Bike Racing / Dream Chasing

It’s that butterfly time of year again. The Pro Tour is back on TV, the calendar is starting to take shape, and rather than conversations about training programs and base layers, you find that spring, Europe, and bike racing are being bandied about in their place. It’s about time, too!

For me this means starting to think about moving back to Belgium, hence the butterflies. With details coming in about training camps, kit, bike, and calendar, one can’t help but look forward in earnest. The start of the season is always like this; and it’s best to make the most of it as there will sure as hell be more tears than smiles by the time the season is through.

This is the first winter in a couple of years that I have been coached, after being set up with a coach through the team. The fact that he also happens to be our landlord, and run the local gym in Zottegem, all helps in keeping things in close contact. I have noticed that the perceived workload has been less than I would usually do. In previous years I would not think twice about doing  4, 5, or 6 hour rides, day after day, throughout the winter, but the longest I have done so far is 4 hours, and it is only in the last couple of weeks that I have had more than 3 of these in a week.  Up until Christmas there was a lot of core work, turbo sets, and some running – ending in me spontaneously running my first half marathon! Like I said, I perceive it as less, but in reality it’s just a more structured, gradual plan. Hopefully this means that by August, I will still have plenty left in the tank, unlike previous years.

Off the bike, I have had a really enjoyable winter. I decided after 2 years spending my winter days working as a waiter and bartender, I needed something a touch more stimulating. Lawrence at the TriStore in Eastbourne was good enough/pitied me enough to give me a Saturday job, and that’s been something I’ve really enjoyed.  Working with bikes with people who like bikes – what’s not to love? During the week I’ve been working at a local gym/sports event business http://www.tlsportsevents.co.uk/. This has been another extremely rewarding job, helping out at the gym, taking spin classes, and now getting involved with the events company too, particularly with my home town’s very own:  Eastbourne Cycling Festival! We have just got back from a week of promoting the event at the London Bike Show, and it looks to be a very promising weekend. TL have even been generous enough to sponsor me for the coming season as well, so I am very grateful to them and The Tristore for their combined help.

I’m going to carry on working until the end of January to keep my funds topped up for the year, and then start preparing for the season properly. I have been fortunate enough to be granted conditional funding from The Dave Rayner Fund this year, so money worries have been minimal. This has the priceless effect of letting me concentrate on what’s important for now – bike riding!

The first main event of the season will be the ‘Viasport Publi-led Cycling Team’ training camp, which is going to be in Tuscany, Italy, in early February, but I will probably go to Belgium before hand, just to sort out my bike set up, and more importantly to shotgun my room in the house! After that it’s the team presentation on the 11th Feb, after which I’ll come back home for a couple of weeks, before finally moving out for good around the 20th. Racing then kicks off on the weekend of the 26th with the early season classic, Gent-Staden.

Here’s to wishing everyone a good year, on and off the bike.

I lost my London Bike Show virginity this weekend, and now in retrospect I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to do so, because what an event it is.

The reason for my attendance was to promote Eastbourne Cycling Festival, as the event has been taken over by TL Sports Events, http://www.tlsportsevents.co.uk/ who I have been working for over the winter. My other employer, The Tristore, http://www.thetristore.com/are also the lead sponsor for the event, so it was clearly something I was destined to get involved in!

The show ran from Thursday to Sunday, but with all bases covered during the week I showed up for extra help at the weekend, the two busiest days.

And they WERE busy.

As a relatively modest stand and no physical product to sell, I am sure we were comparatively not the busiest, but nonetheless we continued to make valuable contacts for the Festival; and for the multitude of things that are going on it is quite a varied list, I can tell you.  I spoke to clothing companies, cycle touring companies, nutritionists, manufacturers, a bloke who’s attempting the world circumnavigation by bike record, and a man with a penny farthing business to name but a few. So enthused were our networking efforts I am now having to resist the urge to put a # or an @ in every sentence I write.

As well as closed road crit racing, youth races, Rollapaluza, and a sportive, there are also the new additions of a trade marquee, cycle exhibitions, a 5k fun run, and a duathlon – so when you think about that, the diversity involved is understandable (and brilliant).

So, stay in touch, get all the info, and enter all the events here> http://eastbournecyclingfestival.co.uk/#, and follow the necessary twitter profiles, @PaulHoldaway1 @TLSportsEvents @thetristore <there ,and see you on the 19^th + 20^th of May!

