A Professional Cyclist in Portugal

Apologies for not keep up the blog...

2012-01-15T22:28:00.000Z

...it's moved place, it's at: http://www.veloveritas.co.uk/

I will keep posting here from time to time, mostly things that aren't 100% relevant to cycling.

I'm of to Argentina on Thursday, wish me luck!

I will be a cyclist in 2012

2011-11-16T16:42:00.000Z

I've come to a deal with my current team to continue. I'm not thrilled but at least it should be an interesting year. I start right in mid-January with the Tour of San Luis in Argentina.

I'll give it my best shot again.

A climb up to Foia, next year and plan ahead.

2011-11-15T20:31:00.001Z

A climb up to Foia.

Today I did a little test up Foia. This a 7.5km climb that rises from 450m to 900m. It's got a shallow gradient and you usually get a head wind going up it. I forgot how chilly it gets just 900m up! I did it in 20.27m which was good. I've only been training for two weeks after two months off. In the summer I could do 3x sub18m up the climb! So there's a lot of work to be done.

Next year.

No news yet, regarding cycling next year. It's funny though, I can't help feeling calm about things. I had a word with a friend about things, he told how much a certain cycling team are paying people and I just thought that that wouldn't do. So if I get a similar offer, it will be ciao aí (bye there).

Plan ahead young sports person.

There a couple of kids who want to go training with me, or do go training with me. I might make it a point that only kids working doing an apprenticeship or studying may train with me! Seriously, it seems like a game when you're 20, but when you want to actually make a life, it's very unlikely you'll be doing it pedaling a bike.

Tic-toc, tic-toc...

2011-10-30T22:32:00.001Z

It's coming up to the end of October and I haven't had one word from any team about cycling professionally in 2012. I can't wait for ever. Already this I've made big sacrifices this year and really I'd be disappointed to quit without having made a boat load of cash in the Pro Tour. They say domestiques earn well there, if this guy is anything to go by I'd say they're right!

Previously I thought the lack of interest was for being stranded at the corner of Europe in a peloton famous for a rampant doping problem, but evidently the doping problem has been adressed and this year unlike previous years I have had people help out and try to get a team for me else where in Europe. I don't know why there is no interest. I could say the lack of results, but my winning "Equipier do Ano" (domestique of the year) kind of explains that, doesn't it? Okay in cycling, there is a huge team element... blah, blah, blah. -It's a small bell, but I'm ring it!

I love sport and am training like it's a normal pre-season; running and doing strength training exercises. But I am wondering where will I apply it?

Fun running? -God forbid, but like death it comes to us (athletes) all.
Ironman triathlon?
Mountain bike stage racing?
The hour mark? -Hour p.b., I wont get ahead of myself here.
British time-trail championships?
Something totally mad like a HPV (not herpes but human powered vehicle) record.
Something totally mad like the RAAM -it's got a big prize which appeals to my sense of greed.
Something totally mad like cycle round the world with a huge beard?
Free Diving?
Fell running?
Quit? -No, I am happy tilting at wind mills.

Which one shall I go for? Votes please!

My closing words are a genuine thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me!

My Birthday Suprise.

2011-10-24T13:56:00.000+01:00

It's unusual to have anything directly cycling related happen during the off-season. Here there is no track racing or cyclo-cross, just the odd mountain bike race.

I had my birthday on the 22nd. I am 27 and feel like I'm hurtling through life much too fast. I wish the days were twice as long!

I first celebrated my Birthday with my family on the 21st which was good fun, then the following day I went with my girl friend to Tavira where we celebrated with some friends. Luis Silva, one of my team mate is two hours younger, so we usually celebrate together.

Te following day I was awoken to a doping control. I was amazed at the timing. "Will have drunk a lot of alcohol the day before affect the test?" I asked. To which they said "no". I was just thinking that I do not as of yet know whether I will even be a cyclist next year. However the "vampires" must think I will be, so I took it to a good omen!

Doping test done I went running in the mountains. 16km up and down the hills and in the rain, it was great craic.

The Volta a Portugal Stages 9 and 10

2011-09-19T16:26:00.000+01:00

Stage 9

The Torre stage "broke the engine", but I could see this was a general thing for the entire peloton and my maximum heart rate of 170 wasn't something exceptional.

The stage started in the worse possible fashion: I had a mechanical problem durring the neutralized section of the stage and barely got back to the bunch before the flag dropped.

We were told to let a small group of six go, with no one from the top 15 in said group. Because of the nature of this type of stage and the fact that a group could arrive just about everyone attacked. To add to our problem João Cabreira was making it very hard for us as he kept jumping (he was in the top 15). I suffered so much on the first climb of the day that I wasn't sure I would make it over in the lead group. I did make it over and Cabreira did get in a group of about 12-13.

Me doing my job.

Now came the part at which I excel at: Controlling a break. I can do this pretty much by myself and after the "warm up" on that first terrific climb of the day I found my legs. Me and two team mates were able to control the race for about 140km. Cabreira duly broke the "engine", I had to congratulate him on "beating on the little guy" because the only people he was causing problems for were I and the other Tavira domestiques. I believe this was the fastest stage in the race due to Cabreira.

My team mates controlled the rest the final 12km into the finish and we defended the lead perfectly. The race was won in impressive style by Jabob Rathe.

Stage 10

I don't like complacency: A race is only won when you cross the finish line. And indeed the last stage of the race proved complicated as Caja Rural were desperate to get someone in the breakaway.

Ricardo risking everything :-P

I had recovered my legs by this stage, feeling better and with the finish in sight we brought order to the bunch and had a few kilometers to celebrate and drink some champagne. Still the thought that a fall or a puncture could ruin everything lingered in my mind. These feelings were only amplified by all the treacherous roads we passed. On entering the final circuit in Lisbon we had to cross a series tram lines between very uneven cobbles. This broke my nerve and with my job doen I dropped to the back of the bunch and just chased back on every time someone fell, or dropped of. I was lucky I was strong enough to do this! I finished in the bunch in 32nd that stage, safe and sound, Volta completed, a Volta I helped in a big way to win.

The team on the podium in Lisbon

"Stage 11"

Needless to say, after winning the Volta I just wanted to eat and drink and be merry. Unfortunately other people had other ideas. We were carted round from ceremony to ceremony and that big greasy meal I had dreamed of, those pints of beer cool never really materialized. This was the 11th stage of the Volta a Portugal which no one acknowledges!

We were however treated like heroes. There were so many people in Tavira that the whole centre of the town was full. We toured round in an open top bus, got interviewed, put on stage, filmed on live television; the works, I had never seen anything like it, not even when David Blanco had won the race.

So although it's tough, one must be patient and give people your ear and be paraded round the place. It's just another job for the cyclist.

These celebrations went on for about 10 days. We went on national TV, and a whole series of events in the Algarve. This time as I had rested and eaten I didn't resent them. I actually rather enjoyed them.

Video of Stage 11

Since then

I have done nothing much cycling wise. I still ride nearly every day, but only an hour or two. It's weird I have no racing baring a track festival on the 5th of October but I still have a tremendous desire to ride my bike.

Although next year is still a quagmire, baring some unforeseen I will be a cyclist.

I can't wait for next February, to be on a start line on cold morning fit and ready to race. I already miss it enormously.

Since the Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta (Grandissima).

2011-08-28T13:17:00.000+01:00

It's nearly two weeks since the Volta. I'm back up to 74kgs, from the 70kgs I had during the Volta. I've trained very little, but well. I have only one race left on the road, it's a circuit race tomorrow. I hope I can get around okay and maybe get a few euros to take home.

Although bike racing hasn't been at the fore front of my mind, I've been working hard and I've been quite stressed -just the way I like it.

Bike racing has this thing, that it's thrilling. There is nothing like it anywhere. It's got everything: high speed, challenging, self-sacrificing, a "brother in arms" type camaraderie even with the opposition. It's dangerous, very dangerous, the money is shit, but it's something I love. When a cyclist isn't bike race they need some way to get their "fix". It used to be nights out on the tiles, mountain bike races and any other crazy sporting events that were going. But now I want to build a life and having this as my objective also has tantalizing challenges that keep my "thrill buds" quenched.

The first challenge I guess is that I want to continue racing. The fact that my season ended in mid-august is something that hurts me. It's the same for most of the Portuguese peloton, but I really would like to keep things rolling well into October. I'd love it if I had a Tour of Britain of a Tour of Bulgaria like previous years. Those years I would finish and really feel like I needed the rest. To continue racing I need a contract for 2012. There are interesting developments in this regard, but I will not sell short and if I don't get something that justifies the effort, I will switch back to another sport at which I have previously excelled. So you'll see me on a bike in 2012 no matter what happens.

The other challenge is that I've had to move out of my first real home: My adorable cottage in Pé do Cerro. I will miss this place so much. Here I lived in peace, at a pace of life that suited. The place did me good and I excelled in everything I had to do. Ironically I can say that the difficulties that forced this decision are passed, but I promised never to allow those difficulties to return, so I let that decision stand. I will Pé do Cerro and the friendly people of Santa Barbara de Nexe. I will miss the interesting spring flower, the miles of paths through the "Barrocal" and the wild life: the rabbits, chameleons, snakes, the hedgehog -even the mouse in the closet. I will miss walking and running with Cruella though the countryside. I am going to Alfanzina, the family home to live with my aunt and my grandmother.

There is no such thing as security. People climb to the notion in ridiculous fashion, when all they are in fact doing is passing the buck on to someone else. Six years living on the edge and a week in coma taught me that life is to be lived to the maximum and to do this one cannot be risk averse. It was with this in mind that on Friday I got up and set up a business. Of course it's designed so that I can be professional athlete and own it without a problem. Hopefully it'a a way I don't have to spend from now till December wondering how I am going to sustain myself. Hopefully it's a way to share the place I love, through activities I adore, while I can "build a life" through it.

