The pressure cooker of
manically trying to beat each other in every training and racing scenario
possible over the past three years finally boiled over last winter. We had
a huge fall out and didn’t talk for a few months. A clichéd scenario, but true
all the same. We were possibly 'too similar', our ambitions clashing too much
to make it impossible for us to just get on. However during our first race
of the season we made up. No words were exchanged, yet in the joint frustration
of trying to bridge across to the race winning move, soaked and freezing
cold, we instantly became friends again. It was ironic that it
took us being competitors for the first time in nearly twelve months
to make up. However it is also possibly the best description of the mental
struggles that can come hand in hand with the winter. The sheer pressure
athletes put on themselves in winter months, worries of how you will fare and
your fitness compared to others, giving even the best friendships on the bike a
hard test.
One post school training
session stands out, I was fourteen at the time. Alex had given me a ten second
head start up Highgate Hill and was subsequently smashing down on the pedals to
try and reach the top first, taking the 'win'. Alex is a year and one day older
than me and like a younger brother I have always been
on the catch up. On this ascent, one of many times up the hill that
afternoon, I was so engaged in the bout, in beating my arch rival / training
partner / friend, that I rode straight into the back of a parked car. Alex and I would train together day after day, dreaming we were climbing Alpine cols and racing each other in the Tour de France. This memory provides me with a vivid image for which I can forever associate competitiveness
as well as my friendship with Alex. We were, and still are, constantly trying to
beat each other.
Luckily times do change and
whilst we can still happily go out for five hours to kick each others
heads in, we can also sit back and enjoy each others’ company. You could most
definitely say we have grown up together over the past four years. It is a
paradox of this shared companionship, that whilst being fierce competitors, I
will greatly miss racing with him this year.
It was amazing lining up
together at the Worlds Championships, two guys from a small five year old
cycling club in east London, against the world. As my great friend, the
late Alan Rosner once said, 'maybe there is something in the water!’ (Incidentally
he also grew up in Hackney). Alex
and I won four out of the five British national series that we
competed in last season and despite our differing teams and sponsors, we often
raced, unofficially, together. Alex has far bigger fish to fry from now on,
racing up against some of the worlds best elites, the days of beating his
school boy mate over, for now. And in the meantime I will have to find a new
companion to bridge across to 'the move' with.
Seeing Alex move on up in the
world, racing and gathering stories against riders of the calibre of, for
example, the first ever British tour winner, gives me great pleasure. I
know exactly the hard work Al puts in and has done for years and it is thanks to
our ups and downs that we can now be so open with each other, sharing our
experiences along the way. On a personal
level, if I am going to upkeep my side of the smashing each other for training
(and fun) bargain, I will have to improve massively over the coming months,
just as I know Alex will. I am the ‘little brother’ of the now pro rider all
over again and it is still amazing training together every single ride.
Alex and I have been dreaming as we pedal for years and I hope when I catch up once more, entering the senior ranks next year, that we can continue to race upward together long in to the future.
