Mallorca to Colombia to Glasgow to now.....

The first world cup I got to do without any major hiccups before or during it. At this point it was a couple of weeks ago that I set off for Cali with the hopes of turning my season around. Let’s just say it wasn't the result that I was looking for. I’ve been in a bit of a mental funk since so excuse the radio silence. I’m on my home from the latest cycling Revolution in Glasgow where I got some good racing in and I’m feeling slightly better about myself. I love racing in front of the Scots, it must be a Celtic thing as they give me some great support.

Inside the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.

Rewind!

I touched down in Cali with 3 days to go until race day, the initial problem was my pursuit bike didn't turn up!! Fairly expected as it’s a long way from home and it’s Colombia. I did pack my essentials like shoes and pedals but they're pretty useless when you've no bike to attach them to but I did have my bunch bike to get me going. The first few training sessions I used my bunch bike and borrowed some stuff from others to get training with the guys for the team pursuit. The boxes with all the essentials eventually arrived the day before the racing and we were all good to go.

First up was the team pursuit and it was a bit of a non-event but not a disaster. We had a few boxes that we wanted to tick and we missed out on a few of them. During the race itself I wasn’t on my best day which didn't help things but it was what it was, pretty average. 

After I chalked the team pursuit to the back of my mind I shifted my focus onto the Omnium and I was ready to go. I have numerous expletives that I’m really tempted to use when talking about this race but in a weird way I’m enjoying working hard on stuff that I’m brutal at. I’m just waiting for it to pay off.

Excuse me but this is going to be brief! I’m going to use a race by race format as I don't want to dwell on the bad side of things. My race was very average and generally below average across the board.

Scratch race: Crap result, I raced reasonably well though and found myself off the front inside 10 laps to go. That wasn't really my plan but I wasn't going to put the brakes on. As my legs folded under me and my vision clouded over it all came to nothing inside the last 100 metres, from 1st to 14th in a blink.





4k Individual pursuit: More averageness but not brutal. 8th place and a well paced effort so I couldn't complain about that result too much. Just more gas needed!

Elimination race: F#@*ing! B#@*#*D! Useless f#*king d#*khead! Were probably the first words to come out of my mouth, I’m sure it’s on video somewhere. 23rd place and more stuff to feed my nightmares.

The night in-between was grand. Pretty low morale and some serious contemplating was done but I had to shake it off and try again the next day.

Kilometre TT: A glitch with the gate at the start meant I started my effort, got pulled by the gate and had go back, get on the rollers, re-motivate myself and go again at the end. I ended up starting more cautious the second time so as not to be caught by the gate which cost me.    1min 04.9sec placed me 16th and a 1min 04.0secs would have place me 7th. Again, I was on the wrong side of the slimmest margins. 





Flying lap: It was what it was, average. 13.6 was middle of the road but again the fact that I was on the wrong side of a few hundredths just summed up my day.

Points Race: 160laps (40k) and the pain and misery would be over. My race was crap again and I was pretty much a passenger for most of the race. It wasn't a total disaster as I raced hard and did get points here and there but I barely moved on the GC and my Cali world cup came to a dismal end. 





With a passion, I hate going home with nothing. When the day comes where I’m happy going home with an average performance, I’m done, no more racing. I race for my country and I want to show off how good it is. When I make an impact - it’s generally a big one.

Next up is the World Championships in Paris, wish me luck! 


M

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