And that's it. I will write up things relative to the Grandissima a bit latter.

Etapa 8. Seia-Torre 182.8km (4.5 vertical km)

2011-08-13T23:58:00.000+01:00

This stage was worrying everything could be won or lost. I had quite an arduous task, which was to get over the climbs and help in the in between bits, then rest for the final climb. This went very well and everyone on my team performed their role perfectly. We won the stage and improved our lead in the GC. Job done, but we still have 330km till Lisbon!

Thanks Ricardo Mestre for being a good leader.

Etapa 7. Sabugal-Guarda 35.3km +.6 k accent

2011-08-12T22:02:00.000+01:00

Today we had a longish time trial.

I was in rest mode and that is what I did keeping my heart rate well bellow threshold the whole way. In fact, including the minute just before and a few minutes after my average heart rate for the exercise was 147BMP. Which is good! It leaves me fresh to help defend the yellow jersey my team mate Ricardo Mestre earned today.

Ricardo went a good deal faster than me of course, in fact he went a good deal faster than anyone. I never imagined he would dominate this TT in such a way.

Anyway, once tomorrow is over I will feel more relaxed, although things will be fairly tough all the way to Lisbon. My luck is that I am feeling quite good.

Etapa 6. Aveiro-Castelo Branco, 215.6km + 3.015 vertical km

2011-08-11T20:55:00.000+01:00

Today I had a rough day. It was 42ºC and I drank and drank in order to fight the heat. This was fine for the first 3 hours, but I then got a very upset stomach. I had terrible pains and could not eat or drink. I went to get water at the car and inform the boss, to which he replies that I must go to the front soon and get to work reeling in the break. I wasn't happy with this, I was really uncomfortable. What was more sad about this was that I was well. But I and two team mates were able to cut the break aways advantage from 7:50 to 3:00 in about 30kms.

Then I was caught up behind a fall. An old team mate, Alejandro Marque broke his wrist. I was quite sad about that. Chasing back on was not an option as by the time I was free of the carnage the peloton was a good 500m away and in my sorry state I didn't feel like suffering!

The stage was won by Gavazzi of Lampre, which was good since Lampre haven't really shown themselves much till today.

Rest Day, Volta a Portugal

2011-08-10T16:51:00.000+01:00

Today has been painfully boring. One does nothing on rest day, which is harder than it sounds.

I woke up earlyish, or should I say my room mate woke me. He must be the type that can't stand being alone or something, as I still had another 30mins to sleep. I found this extremelly annoying. I had a huge breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausages; not your athletes breakfast, but I go well on it and it's what I eat nearly every day at home. Given my job, it's better to be a bit fat (4% body fat vs. 3% of a GC contender).

I then went training. I went alone because I had already recieved my go slow orders for the Time Trial (TT) and it was the TT the rest of the team went to see. I just didn't fancy all the fafing about, given whatever I do in the TT will be wrong (too slow, too fast, etc, etc). Ironically our sprinter is set to go fast, for the purpose of time checks.

I went to an amazing place right up a mountain. It was called Linhares. I had these incredible stone streets, it was like cycling into the middle ages. I felt I was in ancient Lusitania. I hope to explore this area well one day.

Out side of this I have just been bored out of my mind. I've just looked at e-mails, the Facebook and did some stuff so that I can transfer my www.cyclealgarve.com to a new server where I will rebuild it in the week after this race. I'm also trying to get to grips with excel, which is quite painful!

I stare at the phone occasionally and think of calling the one or two contacts I have on other teams. I really would like to continue cycling, but not here.

Etapa 5. Oliveira do Hospital-Viseu 150.3km, 1.97 k accent

2011-08-09T20:29:00.000+01:00

Todays stage was much easier than any of the previous. Our rivals Barbot were knackered after the tit tat (mainly driven by them) of the previous stage. Today I felt good. It was hot (38ºC) but I like the heat. The only challenge is drinking about 1.5-2L of water per hours. If you can manage that you, you can perform well even in extremely hot conditions. I didn't have much to do, just occasionally get water and a brief stint pulling on the front. At the end I felt good, but I punctured about 10km from the end when the peloton was flying along at high speed. I got back on and thought job done, but then there was a series of splits in the bunch on the final decent and I got stuck there... At 90kph and trying to conserve as much energy I wasn't going to bridge that gap! I must have lost a minute or two today.

The race was a sprint finish. Our sprinter Samuel Caldeira came 8th. He was spared from our earlier work which was to mark Barbot which annoyed me, because usually who picks up the tab is I. The race was won by Andrea Guardini

Etapa 4. Lamego-Gouveia 182.4km + 3 vertical km

2011-08-08T22:44:00.000+01:00

Todays Stage was particularly tough. The beginning was ferousiously fast. My job was to get into the groups and I did this very succesfully, but for some reason nothing stuck for the first 70kms. Eventually, after a lot of energy expended a break got away and I wasn't in it. Oh well. The rest of the stage I just tried to save as much energy as possible. I dropped of the bunch on the final climb with this intent.

My team mate Nelson Vitorino came an excellent 2^nd. José Toribio won from the break.

Etapa 3. Viana do Castelo-Senhora da Graça 150km + 2.96 vertical km

2011-08-08T22:40:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, we had a relatively easy stage. I was supposed to rest, but yet again I was put on the front working -on a day I was told I should rest. So that was typical. Nine guys on a team and I pick up most of the bill. The “leaders” did okay however on the final climb, while I rested, keeping my heart rate nice and low all the way up.

I can't wait to leave and pull my “British” money and my “British” talent away. Note, I am not in anyway “nationalistic” I was born to an “Irish” mother and a “British” father in Portugal. In Gattaca, the main character derides and works against “Genoism” -discrimination based on ones genes, and I say, 'if only!!'.

Portuguese cycling is ever more jingoistic, ever more poor. This is not for me I am afraid. I love racing my bike and I love Portugal, but being treated like a foreigner in the country I was born in is a bit much. Racing bellow my standard and being incessantly held back means I cannot work with these people: 5 years and not a single opportunity – merely the opportunity to work. And I am very good at my job.

If there's light at the end of the tunnel, it's that Hernâni Broco who won on “Monte Farinha” was treated for years and years as a worthless “worker”. Even been excluded for many years from the Volta squad when he raced on Liberty Seguros. So there you have it, someone treated no better than a work horse is now having his pay back.

Parabéns Hernâni.

Ricardo Mestre came second and my team David Livramento put in a tremendous attack which could have succeeded, but it didn't unfortunately as he was caught 400m away from the finish.

Etapa 2. Oliveira de Azemeis-Trofa 184.4km + 3.75 vertical km

2011-08-06T23:41:00.000+01:00

Today was rainy, cold and very dangerous. I had quite a lot of bad luck initially, including a near miss with a fall (I did a 180º spin, but kept it up; you'd have to see it to believe it) and a puncture, which was in fact just an under inflated tire; I was feeling paranoid after the spin.

So yeah a lot of high speed chasing and some climbing at 45kph pretty much right from the gun. When I got to the bunch I saw a break up the road with a climber team mate and jumped across. Things looked ideal for the break to stick, for the first 40km things did turn over nicely. But from then on, the others just sucked my wheel and I took every mountain pass and all the wind in my face for 60km. Eventually 125km Caja Rural took over. I was knackered and didn't force too much. I am wary of the tremendous length of the race and I knew that break wouldn't stick; I did my duty in forcing the teams behind to be worked over. But what I really wanted was David Livramento to win or place high on GC to provide an x-factor to the race: the guys got real talent.

And that was it! It was an easy race for those on the wheel. I worked my balls of. I finally bonked (after going slowly for a long time) on the final climb. But a 60km solo across those mountains in that rain was excellent.

Sérgio Ribeiro, who is in scintillating form won the race on a tough 6.6km mountain top finish. I came in 14:05 after. Over leaders did their job well also and all placed in the top 10. Things are looking good.

Etapa 1. Trofa-Oliveira de Azemeis 187.7km. Volta a Portugal.

2011-08-05T22:56:00.000+01:00

Stage 1 was long and very fast. It was also dangerous with many riders in the peloton riding dangerously. I was prepared to smack a few I got so irritated with the incessant frights throughout the stage. Common courtesy was thrown out the window, no holes or danger were pointed out. The worse for this were the Spaniards and the Italians. The Italians from Lampre you could tell were not happy to be racing the Volta. The Spaniards (Andalucia) were just plain selfish, as if there were no other riders but them.

I raced quite well, I had no specific task to do, but did the normal duties like getting water, protect the leader when he'd let me. Still the race was quite hard. I finished somewhere in the bunch.

The race was won by Sérgio Ribeiro and didn't have much else of interest happen.

The full classification can be found here: www.classificacoes.net

Volta a Portugal Prologue

2011-08-04T18:27:00.000+01:00

Prologues are not my thing: I am not explosive, nor especially technical, I lost a lot of time in the last two corners. I will also have my work cut out over the next two weeks, hence I was very careful tackling this 2.2km prologue.

Not to say it went badly; I was very happy with my performance. 3:26.00 I think which is 22s of the best time by Hugo Sabido, but I was still happy. I felt good and enjoyed it. It was one of those days that I simply enjoyed riding my bike. Sabido flew, watching the replay on telly I could see he's in fantastic form.

The team is okay, I see a few problems, but in general people are calm and looking after each other. The management isn't being too pushy or over powering. There are some tensions I can see building and I am sure things after the Volta will be interesting. Our new president is very good and has sorted out the clubs finances and deals with problems very well, he's a no bullshit doer, not a sayer. I hope he has the patience to continue.

