Europe Plan 2013

This year National racing season has not quite been what I had hoped for, with me overworking my body and not recovering enough in time for each of the races. However, this has not concerned me too much as my main objective this year has been the racing in Europe, which meant working a lot during the NZ season to afford my trip. The nature of my job is very physical and naturally this impacted negatively on my training and recovery. I am hoping that my body will be so used to being in a constant state of fatigue that when I get to Europe and start training my body will recover very well from each session and I’ll be able to make good gains.

In Europe I am competing in 3 UCI World Cups in the first 5 weeks held at Germany, Czech Republic and Italy. These races are very important because I need a top 20 placing to secure a spot on the NZ team for the world champs held in Pietermaritzburg. It is really important for me to make the team because it will mean that I will be able to visit my extended family and my ailing Grandpa in Johannesburg, it may be the last chance I get to see him.

The plan is for me to buy a car in London and drive to Germany where I will meet up with Sam Shaw and the NZXC Team, here we compete in the first World Cup in Albstadt just south of Stuttgart. From here it’s a 10hr drive to Czech Republic for the next round of the World Cup and then onto Italy. In Italy we have 3 weeks before the World Cup to get some solid training in and maybe a couple of smaller races too. After Italy Sam Shaw is off to race in the Gravity Enduro races in France and another Sam joins me, Sam Gaze, and together we will travel between Switzerland and Austria over the next 4 weeks competing in a 3-4 UCI Cat 1 races to push our UCI world rankings up. Then its on to Andorra (via Alpe D’Huez) for our final World Cup.

I will try to keep my blog well updated over the next 4.5 months.

Now I’m off to catch my final flight to London, 25 hours of transit done only 11 to go.