Creeping Up

So it's the11th of January and the season is almost upon us! the first day I intend to race this year is the 6th of March so I have around 8 weeks to go, to be where I need to be! I shall be at Hillingdon only once for the winter series to gauge my fitness. Then I shall be In France from the 17th to the 24th of February, this will consist of two long days in the saddle at sea level and 4 days skiing and altitude training. Cycling shall consist of Mountain reps on the Col du Portalet. Its 29km in length averaging about 5% with about 1300m of climbing in total! I will be Skiing with my step Brother at http://www.formigal.com/ probably the best resort in the Pyrenees and needless to say I am rely excited about it and about spending some time with my stepbrother (Ed). We spent a lot of our childhood together but as we have grown up and now living in different places we don't see as much of each other so it will be a great catch up!

Profile Col Du Portalet

Enough of the boring bits I have got myself thinking what is a blog? is it the telling of a story or telling people your thoughts? well for myself reading listed facts is not interesting. So I am now going to attempt to include more feelings and emotions! however of course I will update you on my cycling developments but is there anything worse than updates on the latest turbo session? isn't that what twitter is for? If you want to hear about my training and latest purchases follow my twitter http://twitter.com/TomLaker !!! However I shall still blog about races, extensive training blocks and I would also appreciate your comments on each post!

Rant over, this month is going to be a long one! 6 exams and lots of riding on the agenda.When February comes I will be able to relax more and with the lighter evenings coming our way, fitting training in will certainly be easier!

Some other blogs you may want to check out:

http://brockduncumbrogers.blogspot.com/

http://joshcunninghamcycling.com/

http://charliefawkeridersblog.blogspot.com/

bonne nuit

2011 Race Bike

2011 Race Bike (Flanders Pro Team)

Frame: Flanders Pro Team (L)

Groupset: Sram Force 2010

Race Wheels: Fast Forward F5R Tubulars

Training Wheels: Cyclops Pro+ Hub, Ambrosio Excellight Rims

Saddle: Selle San Marco Regal Racing Team

Racing Tyres:Continental Sprinter Gatorskin Tubular Tyre

Training Tyres: Vittoria Open Pave EVO CG 290 TPI

Seatpost: Fizik Cyrano Seatpost

Chain: KMC X10 SL Gold

Handle Bars: FSA Wing Pro Compact White Road Handlebar 42cm

Stem: FSA OS-150 XTC White Oversize Stem 120mm

Cables: Jagwire Racer Orange

Bike Looks very smart, thanks to @Patrick_Harris for building the machine. Time Trial bike images still to come!

Pedalling, Vendange Tardive, Revision and more Pedalling

So in brief training is going well and to plan, with 2 months to go the start of the official racing season I am getting excited and eager to turn the pedals competitively once again in what seems like such a long time! My Christmas holiday's consisted of mainly revision and riding! Had a 10 day spell in France which was a nice way of escaping sub zero British Temperatures! Never have 10c temperatures felt so tropical!

This also consisted of doing the 'Vendange tardive' which translates to English as the 'late harvest' this is where the grapes have begun to become dehydrated as they are picked so late in the season resulting in a sweet wine which usually accompanies desert. Myself, Patrick Harris (Friend and Mechanic), Caroline Laker (Mum) and Greg Morley Smith (Step Dad) all embarked on helping the local farmers/wine growers! early morning rise and a coffee around the table and we were off! Nets were first taken of the vines (protecting them from insect infestation) then the grapes cut with care. Now grape picking may sound easy but running up and down a hill several times and being bent over all day certainly isn't as easy as it sounds. Any how we were treated to a huge meal, and enough alcohol to satisfy anyone's demand! However I had to decline as I needed a couple of hours in the saddle before darkness. Turns out the grapes we were picking sell for 20 euroes a bottle! and he sold 1200 of them! Sounds the business to be in!!! However maybe not so, a quick mention to my mum who works on various farms, 5 days a week doing an 8 till 6 shift, this is extremely physical work, which deserves credit, as you don't realise how labour intense farming is, So hats off to you mum and lots of respect for that!

Since returning to England temperature's have increased and..... I have a new toy ooo yes a Cycleops power meter. My reading whilst in France was 'training with power' written by Hunter Allen Phd. Its a very in depth book but at the same time very use full and its a necessity to gain an understanding of the figures and then being able to use them to aid future performance! However I will soon post some data from the WKO+ 3.0 software however certain tests still need to be undertaken, and then I will begin to post rides to twitter.