Sport Science Connect -www.sportscienceconnect.org

2011-07-31T12:32:00.000+01:00

I'm studying sport science and while the course has a lot to be desired organization wise, I adore it's content. I originally studied and dropped out of Sports Technology, ironically due to not being able to hack the maths; ironic because I now fly through the more "mathsie" parts of Sports Science.

Studying Sports Science and being a proffessional athlete with experience at elite level in two distinct sports allows me to be particularly pragmatic in my analysis of sports and the science.

The Sport Scientist is the all important jack of all trades. The sport scientist is the person who knowing a lot about the diverse sciences in sport can take a bit of Biomechanics, mate it with Physiology and propose a way to ameliorate performance in the field.

Anyway, I made a site:

Sport Science Connect

The idea is simple: Tie everything together, so that real world results can be achieved. A way of blending basic sciences and applying them in the real world so to speak.

I believe in this idea, and encourage anyone to contribute.

Why I must change teams -take 2- or: Being the exception.

2011-07-28T13:54:00.000+01:00

Last night we had a dinner as a team. As usual the atmosphere was great on the cyclists table, although we drank far more moderately than usual.

I recognised the scene pretty well and knew that such an event only takes place because they can't pay or they have some demand to make of us.

Anyway, after an excellent grilled chicken and some chat of started the speeches which went something like this:

"Blah blah blah, no money, pay you "amanha", blah, blah, blah."

"doing us proud, fighting spirit, pay you "amanha"

"The first all Portuguese team, well no, nearly, except Tomás, but he's an okay worker."
I am actually the best worker as voted by my colleagues in the peloton. Plus I have never been given an opportunity to race for myself.

"bla, blah, blah, we need a Portuguese winner for the Volta a Portugal, so not Tomás, hahaha!"

One man, sorry about the situation actually came up and apologized, even gave me a hug -I think he was the only person in that room who realized the seriousness of the situation...

I beamed a broad smile throughout the proceedings. It wasn't an ironic smile, it was a victorious smile. Victorious because I've thought not a few moves ahead, I am several games ahead.

They say a captain should go down with the ship, however guess who are the first I have identified scurrying from the sinking ship? Yep, you've got it ;-).

Starring at the obvious I thought I would compile a list of facts on why a British cyclist is an important asset:

The United Kingdom is the 6th largest economy in the world. 1
Britain ranks 4st in the world for ease of doing business. 2
The UK has seen a 25% growth rate in 2010 for bicycle imports.3
Britain is a market of 62M million people.4
The UK cycle market is worth 2100000000 £.5
Britain has a projected growth of 2.3% in 2012. 6
16% growth in British Cycling memberships 09-107

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/GDP.pdf
http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/2010-sees-bicycle-imports-jump-by-almost-25/010861
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&language=en&pcode=tps00001&tableSelection=1&footnotes=yes&labeling=labels&plugin=1
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/uk-bicycle-market-to-smash-2-billion-in-2010/09995
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2011/update/02/pdf/0611.pdf
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/zuvvi/media/bc_files/corporate/BC-ANNUAL-REPORT-2010-WEB.pdf

So where is Portugal in these statistics?

Plus I only remember of one company stating an aim to invest in Portugese cycling and guess what, it's British:

http://jornalciclismo.com/novo-patrocinador-da-team-sky-pondera-investir-em-equipa-lusa

So there you have it, just a spinet of what I have to tollerate.

Why I must change teams:

2011-07-28T13:29:00.000+01:00

I'm not happy with this team and I don't mean the cyclists -I know them well and consider each one a friend and a few close friends.

I was left waiting unnecessarily in the sun for 30 minutes after a longer 1hr delay waiting at home. needless to say I mentioned my disgruntlement to the boss (politely) upon which he got kind of heavy; accelerating and smacking the dashboard. I am an extremely tolerant person and can take a lot of shit; too much in fact, as people take advantage. Now this type of mistake is tolerable once in a while. But incessantly? No.

My reaction was completely cold and I simply went all in. I said "You continue like this and I will stop working with you this instant". And yes, I would skip the volta, perhaps even terminate my career right now without very much thought. He cooled his tempers, but I know he's vindictive so I'm awaiting reprisal.

I think the story is a bit like the pigs in Animal Farm. Something starts out well intended and then people (pigs) get corrupted by power and projects decay. I'm Boxer in this whole story.

I have to switch teams. So any teams interested, contact me.

Grande Prémio Joachim Agostinho

2011-07-13T15:39:00.001+01:00

I've had a rough week. We raced the Trofeu Joachim Agostinho which went really well. My team mate Ricardo Mestre won the first stage and the overall and I am glad to say we did an excellent job defending his position.

The race was hilly and windy making it a nightmare for cycling, but this is also the terrain on which my team goes best. It's a team built for climbing. Controlling the race was arduous enough, but there is also a weight of stress, a stress that doesn't pass until the race is over. I was terrified at the prospect of failing to protect our yellow jersey. But I managed to do a very good job.

After the race we had to go look at a few stages of the Portugal. This wasn't brilliantly organized and turned into an ordeal, none of us happy with the long journeys, the absence of celebration for our victory and most of all -the 2000 metres of climbing facing us on what was supposedly a rest day. The following day was a continuation of this nightmare and after many, many kilometres through the mountains of central Portugal we finally got on the road home at about 21:00. One of the stages was important to look at, however we would have been just as well seeing it from a car than a bike. Actually just saying "harder than you could possibly imagine" would have done the trick!

British Championships

2011-07-03T11:29:00.001+01:00

Adventure is a big part of cycling. You are thrown in the deep end time and again. The British Championships is one such adventure. For me doing it un-attached I have a lot to worry about when I go to this race: Transport, bike, timing etc. Things are never optimal and one can never fuss about. No electrolytes Water will do. No carbon wheel: aluminium is just fine. It goes like that. It would be tough for the spoilt brats of cycling to just get on with it, they'd drop out, not turn up, etc. Luckily I was well educated at Tavira -no primadonna there.

I met many great people at the race and the support was heart felt and overwhelming. I am not a big fish, but have been only a domestique in my career so far. All I can say is thank you and I may honour people's support with good performance.

I missed the initial break by a bit as I was badly positioned at about mid pack. Sky did a text book move on the the only hill in the course which was beautiful to watch, but frustrating also. I set of up the field winding my way through the carnage on the hill and got to the group just behind... Alas just a bit short of the Sky "train". All credit has to go to Jez Hunt in that he was the one that stretched the bunch before the climb allowing his colleagues to get away and eventually win the race, sacrificing himself in the process.

Racing for scraps, I tried to get away, possibly even up to the group. Unusually for a domestique I seemed to be heavily marked. I myself had my eye on David Clarke of the Endura squad as I knew he was as strong as an ox, a good worker in the break and the know rider sure to try for it. This meant that time and again I got dragged back. Anyway bored of this I just sat in. watching people go up the road in drips and drabs and coming bad in similar fashion. I sprinted at the end to went to soon and got passed 50m before the line. I came 32nd in the results although I had though I came approximately 21st. I must not have been paying enough attention at a some point.

Volta ao Alentejo, British Championships this weekend!

2011-06-24T16:30:00.000+01:00

I apologize for not writing in so long, or updating you on what happened at the volta ao Alentejo: Just that my gamble paid, I did not get more sick and I got an excellent block of "training" in. The other stories from the Volta are that there is something amiss with the team: We were the only Portuguese professional team not to win anything. In a couple of weeks I will post the whole story.

Tomorrow I am headed for Newcastle. The British Championships are on Sunday at 13:30. It's a huge stressfest for me, as these solo excursions don't come cheap. And everything needs to go according to plan, or else it's a train wreck, with one problem following another. So, - lets hope!- there are no Icelandic volcanoes erupting, that they do not break my bike on the plan and that the other 1M things that can go wrong, don't. My aim is to finish the race in the top 20, like last year. It seems lame, but it is an excellent result for one racing unsupported.

I am doing a weeks study at Uni right after the Championships and that's adding a little pressure! But it's necessary to develop the academic side of my person, as well as the sporting side. Because you can't race a bike for ever.

Volta ao Alentejo

2011-06-08T11:24:00.000+01:00

So I'm not 100%, but I did a test run yesterday and feel apt to race. I climbed at a reasonable rate: 190m in 6:50m on my final "test". I am so far behind on training however, I really want to race and race well. I rested well from my flu, so now it's time to put the hammer down and improve.

Volta ao Alentejo starts tomorrow!

A hard month...

2011-06-07T10:00:00.000+01:00

So after running my problems through my mind over and over and not finding a solution, it finally clicked in a conversation with my boss ~"I am expected do the work, I want to do the work correctly and well" I said; it just rolled of my tongue... And it was then that it clicked. I have been unhappy because I have been down on form. I was training heavily while I had some virus which manifested itself mainly as sinusitis.

In this period I blamed everything and everyone, I was thinking how I should give up cycling, how others don't help or listen: But never getting closure on the problem, never finding the solution. I have been performing well in other areas of life like academia and other little project I have, but I was still mulling things over and being negative.

The problem is, I love cycling, I love my weekends away "fighting in the arena". Sure my poor mood the past few weeks budded from money worries, but those worries were that I may not be able to do what I love for a living. Sure I frustrated that when we do race against the big teams, we do so well. Yet we spend half our time racing amateur races. But my mood is linked to my form.

Realizing this was a huge weight of my shoulders. I hope I recover well and race excellently, especially at the Volta a Portugal where I want to help bring my team to victory.

A very bad weekend...

2011-06-03T15:17:00.000+01:00

Some times it happens, some times thing just don't go well. In my case I have a few low spots every year where I just feel crap. This year has been all the tougher!

We had a pair of races, the Memorial Bruno Neves, in honour of the cyclist that died during the Classica Amarante in 2008. The other was a wierd little stage race around and about a town called Oliveira de Azemeis.