A lot of thinking is generally done when I am riding my bicycle. Occasionally they may be meaningful, or even mildly interesting thoughts, but for the most part the hours tend to be whiled away by pointless wanderings of whatever lies between my ears. This is one of them.

Sunglasses are quite a big factor of the appearance of a cyclist, in particular a racing cyclist. The specs of choice can make or break an entire look. Self admittedly, it’s a crime I have committed in the past on many an occasion, but there is no denying the importance of sunglasses when regarding the cool factor of a rider. It’s something that could be deliberated over for hours, but my friend Simon has a done a great overlook in his blog here http://www.saltedmackerel.cc/2011/05/shades/

Today I was not thinking of style though. It was more the mental effects sunglasses have on the model. The effects of sunglasses have often been talked about when concerning other competitors, the main one being the fact that they cannot see your eyes, and therefore your level of physical distress. Or simply “that dude looks cooler than me”.

So finally, to the point in hand. I think that when you wear sunglasses, it helps to separate you from your surroundings. Granted, this is not always a good thing, but at the same time it can also be a very big positive. You often hear phrases such as “in the zone” bandied about, and for good reason when talking about maximum performance, because quite frankly you need to be.  When I ride with glasses, I do honestly feel like I am in my own little world. Turning the pedals becomes thoughtless, breathing becomes constant, and motion becomes fluid (the last point remains unproven). I find that the odd scratch or trickle of sweat on the glass just helps to reiterate the fact that all you can see is separated from what matters, which is what is going on behind the glass, and behind your eyes. If I am to push my glasses on top of my head, it really is like flicking a switch, like re-entering reality after being in a limbo of mindless pedalling.

I have been known to sit on my turbo trainer, after dark, in my garage…wearing sunglasses and sleeping earplugs. Like glasses, the same theory applies with the earplugs. Obviously out on the road it would be suicidal, but on the turbo I find that complete silence helps me to concentrate. I just can’t understand why people like listening to music during efforts, to me it’s like having a little person in your head singing, dancing, and distracting, while you are grimacing in agony. The silence really helps you to disconnect from the situation; you can’t hear the constant whurr of the turbo, nor the intermittent groans that you inevitably make. What you don’t know won’t hurt you, so the more you can hide from your brain, the more you can concentrate on what’s important, and that’s doing the interval.

So next time you don the eyewear, take a look from a different perspective and see if you can see where I’m coming from.

Oh and for the record….I hate time trialling.

As I’ve been without a computer for the past 3 months, updating the blog has been somewhat of an issue. Now that I’m back though, I’ve borrowed one for the time being, and managed to get an update done for www.cyclosport.org…..

The Vuelta has finished, the World Champs is drawing ever closer, leg warmers are the accessory of choice when out training, and the need for sunglasses is becoming increasingly slim. These are just a few things to remind us all that the end of the season is nigh, and I for one am quite relieved that it’s the case.

Even though I’m finishing my season a whole month earlier than last year, I feel more than ready to take my annual leave and start preparing for 2012. My physical condition has been gradually decreasing since a very heavy 2 weeks I had at the end of July and beginning of August, in which I had a 5 day stage race, a Cup of Belgium race, as well as a UCI 1.2. Despite notching a few good results in the closing stages of 2011, a programme like this will, as they say, make or break you, and I think in my case it broke me for the year!

This year has been my first ‘full’ season, racing from start to finish, with no problems mid season like I have had in previous years, which I think have acted as an unplanned mid season break and resulted in good form until the end. Muur to muur racing this year has taken it’s toll, and although my strength has wilted slightly, I’m sure when my body has compensated for the seasons efforts it will set me in good stead for the future. For the sake of multimedia, you can even watch me display my bad form and get dropped from a break in this video from the Tour of Antwerp.

Despite this fairly lacklustre period, though, I have actually come out with some big positives, with the main one being signing on the dotted line for a brand new team in 2012. As more details become public I will be able to ‘reveal’ more (excuse any egotistical vibes, they are unintended!), but as it stands next year and hopefully beyond could both be very exciting and important for me, so watch this space. I think as soon as I knew my plans for next year, my head began to progressively think less and less about the current season, and more and more about the following. It is only a natural response, but was probably a contributing factor in my poor form for the final month.

