The past 2 months have been fairly quite due to a persistent illness that kept coming back so i was unable to race and train properly because as soon as i felt better and started to train i would end up ill again but now after a few trips to the doctor and a lot or boring hours in bed i am back in full training and racing and the form is coming good quickly.
My first race back was just over 2 weeks ago now in herentout after a solid week of training i was expecting to find my self in difficulty because it was my first race back and i was unsure of my condition coming into the race but i soon found my self comfortably sat in the bunch and able to finish a respectable 36 in my first race back after so long off racing which gave me alot of confidence coming into my next race.
The following Sunday i raced in nijlen it was a fairly big race for a kermess lots of riders but i had spoke with my coach and we decided that i would just follow to get used to racing again. It was 40 degrees and a fast race i got round again comfortably and finished around 50th which was ok because my intention was just to follow because the following weekend i would be aloud to race properly again and try to get a result.
The next race i was feeling good and up for trying to get in the breaks and i spent the first hour of racing trying my hardest to break away but the race was simply to fast with and average speed of 48kph nothing was able to get away so it was down to a bunch sprint i had a go at getting up the front in the last few km but i just didnt have the legs because i had done to much earlier in the race but i still managed to finish in the front half of the bunch so i took the positives away from it because at the start of the season i couldnt even finish and now i am able to try and get in moves and race the race rather than sit in and try and get around.
Two days later i had my next race which was a course full of corners normally i would love a course like that but i felt blocked at the start i still tried to follow moves but the first 5 laps i was full gas the whole time and i missed both breaks of 15 or so riders so i spent the rest of the race trying with small groups to bridge the gap to one of the breaks but unfortunately the bunch was riding to negatively so i decided to have a go at the bunch sprint where i ran a top 7 out of the bunch which put me just inside the top 40, I was alittle disappointed that i had missed the breaks but it is still a big improvement and i had another race two days later then a 8 day gap for training .
The next race was a crit it was a 3km lap with about 10 or 12 corners and 30 laps it was nuts there was 120 starters and it was very hot i got front row at the start and decided i wanted to be in the front from the start or i would be suffering the whole race so i went hard from the start to stretch it out before the corners, a break slipped away for the first hour of racing i stayed in the front of the bunch because again the average speed was high so the break was always going to come back but it also ment the bunch was getting ripped apart the finishing straight was out of a slow 90 degree right and 600meters long or more and we would come out of it and just go full gas i was in the 53-12 spinning my arse off every lap. after about and hour and a half i looked round and the bunch was about half its original size. I managed to get round to the finish after suffering for a few laps and having a fruitless big dig with 4 to go i sat in for the sprint and ran a top 30 and later found out there was only 42 finishers out of 120 so i thought i had had a pretty good day.
Also this month i have been talking alot with the owner of the house i live in who is also the manager of his own team and he as asked if i would like to stay and ride the cyclo cross for his team which is a massive opportunity for me because i can ride at a high level all winter and then come home for the national championships and try for a good result there.
I would again like to say thank you to the fund as non of this would be possible without the help and support from them.
Tom