The first race I felt a bit off, but got stuck in as best I could and attacked when necessary. About two hours into the race the heavens opened and it started hailing. I hate the cold and could feel my legs becoming less responsive. A team mate who was in the break fell and we had an obligation to attack. So we did.

Later the race rolled along compact under control by the Barbot team. Given the stormy weather and the oily roads there were many falls... Just my team had three. The last of these was me! I hit the deck hard. I fell on to my Gluteus which was full extended as my knee was was up as I was cornering. This really hurt. I've had my fair share of injury and this one, while just a bruise left me in a lot of pain, so much so I didn't continue in the race. Had I wanted to continue, however by bike was in two separate pieces, so it would not have been possible, since there was no spare.

The next day was a little stage race snaking round a very built up county. I was feeling terrible and should not have started. Not least because the bike that was prepared for me this day was completely ill-fitting. A blocked eustachian tube left me feeling dizzy and with nausea. Needless to say, I didn't complete this race either.

With that awful experience past, I have been training harder than ever. I've received my calendar for the next few months and it is excellent. I am really motivated now to do my absolute best.

Classicas do Sotavento

2011-05-23T13:45:00.000+01:00

The weekend was a tough one. Our aim, rather unusually was to make the races as hard as possible. But the fact that these were the first races with hot weather made them hard all by themselves. Our kamikaze attacks just made it even harder.

The first race was a circuit race in Tavira, which I took very easy. The course was extremely dangerous. The "calçada" or cobbles were lifted in places after a big storm a couple of days before, so I just went round and round, then when the time came to reel in the break away I did just that. I split the bunch into pieces and that was that. It was good not to break equipment, or break myself! We actually finished second, so that wasn't too bad.

The second race is a Classic called "Restaurante Alpendre". This did not go well for me. I did my job, but the race was a mess. It was stopped mid way round due to the break away going the wrong way. When I finished my role in this race I eased of the gas. At this point the peloton was full of cramp, although I was ok. No one was prepared for the 30ºC weather we got. I had belly ache due to having to ingest huge quantities of fluids. After this something strange happened, I usually guide myself well in a race and know where I am in relation to the rest of the race. There are many tricks for this and simply using a watch and some visual cues you can figure out all you need to know. I eased of at 3:00hrs into the race and expected there to be about 30k's to the finish. Expect I never saw the landmark I was looking for, nor the 20k's to go sign till much, much later. And I wasn't going slowly, but at a fast cruise. So, baffled by this and rather annoyed I gave up, figuring that I got lost on the badly marked course. This race was won by Enrique Salgueiro, an amateur who was going very well.

The next day I felt much better. for some reason I like racing on consecutive days and feel much better a couple of days into a race. Again my job was straight forward: Make the race as hard as possible. And that is what I did. I attacked and controlled and attacked a bit more. I got in one excellent move with a great young rider from the amateur Liberty Seguros team but unbelievably we got stopped at a level crossing! Next I got in another move with a lot of the Loulé team, and then I got in another move with a team mate and two amateur which killed the team chasing. I really had to grit my teeth to stay in the bunch and felt like I was going to vomit. But I go through most of the hills and made all the selections bar the last one... This last one I attacked, a team mate dropping back said I should stop. It is arguable whether I should have, but I did. At this point there was a series of attacks and I could only hang on to the second group. This race was also won by Salgueiro.

"Classicas do Sotavento" this weekend.

2011-05-18T14:18:00.001+01:00

I had a weekend off last weekend, the team was racing a series of circuit races just north of Lisbon. They are an excellent series of races, but just not my cup of tea, hence I had my first race out. Unfortunately nothing was won, but in the second race in Alenquer Samuel Caldeira came third. Barbot-Epafel won the first two, 1st with Raul Alarcon, then Sergio Ribeiro. The final race was won by Bruno Lima of Onda Boavista. It seems Barbot were absolutely stelar.

This weekend I'm racing though and I hope to spoil their party. The races are a circuit race in Tavira, which is exceptionally dangerous, then a Portuguese cup race in Vila Nova de Cacela, and finally just a short classic race in Tavira on Sunday. More info here

These weeks I have been training hard and have been quite stressed, so I'm just going to use this weekend to unwind and hopefully put in a good performance, hopefully on Saturday,

Find the detailed information on this weekend's races here. The second two are a bit in the middle of no where, but are tough and have some interesting climbs, although for Classica do Alpendre I recommend catching the final sprint in Cacela velha. Incidentally Restaurante o Alpendre is excellent. The circuit on Friday is mental... it's very dangerous, but kind of amusing. I will not race it if it's rainy; that would defiantly lead to some sort of injury. They have special spectator zones with big screens, but the main square near the finish will be the best place to catch, right near all the cafés too.

Baby Hedgehog

2011-05-11T10:19:00.001+01:00

I found this little guy on the road outside my house, I duly picked him up and put him a safe distance from the road. I can safely vouch that there is nothing cuter than a baby hedgehog:

On events yesterday and what goes on in the head of a cyclist.

2011-05-10T10:36:00.001+01:00

I have had my share of bad luck and crashes.

I too nearly followed a fate like that of Wouter Weylandt, but I have no recollection of it. I just remember the first two corners of the race up the first hill of the day, then blank... The next recollection I have is waking up in funchal hospital with a doctor asking me irritating questions and saying "Tens um Glasgow de 13, está tudo bom" -you have a Glasgow of 13, everything is good. I'm still not really sure what a Glasgow is, but apparently 13 is good. I was even catheterized, received five blood transfusions and evacuated by helicopter... But again all I remember is that black void so deep as to completely dispel any fanciful notions I may have had of a heaven or hell.

Two weeks later I was on my bike. I was so weak because I lost 8kg in hospital. I was completely clueless, perhaps I shouldn't have been riding? I knew nothing of nothing and felt, what I believed it must feel like when a baby leaves the dark for the light. I remember that everything from that October seemed brilliant and beautiful -everything! Everything was full of magical beauty; from the gentle tingling warmth of the sunlight, the ravines on the island and the winding roads, the warm atlantic lapping the coast bellow. I even felt beauty in the pain. The worst that life can throw at you, is better than the endless nothingness of the void.

I've chosen not to recall that month too much because of cowardice. It's very hard to stare your fears and complexes straight in the eye. The whole thing just scares the shit out of me, even six years later.

It's an experience I hold precious and has given me another perspective on life. Ironically it is a perspective I had began to loose in the past two years: Wouter Weylandt brought it back.

Sieze the moment and enjoy everything that life throws at you. Do your best with every minute you have and be thankful for this time. Do not get caught up in petty conundrums and upset about bullshit. Survive and be strong. Enjoy every minute of the journey and the chalenges you face.

Giro, Stage 3- Wouter Weylandt.

2011-05-09T20:13:00.001+01:00

I didn't watch today's stage and have nothing to say about it apart from the shock that it was to read about Wouter Weylandts death.

I am aware of the real risks this gladiatorial sport possesses. But I always get shocked by such events. I hope that his girl friend and their baby that is on the way are cared for. I also hope that the cause of the accident is established so to try and avoid a repeat.

VO2max test - results in and Classica Amarate this Sunday, Equipier do mês.

2011-05-06T11:06:00.000+01:00

The VO2max test:

Firstly, as a "bonker"* I have to lay out my excuses. I've been under huge stress these past few weeks, I've been frustrated that I and my team are here scratching a living on the edge of professional cycling, when we merit a whole lot more. Anyway, I did enough to get some values for training.

The test went well. I didn't see how much power I produced but noted the my threshold must somewhere around 172. I did 445w last time this time I think I did 470w, that said I didn't see the results yet. This isn't a standard test and last two to three times as long as a normal VO2max test... Lets call it a "Ve" test as it's designed to find ventilatory threshold and power.

Classica Amarante:

Pic 1. Amarante

Amarante is a beautiful town on a tributary of the river Douro in the north of Portugal. But they like their races dangerous! The finishing straight is a narrow cobbled street, that is normally closed to traffic. It has like step about 1k from the line that requires bunny hopping at 60kph +.

But the route is interesting. There are a lot of hills and the race has a fantastic feel to it. Hard but not killer hard, just fun for racing.

Pic 2. Enjoying the job at the Classica Amarante 2010

Last year André Cardoso came second. So this year I am hopping we can go one better!

I'm "Equipier do Mês" again. I've extended my lead to 6 points. It's an honour to lead this classification. I think that it should spread into the broader cycling world. It acknowledges the work of the domestiques, work that is more valuable to a team that a 10th place finish**.

I found a dead Mongoose on the road. I was saddened by his death, they have cute little hands, nearly human like. I hate cars.

Pic. 3. The Mongoose

___________________________

*"Empeno" meaning buckle or bonk is used as a term for a cyclist who, despite their best efforts is mediocre. Such a cyclist is always looking out for themselves so will sprint for 12th, or attack the gruppeto. Such a cyclist buys all the crap, no matter how implausible the gains may be, things like: balance bracelets, silly diets, ever lighter components. The bonker hopes in vain that these will make up for weak genetics. Join my "Grupo dos Empenos" on Facebook. The only way not to be a "Bonker" is to cross the finish line in first (win) in your respective category.

**Next week I'll talk about the UCI rankings and why they are destructive to cycling. I will propose a better system.

Two years on: Cycling and the Credit Crunch 2011

2011-05-03T10:13:00.001+01:00

Over two years ago I wrote a piece and the impact of the liquidity crisis on cycle. Here is the follow up.

It's not the credit crunch that's killing the sport.

I said, two years ago, that the "credit crunch" would be good for cycling, my reasoning being that it is a very cheap and effective form of marketing. This seems only to have applied to the top tier. The top tier is very much a closed doors situation; there are at least another 800-1000 riders in the world that merit decent pay and professional conditions.

