Cycling, with a Mechanical Engineering degree on the side

Hello! After many years (and many attempts at remembering my Blogspot password...) I'm finally writing again. I'm pretty sure I say in basically every blog post that it's going to become a more regular thing, so I'll avoid that- but hopefully it will...

The last two years have been a whirlwind for me- between my time working at Hoops Velo, rolling around Europe with Just Pedal, and (shock) finally starting my degree at Loughborough Uni, my blog fell by the wayside a bit.

So yes, the main change- university! As my dad likes to joke, "studying cycling with a Mechanical Engineering degree." And as everyone else likes to remind me "the worst degree choice to combine with competitive sport." Neither statement is particularly far from the truth...

After completing my A Levels, going to uni was the last thing on my mind. In all honesty I'd been pretty fed up with education since about year 10, but I thought I'd be sensible and apply with a deferral. One year on I thought to myself "maybe I should defer again..." And so, in September 2015, two years after most of my friends, I finally bit the bullet and started my degree at Loughborough Uni.

The next few months were a blur: going from my pretty much set routine of "work; train; sleep; race" into "drinksleeplecturetraindrinkdrinklecturetrainnaplecturesleep" was a massive shock to the system. Eventually January exams rolled round and reality had to set in- whereas A-levels were tough but I always knew I'd pass, at University there was a genuine chance if I screwed up I'd be out. And that wouldn't be ideal...

Grinding up a climb in a particularly chilly road race...

Throughout all this, despite what everyone seemed to believe, I had actually been training really hard. I was lean, I'd been riding on the track throughout the winter for some top end fitness, I had a new team in the form of TBW Bottecchia UK- I was buzzing to go. Then in April, it all came unstuck. 

My first few races of the year had been steady, but promising- I usually take a few weeks to ride into the season, and in mid April I really hit my stride. Guiding out in Andalucia with Just Pedal I was flying up the climbs, hitting numbers I'd never seen before. Then, on my first day back in the UK, I hit a pothole at 38mph while racing in the Les Ingman Memorial Road Race. My head did an excellent job as a braking surface. Wear a helmet, kids!

Waiting for the pain to kick in. It did. Hard.

After that, 2016 didn't get any better. It took weeks to get properly back on the bike, summer exams came and went, and I could never find my form again. I was having massive problems with fatigue, coordination, dizziness on the bike- basically anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Occasionally I'd have glimmers of the level I was riding at before, but I could never quite hold it. In summary, on the bike at least, 2016 was shit.

Thankfully I've had an incredibly supportive team around me both on and off the bike. My plans for 2017 are already taking shape, and hopefully with a good winter I can fix all the various problems that held me back this year. And on that note- until next time!