The end of the season was quite an emotional time for us all in the house, as ‘The Wymerschlaan brothers’ gradually dispersed to their corners of the globe. Spending 6 months of the year living inside each other’s pockets naturally creates strong bonds, and barring the odd bout of rage, we actually got on quite well for the most part. The Australians were first to leave, who were swiftly replaced by some fellow Brits, before an American and an Australian also joined ranks and I departed back to Blighty. The two remaining originals are in it for the long haul, with team duties right up to the last race of the season, a TopComp team time trial in mid October….spare a thought for them! The good news is though come February we could all be reunited under the same roof again, which is reassuring because having a healthy living environment is a key aspect of life abroad.

Now I find myself back in England and relishing the thought of winter training. When I’m getting kitted up at 7am to brave the no doubt arctic conditions, I’m sure I’ll feel differently, but for now I can’t wait to get going. With the direction of a coach, the motivation for the year ahead, and hopefully the good health to go with it, then it will be a good time at home. For now, though, I am in the midst of a furious job hunt, while making the most of my time off the bike annihilating my depleting upper body muscles doing some garden landscaping and searching for more appropriate work!

Unlike my employment prospects, something that is concrete in my diary is the Cyclosport Party on the 15th October. Hopefully I can meet and catch up with plenty of people there, but if not, until the next blog entry!

This is a video from yesterday’s race, which was the 4th round of the “Beker Van Belgie”, the main competition that my team runs in and which for me should probably have been a better result than the placing I walked away with.

The winning break formed, hovered at 10 seconds for a few kilometres for a while, before slipping under a railway crossing and while the bunch stopped proceeded to gain over 2 minutes! (2:20) I managed to get myself into the next move of the day (3:20), but the group was too big and with 2 local laps to go we were brought back. Another move then went clear which I missed, before getting 3rd in the bunch sprint to take a disappointing 27th.

170km in 25 degree heat proved rather dehydrating, as I found out while in doping control as I sat in the changing rooms for 1.5 hours trying to squeeze out the minimum of 90cl!

Anyway, with the lack of posting on here also comes regular(ish) posting elsewhere, at www.cyclosport.org most recently. I’ll be writing another blog for them today at some point so stay tuned in the next few days too.

I have seen on a few cycling blogs recently that a small cult following has developed on the website http://lovingthebike.com/crank-directory/ in aid of small time bloggers, such as yours truly. What’s more, a contest has been initiated and the ballot boxes are open for readers wordwide to pledge their allegiances to their favourite cycling related blog, or blogs (so I can cast a vote for my own, as well as my actual favourite).

There are some mighty good reads out there, so I imagine my position will be fairly unspectacular, but ‘all publicity is good publicity’ and all that, so if I manage to bag a few more readers then success will be achieved, and your help will be greatly appreciated.

Just paste http://joshcunninghamcycling.com/ into the “other” box in the road section.

Bedankt!

It’s the 19^th of May as I write this, and I am sitting in bed at quarter to four in the afternoon, trying to while away one of the many hours that come in a full time cyclists’ season where they have relatively little to do. The situation usually ends in idle procrastination – watching something on the laptop, sitting through 100km of Eurosport commentary, an unnecessary trip to the supermarket – that sort of thing. It doesn’t result in writing a blog half as often as it probably should, but it looks like today is one of that minority.

Being a fairly anonymous, non racing day, I would either be recovering concience free after racing, or doing a long training ride, but the mysterious phenomenon that the human body listened to other, lesser phenomenon, that is my head, and thought it best to keep today’s schedule to a less than spectacular 2 hours on the bike. Reason 1: two of my housemates are sick. Reason 2: I do not wish to make it three.

If I learnt but one thing from the month of April, it is that every respect must be paid to any sort of health affliction, no matter how big or small. As I found out, it only takes a small amount of fatigue for my immune system to perish under fire, and with a big race coming up this Sunday I decided to keep a low profile on the training front. It takes a long time to develop fitness, but it can all be lost in a few days given the chance. Currently I’m still holding my balance beam atop the tightrope, just about maintaining my poise.

I have found myself plodding around in the doldrums a bit as of late, after a seemingly never ending period of ill health and bad luck, asking myself the same questions “should I really be here?” “am I actually at all good at riding a bike?” “if so, when will I get a good result?” (“if not, refer yourself back to question one!”). Once a string of bad things happen, it is very easy neglect positivity, and I for one fall into this trap more often than I should. My early season form has felt like a lifetime away as of late, and although I didn’t get any outstanding results, in retrospect I think I got some respectable ones.

