A Britton in Britain: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Decaf Coffee, Hypothermia, Facial hair, Jumping on the ground and Sun.
These are just a few of the words I could use to describe the last week or so of my life. As I continue to be abused by the grips of winter here in Derby all I can do is take in the good days as best I can and forget the bad ones as quickly as possible.
Just for a change lets start this in reverse order of the post title.

The Ugly.
Well this pretty much sums it up...

Post race - Sunday

After a week of really training here in Derby (by far the best days back to back we've had) we packed up the shinny new team Peugeots and head down to take part in a couple races on the weekend. The Roy Thames and Jock Wadley Memorial. This would kind of serve as my first "real" race in the UK as last weeks Eddie Soens doesn't really count (Handicapped and only -80km). So I was excited to get out there and see what the whole scene was like...There are lots of write ups on VeloUK, or our on team site so check them out for the full details. The long short of MY days out there was, Saturday went really well, the team is bonding great and the form seemed to have come out of hibernation for a couple hours, though - this being the Ugly, remember- that was a s good as it got. Going into the final 3 Km Tom punctured when he hit a crater and then that was followed up by me stacking it about a Km later and doing a rather graceful flip into a pile of freshly turned wet earth...some would refer to it as mud. I wouldn't argue. So that was Saturday in a Nut shell. Sunday I've dont a pretty good job of suppressing the memory so of what I can recall, it was probably the coldest racing day I've done, wet snow, rain, wind, -2C a course that never quite. Short story long, I missed the main split, hands froze, rest of body got hypothermia/frost bite, DNF'd and then during the lukewarm shower I don't know what hurt more the pain of thawing out or the realisation that I've become SOFT!! Apparently growing up in the coldest place on earth is easily forgotten after a few winters spent in California! Damn.

The Bad
Ok, to add insult to injury ( quite literally..) after finishing Saturdays lacklustre showing I put my wet (muddy) shoes on the heater to dry over night...only to wake up to this!

Flat as a pancake.

Yes, my shoes MELTED. I was rather devastated to be honest, these were by far the most comfortable pair of shoes I owned and now they were flatend. More on this to come.... I thought things couldn't get much worse then that BUT then today when I opened up my weekly shippment of beans I was in shock to find that I had ordered a DECAF?!?.NEVER IN MY LIFE...wtf was I thinking?? Then it donned on me that I had actually made the order before having coffee in the morning...so it would appear that I am now entirely dependant on the stuff, (Yes Andy, I am addicted) and can't even order it properly with out at least a little fix. Ah well, maybe it'll help me cut back...doubtful. Also just to echo previous posts and what I've already mention above. Winter is still here and during winter here it Snows...even in March.

what I woke up to Monday

The GOOD
Alright, enough with the Debby downer talk, I still have my health after all! To be truthful life isn't that bad these days and I cam up with a title that I thought was witty so I had to then come up with words to go along with that, just so happens that it paint a rather dark picture. All is well right now in Derby, more less... I'm feeling more and more like a bike racer again and I think with a little sun shine and warm weather (more on this self fulfilling prophecy in the next post) I'll be back to normal...I hope. After I totally ruined my shoes the kind folks back at GIRO headquarters were kind enough to help me out and are sending my not 1 but 2 replacements!! You guys ROCK! Thank you! The other bag of coffee I order was a new one and extra caffeinated so that's been rather delicious aaand yesterday for a little treat for our mental sanity Tom and I indulged in a couple Ron Burton burgers and a couple cold ones. Doesn't get much better for a Monday.

Burton Burger

Not a whole lot to report these right now. We head dow to France this weekend for the UCI 1.1 race in Cholet, then from there there's a team heading to compete in tour of Normandy. A 7 day race around - you guessed it - Normandy. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bummed not to be going but I know team going are all firing on all cylinders and with a little luck they will turn some heads and bring home some great results. In the meantime I'll continue to put in the work and hope for a little luck of my own.

Exciting things to come...

Check back soon.

Rob