Blogs

Hooray, January is finally over. I say finally, because it’s been an especially testing time on the bike. The climate has thrown the full gamut of weather at us, from snow to howling winds, sub zero temperatures to prolonged rain and everything else in between. Sometimes all at once within one ride.

Peterborough has been one of the staple rounds of the Halfords Tour Series since its inception but it appears that unless some alternative funding is found the event could well be facing the axe in 2013.

That would be a real shame as the Tour de France's arrival in 2014 could be enhanced and built up by Cambridge's near neighbour retaining its round of the popular criterium series.

To be fair, from a cycling point of view, I will be very disappointed if the withdrawal of funding for the event is confirmed.

There’s been a bit of a stutter with the project, just like all projects seem to suffer, shuffling all the parts together, waiting a bit, getting distracted by other stuff, but the hiemal grip is still tight and cold and dark so it’s still officially a Winter Project, and there’s still a lot of time to be spent hiding in the shed for while. “Strictly…” may be over, thank God, but “Come Dine With Me” seems to be on constantly, Lord save me.

My next phone is great. It's just what I've been waiting for.

It runs all kinds of different bike apps so I can take my pick. The GPS is really good too, they've worked on that. It's ANT+ and Bluetooth compatible too, so I can use any heart rate strap or sensor or power meter I want.

The theme for the penultimate day is “Weary”. Everyone is feeling the slow chipping away strain of unaccustomed day on day exercise and it’s a lackluster start on the bus up the valley to where Andy the guide takes advantage of a wide expanse of snow to let us brush up on our double-gating technique. Our hands are too high, or too low, they don’t come back far enough, we stand too tall and move like stiff soldiers, so we pole up and down trying to do it right, creaking.

The third day of going skiing by mistake starts with some panic stretching, just so I can make it down the stairs for breakfast. Most everything hurts from unfamiliar movement, unfamiliar use and unfamiliar hitting the ground - calves, back, shoulders, arms, and especially those bits that join the insides of your thighs to the top half of your body. Those feel tight enough to snap if I cough.

So the cycling season returns, and we love to get engaged in fantasy games, especially trying something new. The new concept this year is that of trying to emulate the challenge of Director Sportifs picking a squad for a whole season, balancing the aspect of budgets with collating the best assortment of riders to combat the variety of races throughout a season. As well as just the racing the team needs to accumulate enough UCI points to guarantee its spot on the World Tour.

What does a pro-cycling team need to do to kick off the new season in style?  Apart from ensuring that they actually have a license that is, and preparing scripted soundbites for their riders to use when asked about a certain disgraced Texan...

I appear to be skiing. I hate skiing.

For the last few years road.cc's fantastic fantasy cycling competition has allowed us all to get in touch with out inner Team Principals and Director Sportifs as our teams battle for supremacy.  So much so that its easy to lose sight of just how tough their jobs really are.