thin and skinny. This C59 is the balance I'm looking for. Substantial enough to deliver efficiency but not over engineered. This leaves you with a beautiful feeling bike with class and finesse oozing out of every angle.

An important part of comfort on a bike is that it fits. I recommend getting a bike fit if your going to spend this much on a frame. I'm lucky I went to see an old tour de France pro from the Halfords days called Adrian Timmis. A great guy and amazing bike fitter. My position is now sorted and with the K-force bars I'm happy sitting for hours on the bike to train and race. One of the first things you feel with this bike is the rigidity at the front end. The over sized headset and forks make such a stiff and responsive front end along with the straight down forks. The rake is less then other frames but once you settle in the handling and descending on this bike is planted and safe. We tested this racing each other on the team training camp down Sa Calobra in Majorca. Its the place where they filmed the Renault add a few years ago so the surface is good and smooth and you can really see what the bike handles like on the way down to the sea with 10k of hair pins.

The second aspect of this bike that really hits you is the way you can click down the gears and get them turning. I find you can go a sprocket bigger then other bikes, the frame is so efficient you just seem to get it moving and its as if the frame is encouraging you to go again click down faster faster. It wants you to go faster. There was a similar feeling with last years EPS frame and its continued with this one. I love it. All in all this C59 hits the spot. Brand image has come on a lot in recent years, in the past slightly looked upon as something for the older gentleman, now this bike has all the contemporary edge anyone could want.

Check out the bike in action at the Halfords tour series and Premiere Calendar series over the season starting with the cicle classic on the 17th of April.

This was entering the changing rooms after the 2011 Perfs pedal and first race of the season. I was deceptively cold and miserable but never one to complain put on a happy face for John Cannings who took it. Honestly I was really pleased to get to this time in the season when we get a number and all the hurting counts for something even if it was properly cold and wet all day.

I would really like to mention how Magnus did a great job today. He commands such a lot of respect in his team that is clear, he also rides as an example, happy to smash it on the front for his teammates. He influenced the race and made it feel very continental in style where I think we did 7 full laps and the last one was the fastest where the break was formed and the winner emerged. That is good racing and I hope to see more of it this season. It will benefit everyone in the long run as we all start to race faster.

I was pleased with my form and had a good day, crossed a few gaps, made a few efforts and ultimately could do what I wanted. I am very pleased with my form, it is only Feb and there will be lots more to come as the season really gets going. For the rest of this month there will be a Springtime pursuit in Devon and then its off to Majorca for 2 weeks training with the team.

Till the next time take care.

Yanto

After a great 2 and a half weeks in Spain where I have been able to ride like a full time pro. I am happy with progress and sensations. My mind has now turned to the season and what I hope to achieve as it will need to be added into the big plan now. It's all about form cycles and they need considering now for the whole season. I'm looking at the Tour Series and Nationals now because it will influence what I do next week and the week after.

Pendragon-Colnago-Le Col will be doing a training camp end of Feb then were back to the UK for some races before heading back to Majorca for the Cintron Tour of Majorca with all the continental pro teams. This will be my first objective the week before the Rutland-Melton on April 17th. Then we hit a busy time with classic and exciting races such as the Lincoln GP before we begin the Tour Series races.

The next few weeks will see me lower the volume of training in favour of some intensity along with the first early season races in the UK. To top it off I have my new race bike to collect next week. Really pleased to be riding the new Colnago C59 in bastile day colours of red White and blue.

For now lots of visualisation is important for a good season so I'm going to go and do that now.

Form cycles

This week has been a good one training. We have done some quality miles on great roads which is all contributing to what I hope will be my most successful season so far. I am someone who needs to achieve the goals I set for my self. I don't ride round for the sake of it and this season is no different. I have been working on base miles but with some good quality intensity and strength work added in. One thing to consider is that all the intensity we do out training will bring us up in our own personal biological 'Form Cycle' part of being a successful athlete is understanding these cycles and how the racing and training intensity is influencing them. Then you can make your best form a choice not an accident. It takes a sixth sense to listen to on many occasions. You have to pay attention to the subtle indications your body is giving you every day and interpret them correctly. Then you know where you are and what to do about it. This makes it a real pleasure racing, you can then manage your expectations on what you will be capable of at any time. This I am sure will contribute vastly to the amount of success and failure you will experience in your season. Success is relative to our expectations. If we have managed them well they will match our capability, and if we have done the work out on the bike we should be able to fulfill our capability. That's the goal for the season any way, without being too soft so as to set your expectations too low and never truly fulfill out potential, but also not be unrealistic about what we want to achieve. How much you want to get out of your self, how close you want to push to the limit will depend on how much stress and pressure we are willing to manage on a daily basis. This will give you your ceiling. Have a think about how much pressure you are willing to manage to achieve your goals.

