Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Team Photo's

Team photos is suppose to be easy right……..Hair, makeup, smile = job done! All sounds pretty straight forward, the hardest challenge myself and Lieselot had that day was actually making it to Limburg in one piece!

Throughout this season we will be sharing the driving. We live about 30Km apart, in English terms 20miles! Basically its stupid to take 2 cars, so considering she drove last time it meant for this road trip it was my turn! Easy, I meet her at Gent, put her bag and bike into my car and we leave for Limburg. How wrong could I have been!

This day happened to be quite a fierce storm, not just hitting Belgium but also back home in Britain too. Lieselot has a Citroen C1, the rear of which or boot area happens to be made mostly of glass. In the time it had taken me to get out of my car, and for Lieselot to lift the boot and remove her bike there was this almighty BOOM!

My first reaction, and I have no idea why, was to shield my face! Turned out, however, to be the right decision. Glass was flying everywhere, mostly towards me as that happened to be the direction of the wind. So, now, instead of packing my car, we both in some serious shock! And it didn’t take long before we worked out what had caused, what can only be described as a sudden sand storm of glass! With the intensity of the wind Lieselot’s boot just shattered and completely smashed to pieces. I knew the wind was strong but that strong. In the shock of the car incident I completely forgot about my wheels that I had removed from my car in order to put her bike in. I was now watching them roll across the road as the wind was causing havoc! So there I was running across a fairly main road after my wheels! Good start to the day and we still had the 2 hour drive to Limburg!

The thing is despite having such a bad start the rest of the day actually went off relatively easy. Team photos were due to take three hours, well that was the time slot we had, but with these things you should always expect to be there a little longer. These things take time! My attitude to team pictures is; this photo is going to be the photo you have to have for a whole season so better make it a good one! I mean 14 girls, everyone has to have their make-up done, and it’s just going to take time! As I write this I have not yet seen what the pictures look like, so fingers crossed I have a good photo for the next 12 months…..

So, that’s another blog done, the next will come after the training camp in Pego! Who knows what can happen there but for sure there is going to be a few tales to tell!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Year - New Team

Ending the old starting the new, how do you celebrate bringing in a New Year! One answer and only one answer, London Town, without a doubt! The New Year, regardless of what Australia think, is not the New Year until Big Ben strikes! What better way than spending the start of the year in your home city with thousands of other people. It's the only time of year where, kind of, everyone becomes friends and celebrates together.

So it's official 2012 is finally here and now I can finally say I am a Dolmans-Boels Cycling Team rider, and boy I am so happy to be able to say that! I am so happy to be part of a team that is going places and cannot wait to get this season under way!

I've decided this year I am going to be writing a blog to keep you all updated on what I'm up to! I did, however, decided I was going to do this every other year too but this year is the year, well at least it feels like it right now anyway!

With the girls that I will be spending the year with I am 100% sure there will be some funny stories and tales to be told. So stay posted because from what I learnt from the girls so far some of the stories are going to be totally unmissable!

So, what's next, well no rest for the wicked is what's next! I leave for Belgium in the morning (2nd January), as team photos are calling for the next day. Sure to be a barrel of laughs! Then it's straight back to Spain and another episode of Lost in Pego, so part 2 is quickly upon us. But, training in Spain is amazing, it's without a doubt one of the best places to go for a bike rider and I for one cannot wait to get back out there!

So, I'm off, packing, cleaning, a short ride is the order of the day today! So Happy New Year to you all, hope it's a successful one in whatever walk of life you are from!

Bring on on 2012!