February started with a gentle R&R week, which was nice after a pretty intense January.  This was immediately followed by a cold which held me back for another 10 days, it also meant I had to miss my first competitive events of the year.  A bit of a ‘gutter’ but it’s a long season!  While I had a cold I drove down south to stay at Ken’s house. 

My cold had just about cleared up on the Sunday, so I took a ride over to watch the Perfs RR.  As I got there the race had already split and it was pleasing to see one of my training partners, Dave Clarke, in the break.  It was good to see a few faces again and did wonders for the motivation to “show ‘em how it’s done”.  (This is however a lot easier said than done, and when you’re in the race you soon take that thought back!!) 

The following week I got plenty of ‘solid’ training in, finishing with a time trial on the Saturday and a circuit race on the Sunday.  I rode the TT last year and finished 2nd, so was keen to go one better! 

It had a bigger and better field this year with the same fast-men from last year plus a few more (including Sean and Christian Yates).  As a result, I was a little nervous and pretty anxious especially with this being my first time trial since winning the U23 National Title! 

The course was “draggy” with some technical corners and some uneven surfaces, and on the day it was a sunny with a slight breeze.  I had a decent ride and when I’d finished, I felt I couldn’t have done much more on the day, so was satisfied for the first ride of the year.

I was off early so I had a long wait to see how other riders had done, but nevertheless no one could better my time of 37.25!  Thanks to Steve Locke for the use of his very nice wheels – see the picture opposite.

Then next day was a circuit race, which didn’t go exactly as planned but I finished 8th and so got a few points on the board before setting off for Belgium!  I had a really good workout though with a good hour of motor pacing before and after the race! 

The next week was quite unpleasant to say the least!  It started with a toe infection (in-growing toe nail), which persisted until Friday, the day I left for Belgium.  Then on the day I left, chronic toothache!  The heavy traffic from road works and crashes on the M1, M40 and M25, and then hitting rush hour near Brussels, made it one of the most horrible car journeys of my life!  After what felt like a lifetime, I made it here! 

I’m staying in one of the houses I stopped at for a bit last year, which is in Tielt-Winge, nr Leuven, about 40km east of Brussels.  It’s a nice village with good scenery when out training.  There are currently 6 riders here including the British Pro Road Race Champion, Hamish Haynes and Matt Brammiere, so I'm in good company. 

Sunday was my Club Championships – where I won my first trophy and flowers of the year!  The race was combined with 3 other local teams, which made 53 riders for the Elite race and 20 laps of a 5km circuit.  I wasn’t expecting to go well at all today after the cold, infected toe and travelling, February’s training also hadn’t gone to plan, and to rub salt in the wound, most of my team mates had been training in Spain for the last two weeks! 

The race started and to show my face whilst I was still in the race, I put in a few attacks at the front.  On my third one, after about 20km, I got away on my own, hoping someone would come across, I stayed there for 10km before getting caught by the peleton to be counter attacked by 3 riders!  This looked quite a strong move at a good time in the race and they soon got 30 seconds on the peleton.

 I then got in a chase group of 3 and proceeded to ‘batter’ across!  We closed the 30 second gap in just over 4km, our group being closely followed another pair. We built the lead up to a maximum of a minute and a half.  I’d volunteered for more of a domestique role today and was therefore doing quite a bit of work as we had the majority of riders in the break. 

In the last 10km the attacks started coming thick and fast!  I followed a few moves but nothing stayed until I attacked out of a technical corner and it finally split into ones and twos!  I managed to hold on for 3rd place overall, 1st from my team and so was crowned Club Champion! 

I’ve now been selected for the Beverbeek Classic, a UCI 1.2 Pro race on the 3rd March. 

Dan