Enjoy the process.

Self worth

Interesting thoughts of the week;

Ho does self worth affect us and how do we get more of it by what we do?? Answers....
Well having had a little time on the bike recently I have been thinking about this. Combined with the experience of having 'retired' for a few years I remember what it was like not having a respectable job and nobody knowing what I have done. Quite an eye opener!! I say this because I was always told that the hardest year of my career as a cyclist would be the first one abroad, when you move out from your parents and to a foreign country where no one knows or cares that much about you, you will be far away from home and unable to communicate properly in a foreign language. Well for many years this was correct and the memory of saving up all week for a phone card to call and speak to my girlfriend back home stood out as a very hard year. That was until I decided I was not going to get to the level I'd always hoped in cycling and I was not going to make enough money to retired full time by the age of 36 or 37. So what should I do??.... I know stop now reinvent my self and start something new, a new career easy!!... NO not easy.

I stopped riding all together and took some time to think about what I wanted to do. It was hard I had no idea, worse I had so little experience of life outside of the cycling bubble. I realized how little I knew. I felt low and frustrated and learned the value of having conviction and direction in my life that was now missing all together. I realized how much of my self worth was attached to what I did and who noticed, to read articles about how I achieved what I did in cycling and journalists and fans coming and saying 'good job,' was a regular ego hit that I was reliant on for basic confidence, and now it was all gone and I felt low! Compounded by the fact I had stopped exercising completely and this also had an effect on my internal sense of satisfaction about life. I realized how lucky we are as sports men and women because so many people go to work every day anonymous in their life with rarely anyone to come and say 'hey great job,' 'I love the way you wrote that email,' or made that website, or any of those things, least of all journalists saying, 'the way you handled that meeting was great, where did you learn those skills?' Imagine that!! After a year and a half, I had been humbled by life outside of cycling. The confidence gone, I had also seen success in other areas of life by people very skilled in ways I had never even realized existed before. As a cyclist in the bubble, its easy to become conditioned to thinking, only cycling related results matter! I know good cyclists who look down on the public as punters not worth any time or attention. Even at races when they are obviously fans, this astounds me. Many of the people I met who are fans of cycling were successful in their business and deserved respect in their own right. I was glad to have my eyes opened to the fact the cycling world relative to the BIG world is so small!!!

I'm explaining all this as, after all these experiences I came back to cycling via skipping and rowing. I started exercising again to release stress and it worked, but my competitive nature came through again and I was trying to beat my PB every night after work. I thought I may as well start riding again and think about how to get back involved with a great sport that had given me so much. I am pleased now to be doing my business. It gives me a much broader involvement with a wider spectrum of people within the industry, its not so singular and gives me an opportunity to implement all my values and ambitions to the benefit of more then just me.

The reason I was thinking about all of this was because I believe our inner confidence influences how we ride, but also that riding contributes to inner confidence in many ways. For the pro's training is a means to an end, to be able to compete in races where doing well bears consequence on their life. But for those who don't have time to race, training is everything, training, racing, a way of gaining confidence from beating your mates. All this stuff influences us.

Have a think on how much cycling contributes to your confidence in life by making you look better, ride faster, or just the fresh air and a chat with the lads (or lasses) helps set you up for a good day or week.

One last thing, since last week was not a good week for the poor guys who lost their lives and the families who are left missing a loved one, be grateful for the simple grace of getting home safe after every ride. Its a dangerous place out there on the road and we should not take it for granted that we will make it back safe every day! My condolences go out to the families of the young guys who didn't come home last week. Lets all keep our eyes open and pay attention.