This Sunday, though, is the second instalment of the ‘Beker Van Belgie’ series, at “Deux-Acren”, a big event on the Belgian calendar, and one which I am privileged to ride as only Belgian nationals can gain points for their team for the series. Both Matt and Chris (fellow residents of the Wymerschlaan), are racing too, so for our sake, let’s hope that some of the other teams go away with fewer points than they might have done otherwise. My fitness is returning again now, so, dare I say it, if mechanical problems stay at bay, there is a small chance that Sunday will live up to the name of this post.

Communal bike cleaning

“In Gent” –  the sequel. Note ‘Z Peugot’ posters in window.

Matt and Blakey utilising the Colruyt freebies.

Some more scars for the collection.

Matt and Blakey providing the house entertainment in Conor’s absence: Towel whipping.

Some ACTUAL productivity – building a BBQ.

Bicycle racing.

This has been lifted from the http://www.cyclosport.org website, where I have been keeping a regular blog. If you didn’t catch it on there, this is what’s been happening:

These last few weeks have not been going well for me, and the immediate effect of that is de-motivation! Not just on the bike, but off it as well, so unfortunately the blog regularity has also suffered a dip in health, and for that I apologise.

April seems to hold a grudge over me, for reasons unknown though, as I, like any cyclist, love this transitional period from spring to summer, from leg warmers to shorts, from sports balm to sun cream, and from cups of tea to coca cola. Nonetheless, both last year and this, I have suffered the consequences of the ever-present form-fudger; sickness. Rather than continue on the upward curve of the fitness continuum which I had been enjoying, I found myself taking 8 days off the bike, as well as 3 weeks of any real training or racing whatsoever.

What started out as a small cold, soon matured into a colossal influx of chest phlegm and a nasty, spluttering cough, and as anyone knows, if the cold is above the neckline, ride your bike, but if it’s below it, stay at home. There is definitely some sort of mnemonic to accompany that rule, but I’m yet to discover it. If anyone’s got any suggestions please let me know!

As there was little to do in Belgium but pity my ill health and watch everyone else go out training, or to races which I was originally on the start list for, I decided to make the most of the forced break and make a trip back home. Living with 4 peers who are all equally as fit and lean as I am, if not more so, and therefore on the same brink of illness, it is not the best company to get better in. It’s certainly not a good situation to fall ill in either, I can tell you, because you will automatically become public enemy number 2 (a close second to the person you caught it off in the first place).

Going home meant I could recover in an environment I know to be clean and healthy, see my friends, family and girlfriend who seemed to have all coincidentally returned to sunny Eastbourne for the week, and pick up the new steed. Yes, as of Tuesday last week I have been riding a brand new bicycle, one that was much needed and so far much enjoyed and appreciated. It’s still waiting for some transfers for the frame at the moment, but when it’s lost the current stealth like, prototype image and looks more like a racing bike, I’ll take some pictures and duly post on here.

I arrived back in Belgium last Wednesday, and have so far been enjoying being able to get on with what I’m here for and ride my bike, care free. By this I don’t mean having to worry about my rear mech falling off, for example, or my frame snapping, or the state of my lungs. There are still the ingrained pressures and burdens of racing, training and sacrifice involved in trying to pursue a life ambition; something which often goes unaccounted for by people who just see the mask of mornings out on the bike, afternoons in the coffee house, and evenings in front of the TV. Pushing the pedals round is often the easiest aspect.

On a slightly more positive note, I made my return to the racing scene yesterday after 3 weeks twiddling my thumbs. It was the first in the series of the “Beker Van Belgie” races, in the GP Stad Roeselare, and therefore probably the biggest race I’ve been on the start list of in my short career. Unfortunately it was not an occasion to remember, at least not without a sense of humour, as after 20km I punctured, and then punctured again while making my way back through the team cars. I eventually got back on at the foot of the Kemmelberg, but, you guessed it, double punctured on the other side after hitting a pot hole.

Luckily though, being cold-free and all, there is no time to dwell as I’m racing a local kermis on Wednesday with my house mates, then on Sunday 1st May it’s to be the ‘Meiprijs Hoboken 1.2’, my first ever UCI ranked race, and hopefully the start of some more convincing footsteps forwards for me than the previous month has been

Chris cheating.

My veggie patch.

The day job as of late.

Retrieving a lost ball.

A very talented young man.

Two waterfalls.

My appointment at the salon.

I’ll write something soon, Josh.