A week with the best

[-Adam-]

As some of you know, last week I had a gruelling schedule:

Sunday June 28th: British National Championships, Abergavenny.
Wednesday July 1st: Rochdale GP (Part of the Elite Crit series)
Friday July 3rd: Tour of Blackpool (Elite Crit Series)
Sunday July 5th: Tour of Blackpool (Premier Calendar)

''The strongest field in years'' was the phrase that was ringing in my ears as we set off into the Friday afternoon rush hour on our way to wales. Thats right, I'm racing Cav, Wiggins, Millar, Hammond, Hunt, Lloyd, Fleeman, Cummings, Swift, Stannard, Thomas, Froome etc etc... And they're on top of the usual Premier Calendar lads that have kicked my ass on the last two attempts. My junior team mates duly got a kicking on the Saturday morning, so we had a nice icecream while watching the womens race that afternoon. Once that was out the way the nerves started coming, in the morning it was my turn.

The race itself was incredibly fast, the first hour covered over 30 miles, and if you know the area, you'll know its far from flat. 60km into the race a crash just ahead of me held me up for all but a few seconds, but at that speed, it was enough. I was in the convoy, but we came to another climb so being in the cars was no good, beings as none of them were mine so I could hardly hold onto them! So I never made it back, it was just too fast. I continued on, rode up the tumble much to the delight of the crowd, who clearly enjoyed the sadistic side of it all. Past the feed, and in 25km, I had lost 16 minutes to the front group, but when you consider Rob Hayles was 9 minutes down at that point that kind of puts it in perspective. I arrived at the finishing circuits after 97km, and was not allowed to continue on. I was not alone, 166 people started the race, only around 45 or so were allowed onto the short 7km finishing circuit. As it was I was somehow placed 93rd, and 36th Under 23. It was just disappointing to be distanced by a crash, and not to get to see what point I would have survived to on physical merit. The highlight though had to be getting to line up next to Kenneaugh, hopefully I'll get to be his domestique one day! Oh, and following Cav through the neutralised section was pretty cool, the little fat boy!

Rochdale, we drove up and back in a day, crazy! It took hours to get there, as the traffic was madness, the M40 was not playing ball so we arrived with literally just an hour to prepare for the start. As you know it was pretty hot last week, a fact my contact lenses did not enjoy. As we were waved away for the start, I put my head down only to blink and lose one of the said contact lenses. As a result I lost contact through not being able to see where I was going, not good for one of the more technical crits I have ridden. After a while my eyes settled down, and when the bunch came back around I was able to match the pace. Duly I finished, and rather cheekily managed to get placed 26th, happy days. Then for the drive home, I got to bed just after 3am.

Then for the Blackpool weekend. Unfortunately our manager was unable to travel up on the friday with us, so we had to drive ourselves. Under normal traffic this would have been fine, as it was we left Crawley at 11am, and got to Blackpool at 7pm. The journey planner had reckoned on 4 hours... hmm. So again, a rushed preparation and driving legs were not ideal for the start of an elite crit. This course was boring, just up the prom one way. U-turn, then back along the other, past the tower, U-turn, and back to the finish. Essentially it was just a half a mile sprint from each turn to the next, and to be quite frank, I just didn't have the legs. I stayed with the bunch for 4 laps, then rode for 25 minutes more before being pulled out. Well, that was worth the drive we thought! Our hotel was a half hour outside of Blackpool, it was already 10pm, so McDonalds it had to be for dinner. Another souless hotel, another overly complicated check in as who was here, wasn't who was meant to be here! Straight to bed.

The saturday was much better, a nice chilled out recce of the course for Sunday's Prem and a coffee by the sea. Shower, siesta, then we got the pub next to the hotel to put the Tour on the TV, life was good.

Onto the Prem, now then, as you know the last couple of attempts haven't been all that successful in the Premier Calendar, so I was really up for this one. On paper, it's the easiest one, just under 100 miles, but literally pan flat, and on big open roads. Unless it was windy, it should be a walk in the park. The 7 miles out of Blackpool to the circuit were pretty dodgy, parked cars everywhere and riders swinging about all over the place, all ar 60km/h... nice! Once onto the circuit things calmed a little, the was always a break going, but never away. As a result we were averaging 30mph for quite a while. Eventually after about 100km, a break was allowed to go, the Pinerello lads seemed uninterested in this one. For about 10 miles, the bunch was rolling along at around 35km/h, just like a club run. I started to believe I was gonna finish...