If we observe recent events surrounding Geox/TMC and the "Pegasus" Australian cycling project, we can see that merit and pure competition has no place in the top tier. Soon after the Pegasus project flopped came GreenEdge. A project with all the cunhas*...

If there is money, let there be more teams. Of course only 20 or so teams can take part in the snore fest that is the Tour de France, but if there is a lack of big events, make more big event instead of ridiculing project like the Tour of America. The sport as a whole would grow. Look at motor sport FAI control WRC, F1, Touring Cars, etc... All valuable franchises.

I adressed the "World Tour" above. Now my little team: We do battle with the best and we earn the equivalent of a house cleaner or gardener. Is it fair? No, it's a bitch. As I said two years ago "Cycling mirrors society" what we are seing is the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. It has got nearly imposible to cycle professionally here.

We need people who love cycling but are not cyclist or athletes to help run the sport.

*Cunhas is a Portuguese word meaning "in-laws" and is used as an expression when someone gains position through someone they know.

VO2 max test on Monday

2011-05-01T15:09:00.000+01:00

On Monday we have a VO2max test. I've done loads of tests over the years and the improvements are small. The tests we do are not proper VO2max tests. It is not VO2max that we are looking to find, they last about twice as long as a standard test as the increments in power increase are much smaller than the standard test. I did a couple of "standard" VO2max tests in 2006 and scored 530w and 91.8 ml/min/kg.

VO2max is kind of a useless measurement: A bit like the cilinder capacity in a combustion engine; what really matters is the power of the engine, not it's size, hence we look for the power of the "aerobic"engine.

Races are usually won in supra-maximal efforts (4-5km climbs, sprints, short TT's) generally efforts that fall into this range are efforts up to 12 minutes. This accounts for most cycling races.

I am not sure of the exact physiology, but quick people (people with oxidative type II fibres) have amazing stamina and speed combined. This because they "recover" energy from lactic acid in the cori cycle in the muscles and liver.

You are what you are. A test is merely a method of determining training intensities.

www.cyclealgarve.com

2011-04-28T18:33:00.001+01:00

Cycle Algarve is currently a series of one week cycling tours through the Algarve. In the future I have some grand plans to put in other types of activities, but for the time being and until I get the funds to develop a team for this project, it will remain as it is.

I had this idea in 2007 but, dropped it as I turned pro, but I resurrected it.

I will do training camps in the off-season for those interested, just message me.

I am interested to hear from anyone who would like to get involved with the idea and advise is always welcome!

Vuelta a Rioja last weekend

2011-04-27T11:25:00.000+01:00

Vuelta a Rioja had everyone a bit apprehensive. The weather was threatening to rain. The previous year we went over a huge mountain and everyone was a little worried about the long descent in the rain and cold. However, this year we didn't actually go over any big mountains and it didn't rain. No one complained, but wow, what a boring race! It was km after km of straight, flat road, some wind and completely baren landscape.

Because we didn't put anyone in the break, the boss put two team mates controlling the race. When they got to about 1min of the break away I jumped across, more to save them a few km in the wind than anything else. Things then became quite active at the back of the race and my escapade only lasted 16k or so. Again they started attacking and another group got away, again the boss put us to work... Of course after all this we weren't in the best shape to take on the hills at the end of the race and duly we were unable to put a single rider in the front group!

And not even a bottle of Rioja for our effort.

Epm of Colombia were going strong this day and raced really well, making the winning move on the final hill of the day, unfortunately a savvy Erviti of Movistar tagged along with them and won the race! Incidentally neither team worried particularly about putting someone in the break, or bothered to control the race...

G.P. Llodio 2011 Summary

2011-04-26T10:41:00.000+01:00

G. P. Llodio is always hard. And this year was no exception. My job was to get in the break and try and win something. I played my part well initially by getting in a huge group that split of the front. I was the only rider there from my team and this wasn't a good situation for the team. Luckily however Euskatel's junior team, Orbea, felt it necessary to annul this huge group and put in a terrific chase with eventually did after 20km. That breakaway wasn't hanging around either.

After that initial effort in the breakaway I wasn't feeling good so just sat in the bunch. On the first climb of the day I also felt short of breath. Last year I had attacked a couple of times here, but this year I was just a little bit short of form. About 10km after the hill there was a huge crash in the bunch, I was really close to getting through unscathed doing a "stoppie" but also fell. I was okay and set of again in pursuit of the bunch, but in the crash my rear break became jammed shut. My boss can be a bit hard on us and here is an example; he thought I was looking for a lift up to the bunch and insisted that I get under my own steam before helping out. So I did, but the effort more or less destroyed my weekend.

The race transformed at some point while I was chasing past all the cars. When I reached the bunch there were a lot riders from Barbot/Efapel and Euskatel/Euskadi and only one other from my team. The thing to do in this situation is to drive it on the front, sparing your climbers and forcing the others (already at a disadvantage) to chase. But my team mates didn't do this.

The bunch then came together and was controlled by Barbot for about 40km until we entered the finishing circuit. Meanwhile I and Nelson Vitorino were considering quitting, I because my cleat was dislodged and causing me a lot of pain and he, because he was bonking after a day in the break away. But I wanted to finish the race. So I chased back up into the middle of the bunch and stayed there.

A large group then slowly formed just ahead on a relatively easy section of the course. I didn't jump across because I had 4 team mates there, but in hind sight I probably should have. Unfortunately I was being stupid and defeatist because of my little mishap earlier in the day. On the last climb of the day Santi Perez jumps out, gains an advantage and holds on down the 5km descent to the line to win by 4s.

The Rider Strike at the Vuelta a Uruguay

2011-04-21T12:49:00.000+01:00

Hah! I was due to ride this race, luckily we didn't do it in the end!

Now the situation as I understand it was that 96 riders were disqualified due to a protest. The protest was due to the fact that there were thunderstorms yesterday and since the morning stage was canceled (stage 6a, a time trial) that the afternoon stage in the same weather conditions should also be canceled.

I've never been involved in a rider protest. People pay 60 000€-100 000€ for your average international race (per stage). It's worth trying to ride through. If you can't, just stop. The last time I found myself in this situation I was suffering from vagal hypothermia somewhere in the mountains of the Algarve. We were at stage 3, the race was 230km long and passed several mountains. It was raining heavily and the average temperature was 4ºC, add in some thunder, and a strong wind.

Fans often think riders should harden the fuck up. They probably think it's like toughing out a 100km training ride in the rain, when it's nothing of the sort. The truth is, cycling is such a sport that you either can, or you can't deal with a situation. And 99% of people can not even imagine keeping up, yet alone dealing with adverse conditions like hail or a thunderstorm.

Riders should make the effort to race, whatever the conditions. Give up if they must.

G.P. Llodio and Vuelta a Rioja this weekend!

2011-04-20T15:28:00.000+01:00

This weekend we are racing two big 1.1 races in northern Spain.

I've done Llodio a couple of times before and really, it's either wet and very cold, or warm and spring like. Given that it's raining a lot here, I imagine it will be the later. I don't go well in the cold, I get hypothermia in a flash due to something called "vagal" something or other. So needless to say, I feel somewhat apprehensive.

The weather forecast for the next day (Sunday 24th) is a bit better. It says scattered showers. It better be because this race goes over some huge mountain at the beginning and has an equally colossal decent which left my shoulders aching and finger sore last time, as it takes ages to get to the bottom. If it's raining, it will be seriously unpleasant.

I've had a tough time with the polen and Claritin doesn't seem to work, so this rain sort of feels like a mixed blessing: The air is breathable again and my sinuses are rested, but it's really hard to train well when the road is turned into a river every 20mins, but at least it's warm (17ºC).

Taça de Portugal -Volta a Albergaria

2011-04-12T13:01:00.000+01:00

This weekend we had the first round of the Portuguese cup the "Taça de Portugal".

The race was interesting, the course was not particularly challenging, but it was sinuous and dangerous. Early in the race I was not feeling good due to the long journey the day before and the bad nights sleep; the hotel we stayed at was grim, it's a place where women from the road side attend their clients. The team manager was furious with the situation; he had a sponsor visiting the race. Ironically when I raced this race before we stayed in a convent!

I made a few lame attempts to get in the break at the beginning of the race. I had a 50kph off-road excursion at a section where the road cut in. I din't crash but I lost my nerve. I resigned myself to doing a shit race and started preparing my excuses.

When we got near the hills the race continued to be animated: On the first big descent a guy took a plunge of a bridge into a ravine. I was sure he must have died. We stopped the race. As the Portuguese say ~"He was lucky in his bad luck" because he fell feet first into a raspberry bush 4 meters down. And didn't take the longer plunge, just a meter to the left, onto the rocks further bellow.

After this the race began to get animated and I started to feel okay. We were to sit quietly in the bunch until the final 20 k or so, when we were to try to blow the race appart. We raced a tactically perfect race here. On the first hill André Cardoso did an excellent job of marking Santi Perez. Then after his group got reeled in by the Barbot squad I had my go:

I managed to open up a good gap and had a good companion in Amaro Antunes.
We got to the final climb with an advantage.
Two of my team mates bridged across.
On pulled through a bit to hard and shattered Amaro, then me, then himself.
The attack would have worked if it had been 5min further on and if my team mates had bridged the gap earlier.

At the end Sergio Ribeiro, who is in grand form won and we came in 5th through Daniel Mestre. I have to hand it to our rivals Barbot, they were stronger than us.

Results

For all those keen on human performance:

The penultimate climb was passed at 1872 VAM in 4:10 min (this was where Cardoso, Perez and a few others got away). The period of about 10min at 180 bpm+ was my attack at the end. Then I just hung on to the coat tails of the peloton till the finish, putting in one other (lame) attack at about 5km to go.

