Hi again everyone!
I cant believe it has already been 3 months since I became the 1st rider for the Lewis Balyckyi trust fund, time certainly does fly!
Unfortunately I don’t have much to write about for my riding over April as I was ill for nearly the whole month! I raced the infamous Pennypot lane in North Yorkshire the 1st of April, needless to say I was a fool for it! It is a course where you are really exposed on the moors and climbing good old Yorkshire roads. The likes of Sean Yates has won on that particular circuit in the past so that just shows that it takes a real man to make his way around there. Unfortunately I was not on form for the day and it was the week that I came down with the typical sniffles, but u went in with a fresh head hoping for a good race. Once I arrived I was shocked to see how busy the road were wish parked cars, I thought I had rocked up to a premier calendar with the amount of vehicles and in particular the Motorpoint team car with 60kg twigs for men hanging out of the doors. I was always going to be a hard race where I was going to suffer as I am an all out sprinter. The break pretty much went straight away on the 1st lap on one of many hills and it soon found myself in the group with the riders that are more like myself with the 70kg+ builds. I slogged myself around in the group pulling turns but people were still attacking within our group which made it a really tough race for me. My energy levels started to be sapped rapidly and by 2 laps to go I blew going up the main climb to the start finish area as yet another attack went off. I was a bit gutted about not doing well but I knew that it was not my type of race, end of. I also knew that I could be coming down with an illness which turned out to be the case!
I had been sniffling for a few days after Pennypot lane but it soon started to deteriorate and I developed a nice cough to accompany my runny nose. This went on for a good two week and i really thought it was not going to shift, Its quite depressing that you’re seeing your season slip away at your fingertips just because of something that any non cyclist wouldn’t be too fussed about. I had to cancel two entries to races as I wasn’t in a great state to ride, but it has got better and I have been able to lift my intensity of riding in training to something above recovery rides! Hopefully the seasonal illness for me has gone for good now and that it will enable me to be stronger later on in the season when other people maybe wanting a bit of a rest because they have been going full on since the start of the season in early March.
Now for me it is about moving my levels of fitness up to a higher standard and for me to condition myself so that I am fully ready for my intense blocks of racing in June & July. For me, this is the business end of the season as I want to be able to get my face shown in the elite circuit race series as this is more suited to my style of riding! Hopefully I will have plenty more to talk about in next months blog as I have now got over this rubbish cold.
Over and out
Ashley
