Second day in Majorca, with cuts and bruises!

Hey folks!  I'm glad to tell ya that my body isn't in to bad of shape and everything works the way it should, even if it hurts a bit.  As I expected, getting out of bed this morning was interesting but once I was up and moving I felt ok.

Today I was up at 6.50am and on the road for 7.30am.  Andy had set us up with a guy called Ken who was going to take us to a group spin and keep us right.  We met Ken at 8.15am and headed straight over to meet up with the group.  When I say group I mean bloody massive bunch!!  There had to have been 80 guys all raring to go.  The spin started out really steady, probably to steady as I was freezing.  It soon got going and there was men jumping of the front like there was a finish line near by.  All was going well until somebody decided to lie down in front me and the first thing that crossed my mind was "F##K, not again!"  Thankfully though they seemed to skid away from me and I was safe as houses.  After a bit of a break to get everyone sorted and the wait for the ambulance we were of again.  I think the guy wrecked his ribs. There was some difference in speed than before the crash, i think everyone just wanted to get home in one piece now.  With 2hours 30min done the group stopped for a coffee and a sandwich and boy was I glad, starved at this point.  For the next hour some poor cafe had 40-50 cyclist all over the place like ants.  It really was a cool environment, everyone was laughing and having the craic.  I'm sure it was good craic but they were all spanish and I didn't have a clue what they were saying.

    This is only a couple of guys that were on the spin!!

With everyone fed and watered it was time to head back and everyone was keen!  The pace was 'brisk' for the next 2 hours and I was probably going harder that I should have been.  By this point in the spin and with an hour and a half to go I was starting to ache.  My palms were in bits where I'd been playing with tarmac and my scuffed knee was starting to tell me things I didn't want to hear.  Keeping the pressure on was a nice way of forgetting how sore I was and before I new it I was back at the hotel. 

After 30 minutes of icing everything that hurt I went out to lunch with Felix and just chilled out for awhile.  The rest of the evening will consist of as little as possible and that's all I have to tell ya so I'm off.

M

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It just feels right…..

Image
Well, I never actually thought this day would come. All through my cycling career I’ve seen teammates old and new “retire.”   Something that I initially thought could be the worst thing ever to happen to me. As I sit here here now typing this it just feels right. Don’t get me wrong though, this decision I have not taken lightly. Something has just happened to me over the last 1-2 years and I can’t really pin point it. Okay, I’ve had a few crashes that have left metal inside me but I came back from them. I mean, I won a European medal 6 months after breaking my hip! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that its a mental thing. However, its not that simple. I really miss racing, even now when I’ve barely stopped. It just feels like a natural end though. For the last year I’ve been racing and under performing across the board. Frustration has been setting in all year and I’m sick of just turning up to bike races. I set my own bar by winning 7 medals in a row. Worl
Read more

Up to date...finally!

Image
A smart man said he read my blog and thought, "What's this crap, its out of date" So, part 2 of "out of date, up to date" I left you after I had somehow pulled a medal out of my backside and that's exactly how I feel. World Champ medals are hard to come by. I had the minimum amount of track time and a below average build up.  The only thing got me that medal was the desire to have it!  Anyway, America! A word that I have used a lot. This year though the meaning of it has slightly changed, just slightly. I'll come back to that some other time. My road season started off in Taiwan with a stage race and after that I was a blow in, B string crit rider. UHC have an awesome team and it's pretty hard to even get a start with them in the first place.  Honestly I never really got going with the crit guys and I'm not really sure why. I know I have the engine to do the job but mentally I wasn't there. I was willing and able to do what the
Read more
Just to be clear! I felt the need to say something because I feel like the “hard done by” theme is being put out there when it comes to myself. I am really happy! All the stuff you have been reading is true, not a word of a lie but people are jumping on the - lack of, shoulda, woulda coulda stuff. I loved racing bikes. When I got shit at racing bikes, I stopped! I still love the thought of racing but getting paid for it was becoming hard to do. I do feel that things need to change to help young athletes become champions. It’s not cycling that is the problem, it’s not the sports council’s problem, it’s not the sponsors fault, it’s ours! All these organizations meet demand to a degree, there are exceptions though! The sports that get the help in Ireland are the highest supported sports when it comes to bums on seats. There was a Class 1 UCI race held in Ireland last year. It was a track race, I was in it and it was held at Sundrive Velodrome. It was ran perfectly, ever
Read more