Volta às Terras de Santa Maria (Team Time Trial)

2011-04-08T12:46:00.005+01:00

Day One, Stage One:
141km RR

This stage was awful. Some people here felt inconvenienced by the cyclists. I do not like racing when it isn’t appreciated. At the Volta Algarve, in appalling weather we were greeted with heartwarming support. Support is extremely motivating!

Then there was the hotel. I’ve stayed in this hotel over a period of 6 years and was never treated badly, but now, it seemed snobby. The restaurant was also terrible. The restaurant is a place that is always full, with a car park gleaming with new Porche Panemera’s and BMW X6. The irony was that here too we were well treated in the past. This time they presented us a days old almond cake, while saying they had nothing better… except we checked it out, they had at least twenty other deserts.

In terms of the race, the course was interesting we had 60 k’s that were flat, followed by some interesting climbs. Oh and the roads were shit, full of holes, rocks etc. We had to control the last 40k’s of the race and we did this well. At 20 k’s from the end I punctured in one of the many potholes. I never got back to the front and lost a bit of time.

Samuel Caldeira did well to get to the end in the bunch, but had an epic crash:

It wasn’t a good stage and our rivals Barbot took another win. Filipe Cardoso won it.

Day Two, Stage One:
16.8km TTT

We had an early start and a light breakfast before the team time trial. Now people had gone on and on about the hilly, somewhat technical course was. But as it happens the course was straight forward, despite the three round abouts and three hills. The road was wide which proved interesting. As the time trial was out and back, do you cut the corners and how much? There is a lot to gain in cutting corner. Check out a 400m world record and see the "discount" the people in the outer lane are given vs the inside lane.

As it happens, we didn't cut the corners at all.

The team time trial happened to be our first victory of the 2011 season! I was really happy with this, it was a relief after so many second places. It also proved our worth as a team. Not only did we finish in the fastest time (19:00.00) we also finished with all eight riders. We didn't ride perfectly, but we rode extremely well.

Our problem comes in translating work ethic and determination into victories in road races. I wont yet fault our leader, but rather the tactics we use.

We limiting ourselves to riding for one rider. Such a tactic works:

When others employ the same tactic.
When you have the strongest rider in the field.
When you have a pinch of luck to add.

The thing is, this grossly underestimate the opposition and has a huge physical cost. You can ask a rider to do one or two tasks in a race, but not more.

Day Two, Stage Three:

65km circuit

We had the lead and five cyclists in the top five going into the last stage of this race. But our method to defend this lead was to control the race utterly. And that is what we did.

This race was 10 laps of a 6.5km circuit. The circuit had a hard cobbled climb, a very rough decent, followed by a rough road full of dangerous holes and then more cobbles. The finish line was atop the cobbled climb.

Well, I having lost time on the first stage due to a puncture was put to work, together with Diogo Nunes and Luis Silva to control the first 7.5 laps of the race. Even so I hung on to the second group, just missing the split for the first. The last 2.5 last were in the hands of my team mates.

They managed the situation so that André Cardoso could keep the yellow jersey that (we) earned in the team time trail.

André won his first pro race and we won the first race of the season. All in all a good weekend.

This weekend the adventures continue with the first round of the Portuguese cup in Albergaria.

Ciao and till next week!

Costa Azul wrap up-

2011-03-28T11:37:00.000+01:00

Costa Azul ended with another victory for the Barbot/Efapel team while we settled for second again. The winner was Filipe Cardoso. They worked hard and raced intelligently, letting my team assume control of the race (unnecessarily).

I felt good on the final stage and worked well I felt good on the climb during the stage and was spared a little more than usual, so I had a much easier ride than usual.

Racing for bonus seconds frustrated me, but there you have it! Hopefully we can develop more inventive and flexible tactics in the future.

G.P. Costa Azul -Stage Two

2011-03-26T19:37:00.000Z

This stage was no fun. It was flat, boring and slow. It had nothing to it but I spent the entire stage aprehensive something would happen, given the wind was blowing strong enough to alow a strong team to try form an echlon and split the bunch. But that didn't happen.

Personally I did the work of 3 men -again- and I am getting sick of it. Okay I am a rolleur, an equipier, a domestique, but this is too much. It eliminates me tactically and lets others have a free -or very cheap- ride. Also, our bet, when he fails to deliver 4x it's time to change and give another person a chance. Wispering into the bosses ear though... can skew logic.

I want to attack this race tomorow. Will I have a chance? I have been blocked and held back frequently before.

The race was won by a Katusha rider who recieved a 1min penalty yesterday. Otherwise he'd be leading the race also.

Grande Prémio Costa Azul

2011-03-25T19:44:00.000Z

Today we raced the first stage of the G.P. Costa Azul. We won the race last year through intermediate of Samuel Caldeira.

The race was motly flat, with a hill at the end. The hill wasn't a big problem, but the approach was hectic and extremelly dangerous. A massive fight broke out in the bunch, with the usually calm Cabreira of Onda absolutly furious at a rider from Katusha who shouldered his Onda team mate of the road! I escaped the danger, but it was mad, something I have rarelly seen.

I knew the Russians were kamikazi and just avoided them. I don't care if I have to invest a greater effort to stay safe. In fact, that's why I lost time. On the descent into Setubal (the finish) I was in the lead group after bringing my sprinter up to it, but the 80kph descent, the many curves coated with dust from the nearby quarry and finally watching a basque of the Orbea squad.

At the end there was another fight, again the Katusha quad was involved, but this time their opponents were the Spaniards of the Murcia squad. Needless to say the commisars broke it up and gave them time penalties.

On a personal note I felt well, I did a huge amount of good work and everything would have been perfect had it not been for Samuel Caldeira, our sprinter falling 500m from a line... due to a Katusha.

I don't mind the Katusha's I should add! The race was won by an Orbea rider, Jon Aberasturi who benefited from the faster men getting caught up it the crash.

A good picture describing the anatomy of a bicycle!

2011-03-23T17:41:00.001Z

Bicycle Typogram – More Bicycle As Art Goodness

The Team Time Trial (TTT)

2011-03-21T15:29:00.001Z

We have been training the TTT. Initially I was not to do this as I wasn't going to the race that had such a time trial, but now I've been included and I am loving it!

The TTT is a very technical event, grace is more important that brute strength. You have to know how your team mates handle themselves, how to ride in windy conditions where you might use a double pace line, or how to pull through really fast to get speed up on a decent.

Perhaps the most unnerving aspect of the whole this is having to ride inches from the guy in front without having your brakes at hand. But this is just a question of practice and trusting the other guy not to do something stupid.

Communication is also key to success in this event. If one team member gets too enthused he must be told to keep cool. Also if people leave gaps open up they must be told not too. A weaker member might miss a few turns and rest at the back of the group, but needs to let the others know.

Speeds are amazingly high in these events 55kph + being a good average on flatish terrain.

A little bit on Team Time Trials

Race Radios

2011-03-17T12:20:00.001Z

Race Radios are being phased out. These are little two way radios racing cyclists use to speak with each other and the team boss in the car behind. They've been used since the early nineties when the American Motorola team used a system provided by their sponsor, which I believe were actually early GSM handsets and not radios per se.

When racing with a radio, you are generally warned slightly ahead of time of exceptionally dangerous circumstances. Except cyclists do this for themselves. We just avoid a danger without thinking about it. However if your focus is draw to the danger, you can become "fixated" on an obstacle you would have simply cycled past before.

Race Radios kill tactics. There is nothing brilliant about putting a strong team drilling it at the front, just so the team leader can jump of the wheel with 3k's to go. For apologists of this school of racing I suggest an equally intellectually challenging sport: http://www.nhra.com/. Unfortunately that is what race radios lead to. Another thing that becomes evident with he lack of radios is the cohesiveness of a team. Most teams find the situation of not being led from the car unbearable, because each is out for themselves.

Often ignored in cycling coverage is the first hour of a race. It's usually in the first hour that a race is "designed" if you will to take a particular out come. This is where the big teams in a race will try and out fox each other, trying to get the other to expend more energy in protecting it's position. For example this can be done by incessant attacking, or a strict marking. With radios a team will just assume control and let a break go or retrieve it depending on who is in it and how much time they have -as seen from a list in the team car. Without radios riders will generally save energy and and use their own position to manipulate circumstances. They will mark one another or mark a break. An intelligent team will know to always be in a dominant position in a break. This team will be covered against most eventualities. and have more cards to play. The drag racers on the other hand have only one card.

A tough weekend.

2011-03-13T19:14:00.004Z

I woke late on Friday after a good long sleep in preparation for the stressful weekend ahead. I rained all day and I didn't train. But when I hoped for rain -during a late night track race on an open air track, the weather eased of and of I was sent for a 20k race round the track under floodlights. Because it was dangerous, the track being moist and uneven, I resented doing this at first. But then the adrenaline kicked in and I really enjoyed it. We came away from the race pumping -this would be the best "warm up" party ever before a night out! Alas being the middle of the season such things are out of the question.

The next day after a late night and a lack of dinner we were up at 07:00 for short 86k stage. I felt good to start, but unfortunately for me these feeling were fleeting and I really had to knuckle down to do a half decent job for our sprinter, Samuel Caldeira.

Later that day we had a short hill climb, 3k's long and again I didn't quite deliver. I have a long list of excuses for this, but I imagine that my having the flu last week is the main one. I came in 34th, far bellow my expectations. Sergio Sousa was the winner of the stage in 5:15 m and was 11 seconds faster than my team mate Ricardo Mestre who finished second.

Today we controlled the race for Caldeira, who lay second in GC at 9 seconds as he could potentially win the race if he collected a lot of bonifications by winning the stage and two metas volantes. But we made some errors and it didn't happened. We won the Metas Volantes classification and came in second through intermediate of Caldeira.

I hope to get back tot he form I had before the Volta ao Algarve again rapidly. I though I was well, but I wasn't. But I am motivated to improve.

