Roubaix 2013. I cant decide if I have anything to say that will do this race justice. I think I will have something to say, but tonight, fresh in from a week long camp and prior to that, the race itself, the task of writing about the hell of the north feels even bigger than riding it.
To wet your appetite some links from various sources, complete with some snippets and information from my view of the race that you may/may not find interesting!
Rapha Blog - Junior Paris Roubaix Interview
Sky Sports Cycling - Interview and Story
Cycling Weekly - Interview and Story
British Cycling website - Story
British Cycling Insight Zone - Day as a Director Sportif
For now what I can say is a huge thankyou to my team mates, what a job we did - second on the team classification and two riders in the top ten. My best mate Ollie Wood 6th (post-race hug below), a huge result. Lawless and Gibbo were super unlucky to crash and mechanical out, however I am sure we can make them some chances, the season is a long one.
The result, whilst not a win, also reflects the unbelievable hard work put in by my coach Matt, our mechanic Martyn and our carer/doctor/in-race-feeder (etc etc etc!) Rachel. They look after us better than we could ever ask for, ensuring all our energy can go into the bike race and showing why Great Britain and British Cycling have worked so well and continue to do so. Thanks also to Tom from BC who (metaphorically) held my hand through the new experience of Anti-doping control and gave us some great pictures of the race (and videos to be seen in the above 'insight zone').
Special kudos to Lawless who ate more pasta at our pre-race meal than is humanly possible, his time will come in the upcoming bunch sprints! To Gibbo for riding 30km with a broken hand (watch his space for next year!). Ollie for his bad-ass result. Sid (Scott) for his result and super chase back on early doors, I would have been stressing way more! And Ragan for being, well, tough as anything- up the front almost ALL race!
All of this wouldn't happen without my sponsors and the support of British Cycling, I feel immensely privileged to have the opportunities provided to me.
Thank you to everyone who has
congratulated me and supported. Thank you to my family who came out to the race, it was very cool to have them there on a pretty special day. The response online has been very cool
and makes me wish I could thank everyone personally. I hope this result
is just the start, the hard work is only beginning...
Last thankyous. To Sophie Darlington for the cool pictures! And my brother Bede.
