Easy there.

Welcome to my website. Now this is where most riders will tell you about how they started riding at a young age, how they fell in love with cycling and how it went from there, well, for me that wasn’t the case! As a child I played football and also did middle distance running until the age of sixteen, when I had to choose one sport or the other. My rational at the time was that I was well on the road to becoming an international class senior distance runner, but I doubted that I would make an international footballer, despite the fact that at the time I was on the books at Leicester City. I therefore I chose running over football! For me money wasn’t and has never been my motivation, even though I love spending it when I can! Up to this point I was ranked in the top 15 in the UK at the 800metres on the track, and within the top 20 at cross country, though on my day I was as good as anyone. Unfortunately for me, shortly after deciding to concentrate solely on running, I started to suffer pain in my knees, and my target for the 1996/97 cross country season was seriously affected by this. My aim was to finish in the first eight in the English Schools Cross Country Championships, which would result in selection for England for the Inter Nations Cup. Despite not being able to train properly prior to the English Schools I finished 31 st, but only twenty seconds down on 8 th place. From that point onwards though I hardly competed again at what I would class as the top level in this country, such was the problems with my knees, and although I took part in the 1998 National Cross Country Champs the following February, I was unable to finish as it was too painful to run.

Fast forward several years, many physiotherapists and “specialists” later to 2004, and I was still involved in athletics, but as a youth coach with my running club (many of my ex athletes have gone on to represent their country, and have won National medals). It was at this point that I bought my first road bike off of a friend to do some cycling, upon the advice of my old running coach and a

specialist with BUPA who I was working with. Having spent the best part of seven years out of sport from an active point of view, I had put on a considerable amount of weight, yet with the work that my doctor at BUPA was doing I was finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. I started cycling therefore initially to lose weight in order to be able to recommence training as a middle distance runner. As soon as I started cycling however I caught the cycling bug! Loving the fact that I could exercise and push myself without the pain that I had suffered from running, I soon found myself considering what I might be able to achieve within cycling, and thoughts of running again were replaced. At the time I was working as an accountant, and my day would generally consist of getting up and going to work, then as soon as I got home I would get changed and go out to ride. As I got more serious about it I began getting up earlier to train before work, as well as afterwards, and spent a fair amount of time training in Sardinia, Italy. Whenever I do something, I always go for the “all in” approach, and so 2004 was spent basically training and loosing weight, with a view to racing in 2005. In October 2004 I quit my job as an accountant to work as a postman, so that I could train in the day, and also be able to train more.

In March 2005 I spent three weeks training in Sardinia, came back “ready” to race, and entered my first race as soon as I got home. The race was a British Cycling 3 rd and 4 th category road race, in which I finished 3 rd, though I maintain to this day that I should have won, but I misjudged the length of the final hill, biding my time thinking that it was longer than it actually was and despite a late lunge, was unable to get back past the two riders ahead, with the finish being at the top of the hill. Encouraged by moving up a licence category straight away, I entered another race quite local to me but open to all categories from elite downwards, although I was ill at the time, which didn’t help, I got a kicking as my inexperience showed. However after that I never finished any lower than sixth place in an actual road race, and coupled with racing and gaining points for my licence in races at Mallory Park and at circuit races at the Milton Keynes Bowl, by the end of the season I moved up to a 2 nd category licence.

During the winter of 2005/06 I heard of a French team that were looking for riders, and so I applied, much more out of interest and desire than expectation, though to my surprise I got a ride. In late January 2006 I quit my job working for Royal Mail as a postman, and began training full time, as I was due to move to France in early March. The 2006 season was a hard season, with my first race ending comically, as I came off after only 9km when a rider crashed into me as the bunch slowed for a tight corner. I dusted myself down and tried, cut and bleeding to get back on, but was unable to catch a 180rider field in full flow. Worst for me though was that as I was trying to regain contact with the peleton, the team car passed me by, when I was blocked from view by another car in the convoy. At the time unable to speak the language, and not knowing where the finish was, I decided to swing off once it was obvious that I wasn’t going to get back to the bunch, and decided that my best option was to re-trace the way back to the team clubhouse, as luckily for me the race was only 50km away from where we were based. This meant however riding part of the way back via the French auto route, as having only been there for five days, I didn’t know the area, but I didn’t give a shit about breaking the law, as I wasn’t going to get lost!! Besides a hard start to the season, I generally did ok, and was starting to finish fairly regularly in the top twenty. The biggest downside of my 2006 season though was when my friend, team-mate and fellow foreigner Tom Walters crashed and broke his hip in late May. At the time Tom was sprinting in wet conditions, and contesting the win in a circuit race where I had already crashed out. Tom broke his hip in three places and subsequently spent seven weeks in traction in St Malo hospital. Ouch!

At the start of 2007 I spent January and February training in Limoux, near Carcassonne in the south of France, getting ready for the 2007 season, with my biggest objective being the British Cycling National Champs at the start of July, which unfortunately were cancelled late on due to major flooding in the Yorkshire area. My season started well however, with me in the mix from an early stage, and able to ride as I wanted. The season rolled along and although I was riding well I wasn’t doing anything spectacular, although that might be a harsh judgement on myself, as I am arguably too hard on myself if I don’t do what I want to. I was pleased with my showing at La Fleche d’Armor, which again, although was a solid ride, wasn’t amazing, but to me how I race showed that I had moved forward from 2006, and would have finished higher on G.C if not for an average time trial performance. Up to the end of July I had many top 20 finishes, a fair few top 10’s with my best placing being 5 th, but at the time when I was due to be hitting form and showing myself more in the latter half of the season, I became ill, and eventually came home to try and get better after a frustrating few weeks, with what was proved by UK doctors to be Glandular Fever. I decided than, that as I hadn’t raced for almost a month, and with not a great deal of the season to go, to end my season there, and rest up, which wasn’t exactly what I had planned, mais c’est la vie!

At the time of my website being launched, this is my story so far, though it will continue via my “news” and “diary” sections!

For now though, keep pedalling, and enjoy the ride.

Cheers,

Rob.