Volta a Albufeira this Week End

2011-03-10T14:06:00.002Z

Today me and six team mates, boss and mechanic went to check out the hill climb time trial that might decide this little tour.

"Nasty, Brutish and Short" sums up the TT well. It 3k's, rises 120m and will take about 4:30 m.

I counted 6 riders that went faster than me in the Volta ao Algarve TT, so I'm aiming for a top 10.

I'm probably not "explosive" enough to be brilliant at such an effort, but no sore hand and a proper warm up might see me compensate for this short fall.

The rest of the route winds dangerously round every single lane and country road in the tiny municipality of Albufeira. I would imagine that if no significant gap opens up in the time trial it will boil down to a race for bonifications between the sprinter types. Details of the routes can be found here:

http://algarvebike.blogspot.com/2011/03/2-etapa-km-36-volta-albufeira.html

Equipier do Ano -Domestique of the Year

2011-03-08T17:55:00.003Z

I was awarded top place in the Equipier do Ano Prize for the month of February. This is a prize promoted by the Union of Portuguese Professional Cyclists for the best team worker. Each professional cyclist in has a vote, at the end of the month these votes are added up and then the total for the year is given in November.

I am proud to be leading this classification, because too long do people look at the podium and not how those cyclists came to get there. Cycling is a magnificent team sport, and in all my races so far I have helped put someone on the podium.

As it stands the top three in this classification are:

Tomás Metcalfe (Tavira/Prio), 9 votes

César Fonte (Barbot/Epafel), 6 votes

David Livramento (Tavira/Prio), 4 votes

2011 so far: Prova de Abertura and Volta ao Algarve

2011-03-07T11:56:00.005Z

2011 has been a tough year so far. But the weather has been beautiful and I am surrounded by ambitious, inspirational people. On failing to secure a big title sponsor me and my team mates settled for much reduced wages and our recent success is the product of the passion we have for riding our bikes.

Prova de Abertura:

We won the team classification in the Prova de Abertura and I won the Metas Volantes. It was an odd race, I easily got away at the beginning with a good group and we set about building a 23m advance quickly, as the bunch behind ground to a halt with no team looking to take up the chance. Ironically, it was my team to take up the chase. And I was ordered to mark Cesar Fonte of Barbot. This effectively put me out of the over all. I was domed and so was Cesar as he was not to get away. Needless to say, this decision by the team boss irritated me terribly and rage flashed across my face. I bit the bitter pill and did what I was told and abdicated from this escape (after winning the intermediate sprints classification).

The the break was swept up as de rigueur in Portuguese cycling. No break ever rolls along like in France. On arriving back at the peloton I set to work along with my exhausted team mates, caught the remaining stragglers of the break and alone, prepared the approach to the final climb of the day: A tough 1 km ramp at 10%. Despite this work I passed the climb in the front group, Watching my team mates play one of the two final moves of the day -attack on the mountain to arrive isolated. This tactic was stale and did not work and I knew even a very punchy rider would get caught as the run in was quite long and exposed.

Our second move was our sprinter who passed the mountain thanks to great work by David Livramento. Unfortunately the finish was wet, cobbled and dangerous. Our sprinter came down 1 km from the line in a sprint finish he would have certainly contested.

A couple of days later the team boss admitted his error of judgement. It would have been sensible to have me attack, gain a lead, disorganise the little group and force another team to take up the chase, while our climbers were better protected in the bunch. In the event I got caught our climbers could launch a more stinging attack, defend our sprinter. In the event I wasn't, I would win. I was the third trump card in their hand and they didn't recognize it.

Volta ao Algarve

I will admit, I was nervous before the Volta ao Algarve. But as they say, they (pro tour riders) have two legs, just like me. Alberto Contador is no super man. The differences between he and I are small. But he and others are faster!

What little Prio/Tavira did with 350 000 € was grab the bull by the horns and control that "World Tour" peloton. We won the mountains classification through intermediate of Ricardo Mestre in what was a text book display of team work. The first stage we attacked the bunch with the idea of winning an intermediate classification. We did this and came away with the mountains classification. The second stage we controlled the race all the way to the top of the first mountain to defend our classification. The third we reeled in a powerful break away over extremely hard terrain, accumulating 3300 m of accent over 200 km. And by the fourth, exhausted, we had secured the classification. I am so proud of what we achieved in this race.

The race finished with a TT (Time Trial) and I had my first proper go at a TT at that level. Unfortunately for me, I did not get a warm up! Bike issues and damned bureaucracy stepped in to interfere with my warm up as my bike was taken away to get verified and measured according to a new regulating put in place two weeks before. It was something to do with new electronic systems and the way reach is measured. I was also injured, even now my sprained thumb aches a bit, this meant my already poor, ignorate technique was made even worse. So there are my excuses! I came in 2:18 m behind Tony Martin the winner of the TT and overall.

I will improve my Time Trial. I wont be a Fabian Cancelara or Michael Rogers, but I will be good.

This Blog isn't dead.

2010-11-20T11:53:00.002Z

I haven't written in a long while, due to having little time in season and not having any news out of season.

The news now is that things are looking a bit grim in Portuguese professional cycling. There seems to be very little support from sponsors and I understand why:

You've got 500 000€ to invest in marketing. You think a short tv add a few times a day for a period of time, you think banners on some web page; it may not work well, but at worse you squandered the money. So you're at zero. Sponsoring a cycling team will give you a guaranteed return in terms of publicity, but carries with it and image risk. So although your return is certain, your name could be associated with chemical cheating. The more cynical business man might not turn his nose at a good scandal. "Festina" got unprecedented exposure through such.

Ironically Liberty Seguros were to invest again in a cycling team (with clean credentials). But at the same time my current team Tavira, who won everything of importance in Portugal and some things abroad is in a huge struggle to find a sponsor! Where does sport come in to this? It's not the first time it occurred to me that there (often) is very little "sport" in sport...

It's recession and shit ok. But the world keeps on turning. Why are we at the mercy of the banks and governments. Why is there a chronic lack of liquidity? People still work and most want to work. Why not press and economic "reset" button where a Kj of your effort is worth 1gm of flour. Instead of this bullshit of people making money out of thin air. And financing these massive, essentially pointless bureaucracies with our sweat also costs dear...

Does cycling have real value? Yes, but the whole structure needs a review. It's ridiculous than a team should buy it's way into the top division. It becomes a game of "who is the best salesman" to attract sponsors and buy in the riders with the points. If my little sponsor gambles on a good project that can do battle with the big boys, why shouldn't that squad be allowed to compete with the big boys? For lack of money apparently.

I am confident things will work out however. And I think IG Markets, if they are to invest in Portuguese cycling, should come to Tavira. And sponsor a team that could host some British prospects from day one. We already have an incredible core of cyclists who have been years in development.

Tour of Portugal Non Selection

2010-07-03T17:01:00.002+01:00

I found out recently I am not going to the "Volta". Before this wouldn't have annoyed me, but his year I has ridden very well and have been key in many success. So it was a slap in the face. I needed it to learn also.I definitely deserve to go, but I don't make the decisions. And I do feel a little burnt.

I am over worrying about it and will continue to train as if I was going; I am first reserve.

British National Road Racing Championships 2010

2010-07-03T16:36:00.002+01:00

I stressed for a week about this race.

The British Championships are a race in which I have to organize everything. I am mechanic, masseuse, driver, team manager, team and finally, Cyclist.

Logistics: I booked the flight two weeks before. I overlooked the fact that registration might be the day before. I booked the flight for the night before. The Driver was a great Triathlete and recent Euro champion Conor Murphy. The journey from East Midlands to Burnley took an extra hour than planned. An A road in England, is a town apparently... damn you AA route finder!

Accommodation: I booked online. They didn't book us in. We got a beer for the stress while they prepared a room. I wasn't too bad.

Masseuse: I got to the grand depart and had noticeably retained liquid; a mixture of pizza and beer; all we could find on the way up the night before! I don't take massage, but they're the guys in charge of food.

Mechanic: There is a big stress flying in the night before: If anything goes wrong with the bike, it's too late to correct the problem myself. The bike was okay, despite needing a wheel change from a broken spoke: Thanks to Pendragon team for helping me out there. Although your mechanic needs to practice his wheel changes!

Team Manager: Who's up the road? How much time? The team manager has an awful lot of stress... It's not just shouting orders at riders.

Team: This is the main one, one guy can't bring back all the moves alone, can't be in two places at once, can't respond to all the attacks... It's not impossible, but only the savvyest tactician can get through a race versus team relatively well. I made many mistakes: Not checking the course, not positioning myself well initially, not going with the second when I should have, listen to the other talk loser tactics and giving it too much heed.

Anyway. I hope people saw I did a good race. And next year I will do a better one! 18th in my first finish in the Elite national. And 2nd out of the guys without a team.

Sky were brilliant, it seems like a dominant performance. But had the rest organized them themselves and not handed the race over on a plate to Sky, it would have been a close run affair. Instead, they employed looser tactics; racing for a placement and doing nothing about winning. Pedragon, Rapha and a few others could have really brought the race to Sky, rather than spectating.. Oh well. I am jealous of those in the Sky/BC camp. They have one of the best set up anywhere.

Four races, four Podiums: Classicas do Sotavento, Tour de Gironde, Volta ao Alentejo, Volta ao Minho

2010-07-03T15:52:00.006+01:00

I rested a week in May. This was before the "Classicas do Sotavento" a trio of national events held in the east of the Algarve. I am not fond of these races and they did not go well for me, despite my form being exceptional. I felt I should have been given more responsibility. I displayed my form in the night time circuit on the first day. We did however win the Team classification and the great Cândido Barbosa won the main race and the Portuguese cup. So it was fantastic.