Eventually, Rob Hayles, Malcom Elliot and Dave Clarke got to the front and started drilling it. But the break it would seem, would not relent. So we came to the run back to Blackpool, excellent I thought, my first Prem finish is all but in the bag. The run in was equally as dodgy as the run out, no one was willing to control the sprint. I shared a joke with Ed Clancy that everyone seemed mighty keen to come 15th (at that point, thats what we were sprinting for), he laughed, and said 'follow me lad!'. In the brief moment of hesitation I had, he was gone. Low and behold, he won the bunch sprint, which after most of the break was caught, meant he finshed about 7th or so. I couldn't make my mind up whether I wanted to risk the sprint, it was pretty dodgy, realistically I lack the experience still for finishes like that, this aint no Charlwood sprint. I ended up crossing the line in 53rd place, which I was happy with considering all I wanted to do was finish!

So after a mixed week, and over 2000 miles on the road, you can perhaps understand why I was so up for an evening time trial on a rainy tuesday night this week! I was certainly pretty tired come Sunday night/Monday, that was a lot of travelling, and a lot of racing, and a big challenge mentally. It's hard starting race after race, knowing your just making up the numbers and just surviving if you can. I'll be glad of a weekend off now, Oasis at Wembley on Sunday... you gotta roll with it!!

[Sylv]

All that driving.. I couldn't do it

[carl f]

Fantastic stuff Adam,what a great experience for you
Oasis at wembley?,pah! i saw em at earls court in 95 when they we're good!!

[Snoop Doug]

Top stuff Adam it's great to hear about all this top drawer stuff

Now - the important stuff.

Oasis @ Marquee club just before release of 1st single. Liam and Noel spent most of the time offering the whole audience outside. Hilarious!

Fast Forward

Oasis @ Maine Road. VIP tickets in the Kippax stand. Sat next to half the brookie cast having a laugh. Manics supported, very good gig.

FF a bit more

Oasis @ Aberdeen Exhibition Centre. Backstage passes, awesome gig. Spent a long evening getting trashed with support act Travis (well you can't win 'em all eh) and Alan McGee. He reckoned it was the best Oasis gig he'd seen, and who was I to disagree.

Good fun but not as good as seeing The Damned in The Star - West Croydon. Rockin!

[Sylv]

I saw Radiohead at a FNAC showcase before anyone had heard of them, 92 or 93, Thom Yorke had fuzzy hair. Adam you were 3!!!

[Sylv]

[quote="Snoop Doug"] Alan McGee.

[carl f]

Ok snoop you've out done me there mate,would loved to have caught em in there early early days
I reckon the e.court gig was oasis at their peak,fresh and edgy in 94 peak of their stardom in 95,after 95-sh$te

[Michelle]

Before this thread gets hijacked too much.

Great Adam, really good to read you are still going for it, despite the frustrations and the setbacks. Isn't this why the pros wear a good luck charm or cross round their necks? Because bike racing has a largish percentaget to do with luck.

Nice for you to finish your first premier calendar race too. Looking forward to hearing your exploits when things finally settle down a bit.



BTW, Keith and I got married at Knebworth, home of the massive Oasis concert (1997). In fact we went to view the wedding venue 2 days after said concert. The grounds were in shambles, big towering pyramids of black bin bags everywhere. Gave you an indication of how huge the event was.

[Andrew G]

God that sounds like hard work Adam. Well done on your first Premier finish. I'm with Sylv on the driving though, that'd kill me.

[Jim B]

Wow, good effort.
Sounds tough but you're hanging in there. Gotta be up there to get the experience. No point being a big fish in a small pond.
Get some laser eye surgery and ditch the contact lenses. Having said that I used to have some white ones that I wore back when I was a raver. Made me look like an alien. Maybe they would be good for racing in to scare the opposition!

[Ian A4size]

oasis were, and always will be -shite!

[quote="Sylv"]I saw Radiohead at a FNAC showcase before anyone had heard of them, 92 or 93, Thom Yorke had fuzzy hair. Adam you were 3!!!

[Graham O]

Colne in deepest lancashire near to yorkshire border....its ropey !!

[-Adam-]

Fantastic, up there tomorrow evening to take another kicking at the hands of 48 year old Malcom Elliot...

[adrian]

The unanswered question is why you didn't stay over somewhere in Lancs between the 'dale and 'pool crits.