From one year to the next

After a great finish to my 2014 season winning the climbers jersey in one of the biggest 2nd Category races in France It was time to take a break from cycling and head home for a recovery period, I was in Bricquebec (my home in France) for another week after I finished my final race so I carried on training just to keep me busy. Me and 2 of my house mates rode out to Barneville Carteret, the nicest seaside town In the area for sure ! We all bought a bottle of beer from the café and then headed up to the cap (a really cool viewing point where you can see right out to sea from the top of a huge cliff) we sat down on the edge and drank our beer looking out to sea.

   just before I left I did a 4hour30 ride with my Japanese housemate Naoto and did a bit of site seeing, we rode out to the Sainte-Mère-Église

had a quick look and then out to Utah Beach

. My Dad came to collect me on the Saturday and we went to say our goodbyes until next years season to Jean Marie (Team Manager) We had an end of season McDonald's just before the ferry and then it was back to England, it was good to be home and see Family and friends and my dog. Really the first thing I did was look for part time work, I got a pub job for a couple of weeks until he decided he was overstaffed and let me go then I had another pub job at a local not far from me but after a week it was clear the shifts weren't going to fit around my training, finally I got a job at my local village shop which was great and I had some good fun working their as well

, as for cycling during October I took it easy café stopping a lot. But as it came to November time I was back into the swing of things. Things got pretty busy over Christmas with full time training and working most evenings but it was all good fun and after my final shift before Christmas on Christmas Eve my boss gave me a can of Guinness and I headed off to the pub to meet my Family where we had a perfect Christmas Eve. After Christmas and New year had passed I arranged a trip to Calpe with my mate Sam Lowe, we went out their for 10 days and worked hard training every day in mostly sunny conditions I saw one of my French mates as I was climbing the back side of Col de Rates

we had a quick chat but he was with his team so we couldn't speak long, that day it was a 5hour30 day and I did it all on the front with specific efforts, the riding was amazing out their so many breath taking views ! we had one day out of the ten where it lashed it down with rain and the wind was pretty strong as well, me and Sam both had efforts to do but as I got closer to the top of the back side of Col De Rates

 

 it was clear things were getting ugly, the wind had picked up and the rain was getting heavier also we were the only ones on the rode (on the bikes) I decided it was best to head straight back but I had to go back down the mountain to let Sam know because he had gone back down to do another effort, the roads were dodgy and even worse with my Cyclo-Cross brakes. I saw Sam in the distance coming round a hair pin we stopped and had a chat he wanted to go back down and do his final effort, I didn't see this as a good idea but it was better that we stuck together on a day like this so I descended down with him, I was going down ridiculously slow at about 10mph just to be cautious with my brakes, I turned around when I saw Sam coming back up the Mountain and started to climb again but just before I reached the top I saw Sam standing at the side of the road, he had broken something on his bike so we had to stop and go inside a restaurant where we waited by the wood burner for a Taxi to take us back to Calpe, the next day after I finished my final ride of the training camp we flew back to England where unlike Spain it was Snowing,I spent a fair bit of time on the turbo in the next couple of weeks, I did do a pretty epic 6hour30 day with my mate James Shaw we rode out to the legendary parrots ride which leaves from Lowdham in Nottingham and we hardly did any sitting in the wheels, by the time I got home I had 190km on the clock, a very memorable day on the bike for sure. The next Saturday it was off to France again time to say goodbye to my home for a while and head back to my other home in Bricquebec I said my goodbyes and headed off with my Dad, we got up at 4:00 in the morning and took the Ferry from Poole to Cherbourg my Dad stayed until the evening, we had dinner together and then it was time for him to head to Caen to Catch a different Ferry back to England. I've been in Bricquebec for a week now and I had forgotten how amazing the roads were always up or down and it's nice to be able to do your training by the sea on the coast. The team presentation is tomorrow on Saturday and the next Friday we will go to a new base for 8 days where we have six 130km races on the cards called the Plage Vendeennes , I'm  really looking forward to it !