Well what else, in the past few days with Patrick I have visted Sigma Sport and GB cycles to get the final parts for the 2011 race bike and to finish of the TT bike. The TT bike is near complete, the sonic wheels are just being built with new Novatec Hubs, to replace the Broken sonic hubs! which are currently in the Hands of Andy Duffin (AD Cycles) who has done a brilliant job of building up my power tap into Ambrosio Excellight rims. Also I am waiting for a 14-25 Ultegra 6600 cassette from wiggle however due to Christmas I accept the delay! this will then be put on the FFWD 50mm Tubs on its arrival. However bikes atm are looking extremely smart and thanks Patrick for doing a great job in building them. (pictures coming soon).

So training is going well, revision could do with a little improvement, Seagulls are top by 6 points and bikes looking smart! Lets hope for a fantastic 2011.

Ciao for now

Looking on to 2011

So 2011 in two words 'Can't Wait'. The winter preparation is going perfectly unlike last year, and if progress carries on at the same rate then its all looking good! I have very high goals for next season as my results will determine where and at what level I will ride in 2012! So my goals are:

1)Finish it the top ten overall in the National road series.

2) Top ten in every stage/round of the series.

3) Podium in national 10/25 mile TT.

4) Podium in BC national TT

5)Target top ten in every Foreign race.

So tough targets but that's the plan! Go into every race with the mentality 'I can win'

Below is a picture of my race wheels for 2011:

Review 2010 (Up's)

So on a good note. After returning from the broken elbow and after the end of my AS exams, I left the UK and was based for 6 weeks in France. Last year I raced there and I really loved it, the racing aboard is a completely different kettle of fish for a first having a crowd is a really nice addition! Also the races were interlinked with the village Fête's which are a spectacle in themselves On results note i have to admit the best came in France with 3 podiums and a a Victory!! . My moment to fame this year must be motor pacing behind the saxo bank car on the wheel of Andy Schleck!!!!!

It ended with me being the sole rider and Bjarne riis asking me to stop so Andy could concentrate!Well that was a once in a life time moment!!! Hats 0f to Patrick Harris who kept up at 30mph for a respectable length of time. Also myself and Patrick were in the Wall Street Journal after meeting John W. Miller in an Irish Bar he also got us a meeting with Brad Wiggins and a tour of the Bus which was quite cool!

On a national scale I didn't race enough due to injury and a late start which was a nuisance. However I did improve my 10 mile TT record now going sub 21mins, I certainly improved my knowledge into reading a race and I am becoming much stronger each week! Next season's looks promising, my next post will be looking forward to 2011 and my goals for next year and they are big, on a national scale!

The 2nd Love, the Seagulls

I thought I would mix up the cycling a bit for a quick mention to my second love, Brighton and Hove Albion FC. I have been a Brighton fan for around 10 years now, and it all started when a friend (Billy Greening) an avid fan convinced me to follow a local team instead of a glory team eg. Chelsea. My first memorable moment was the play-off final at the millennium stadium in Cardiff. 1-0 win to the Albion and we were in the championship. Well it seems like history is repeating itself again and we head league 1 by 8 points! and are favourites to get promoted to the championship. This season I have been more dedicated than ever travelling everywhere to watch the boys! Southampton away will be my 8th game of the season and I love it. The Passion of the fans inspire me as an athlete and every time the team walks or a goal is scored it reminds me of the tdf when the race passes through. The football league is full of passion and there are no ridiculous sums of money and week in week out, passionate fans turn up come rain or shine. Watching football also gives me an interest outside of cycling and I believe this is extremely important in keeping professionalism in my approach to the sport. I will talk a bit about brighton on the blog when i go to games as the team is important to me and it helps my approach the the overall goal .

Peterborough away, 0-3 victory to the Albion.

Review 2010 (Low's)

2010 was a tough year for me, injury was a constant setback and I was extremely unlucky. In this blog I am going to talk of the low's of the season and the next the high's.

The season started late for me and I hit some form late march and was contending the sprints up at hillingdon on Tuesday nights. With 300m to go in 5th wheel parallel to the 'barbadian national champion' I was feeling confident for a top 3. However I was switched and this resulted in a 55kmph crash!!! ouch!!!! I layed in the road with riders swerving and riding over me!! After the sprint had past I stood up not feeling in too much pain (the adrenaline affect) and walked back to the van. Within 5 minutes I couldn't move my elbow and I went straight back to the ambulance who let me know I had broken my elbow FAB!! so missed 2 national series and the Nat champs and 7 weeks of riding!

That is not all for poor luck, in August a week before the tour of Wales desecending lieth hill after returning from France in the form of my life. Crunch the bars slipped after hitting a pothole hard and I couldn't reach my brakes and hit a tree head on and was unconscious!! Ended up with internal bruising of my buttock and a ass like Beyonce and my lower back was unbelievably sore That called for a premature end to 2010. Well Thats it for the low's basically I missed the 2 most important races of 2010 but I will have another shot next year! On the positive June/July were good!