After this we went to Gironde. This Tour again didn't go well, but I did win the mountains classification. On the first stage I spent the first two hours attacking for the break. I didn't manage to get away. I then sat in and rested. The end was a flat 5km circuit. Given we had three sprinters on the team, I hit the front and did 5km flat out at 50-53kph and annulled the break. I had mistakenly though we were on the last lap however, but we were on the penultimate. Fortunately my team mates then held it together to set the sprint up perfectly for Samuel Caldeira, who finished 3rd.

The next day we were free to attack and I did. The race went off at a furious pace, but I managed to get away with eight others. We worked well together and held off a pack chasing us down with great urgency. They caught us about 50k from the end, which naturally resulted in another break going. This one I was unfortunate to miss. It arrived how with about 30 cyclists, 5min ahead of the main bunch.

The final day I was given the responsibility of winning the Mountains Classification. I and team mate Luis Silva, got away with lots of class doing a fantastic and very fast attack that bridge to the escape which was 500-600m away in an instant. In the group things went well and I seemed set to win the classification. That until, me and Luis slid out on a off camber corner. We had asked for 8bars in the tires, however, I reckon there was rather more, which meant handling was treacherous in the damp weather.

I was full of adrenaline and joined the bunch in an instant. Nervous and protected by Cândido Barbosa, I got to the front 1km from the first mountains prize of the day and put eh hammer down. 7 went on my wheel and a cheeky one nipped past on the line. He was to become my rival for the classification. This also became the winning move in the race. I bother only with the Mountains. Just as well; as I blocked my sciatic nerve in the form. My left leg would "buckle" when I tried sprinting out of the saddle. This I discovered to finish 7th in the stage...

The Volta ao Alentejo I was also in. I was suffering from "rhinitis" and sciatica, so although I finished and pulled my weight, helped form and echelon and control the final stage, I was disappointed. My team mates were on fire and we won a stage with Cândido and the race with David Blanco. Alejandro Marque came second. We also and deservedly won the team classification. As our hard work guaranteed this victory.

Volta ao Minho. I love this race. It has a lot of bad things about it; it's dangerous, badly marshaled, pathetic prize money. But I love the Minho! I love the sinewy, hilly roads. My biggest amateur victory was a mountain top finish in the Minho. It's terrain that lends itself to my characteristics. On the first day, the race was rather weak. I attacked and was followed by twelve guys, including 4 team mates. One of these is a particularly good climber; Ricardo Mestre. Knowing Ricardo Mestre was with us me and Luis Silva put the hammer down and in 20km put 2:20min into the bunch chasing behind. The idea was to bring him with some advantage to the last mountain of the day. We gave him a 40sec advantage, but he was unable to arrive isolated at the finish line, being caught near the top of the last mountain.

The next day was a dangerous transition day. This was annoying and indeed, an amateur fell in front of me. I landed okay, but got winded. I was panicking trying to breath! I changed bad on eventually. There should be a minimum standard for these "pro-am" races. Maybe a hill climb on the first day, where those not apt can be excluded.

On the last day, 16km in, I attacked to catch the wheel of a couple of guys ahead. Incredibly this gave rise to a situation rather like the first day. We were contesting the over all. I put the hammer down and off we went! We gained 6min in the next hour. Only me and a couple of team mates. We left Ricardo at the final climb with 2:40, we dully defended, loosing only 1:25m and won the race. It was fantastic. I came second int he metas voltantes pulling through, we won the team prize and I won a special sprint. Happy days!

G.P. Llodio, Vuelta a Rijoca, Subida ao Naranco and Vuelta a Asturias.

2010-06-03T11:54:00.002+01:00

Okay,

So for all my complaining this has not been a bad season so far. I've been given a top "international" calendar, racing pretty much every week end and all races of some significance. I After Tro Bro Leon, I raced G.P. Llodio, Vuelta a Rijoca, Subida ao Naranco and Vuelta a Asturias.

This block began well, with me being able to escape with some ease over the first categorised climb in Llodio, but missing the earlier break. Kind of stupid, but it meant we were some how represented in the front. And for me it's either pulling in the break away, pulling on the front of the peleton or puling to arrive within the control time in the Grupetto. It all amounts to the same thing.

I felt good during this whole period, but made one key mistake: Ignoring blatant illness. I had "sinusitis" and in typical fashion thought I'd battle through and get better naturally. I tried this for about a month before speaking with the doctor and taking antibiotics. The antibiotics helped a lot.

Asturias is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It's locked between the sea and high mountains and is as green as Ireland. Nothing at all like Castile. The approach to the place is incredible. I've seen the "Alps Maritimes", the "Rockies" in California and all the other mountains on the peninsula. Nothing was as spectacular as crossing those via ducts, tunnels, and causeways across mountain reservoirs into Asturias.

On the other hand, mountains on this scale are not that great for riding bikes. It's painful and difficult, and seeing "comienza puerto" every 12km demoralizing. I did find out however, on climbing the Acebo that I am actually quite good at mountain top finishes, if one considers that I was purposefully going slowly to save energy, loosing 5m on a 35m climb and riding a long way bellow threshold is good!

The next day I managed to get disqualified. I was disqualified because the commissar thought it impossible I managed to go from the back group to the Peleton after loosing contact after a puncture. Ironically yes, I and two others did about 95% of the word to close that gap and yes we did take a draft behind a car along one section, so I dully pulled over when asked. Stupid really.

2010-05-10T16:12:00.003+01:00

I haven't written anything in a long time, because I have been busy. Every week for the past six weeks I have been racing. Bit by bit I chronicle these races over the next week.

After Klassica Primavera I did another two classics in France. These were in Brittany and we were to go by car. This trip is about 2000km and the car journey is tiresome enough, yet along the 200km long races. As luck would have it, the planes were grounded due to Eyjafjallajökull. That volcano miles away that seemed to affect most of Europe. It made me give credence to the "Butterfly Effect". We were going by car anyway.

The races were Tour du Finistere and Tro Bro Leon. Both races are category 1.1, which means they are of a high standard.

Finistere actually went very well give everything. My team and I aren't used to this sort of racing by any means and the fact we all finished this race well is a big credit. I unfortunately stuttered a bit when the race split after a nasty little climb and didn't go in the final break. Which was a shame because I felt very capable. The door of opportunity in these situations is open only very briefly. The race in itself was hard, but not overly so. The nordic are a bit more aggressive at fighting for position in the peleton and like to attack incessantly, which is good. Far worse is being bored to death by a race controlled ticking a long at an average pace

Tro Bro Leon is an amazing race and it was a huge pleasure to take part.

This race is a little (200km) copy of Paris-Roubaix and takes in several dirt tracks sections totaling 30 odd kilometers. It start and end in the village of Lannilis in Brittany and takes in very beautiful scenery, these dirt tracks intersecting the most rural countryside and even taking in quite a bit of the coast. It was interesting to note all the Gaelic prefixes in the words, and sign posts to hill forts and the like. The place feels most definitely Celtic; cold, windswept and green.

My team coming from the Algarve was woefully unprepared. The equipment needed for this race is a bit different to the standard and we went on standard tires and only had one support vehicle, when we needed two, to have spare wheels at each dirt track section. I punctured about halfway through. I had to wait a long while for a wheel change. As well as this I should have finished the section punctured, but didn't. Anyway. I had to chase for 50 min alone till I reached the peleton. This was a massive effort and pretty much shot the engine. I don't know what speed I was going, but given I had lost minutes and caught a very fast moving race; that was quite some individual TT I did. Needless to say, when I got caught behind a crash 20 more k down the road I called it quits and went on direct to the stage finish at Lanilis by myself. I later found Rob Hayles and a team mate of his for company.

Klasica Primavera

2010-04-12T13:48:00.002+01:00

This weekend we raced Klasica Primavera. This was a fantastic race, the Basque people love bike racing and each passage by the finish line or "helmuga" as the Basques call it was filled with a few thousand of people. The moutain tops or "muniketagane" were also full of supportive fans.

The weather also held of and except for the absolutely freezing start was ok. Thankfully it didn't rain. I am not fond of cold an rain.

The race started at 06:00 the day before with a massive car journey or a thousand kilometers or so. We arrived sometime about 17:00 and went out training. I felt good training, although, I was evidently tired after such a huge car journey. Still, I felt that by the next day things would be okay.

The next day, race day, started at 05:00 according to my body clock and 06:00 according to the Spanish clock. I had slept okay and was looking forward to the race. Breakfast was a bit of a chore as the hotel provided us with horrible sticky buns and some re-heated spaghetti complete with dry bits and some omelets.

The race started of badly, as the break went right away and I wasn't in it, although I jumped at each successive opportunity there after, all of which failed. Retrospectively (I didn't appreciate this at the time) I saw some fantastic team work by team Saxo Bank defending their man in the break, Andy Shleck, by closing down each and every attempt made there after. Looking back it was top shelf racing I was witnessing, with all of them mucking in to get the work done.

Anyway, for the first 2 hours I felt like I was a top notch bike racer ticking over nicely at 120 bpm in the peleton rubbing shoulder with many illustrious riders form the Grand Tours. However this view quickly changed when many kilometers later, when I found myself gasping for oxygen on the first mountain of the day and finding that in fact I was a good bit of form. I would normally get criticized for this, but I know I was 6-7% bellow par.

I muddled on anyway, climb after climb, especially enjoying the descents and disliking the run ins which were always done at a sprint. I finally dropped of the pace about half way up the penultimate climb of the day, found myself a couple of russians to ride hope with and then got caught by an "express" grupetto powered by the remnants of the Euskatel-Euskadi team... I quite enjoyed the express ride home, it made a change from the normal given up type grupetto ride.

All in all, although mediocre in many ways I am happy with with how this race went. The next will get better all the way to September.

Since the Tour of Algarve

2010-03-31T13:36:00.002+01:00

The weather has improved here in the Algarve. The sun is out after what has been the wettest winter ever. It's still not baking hot, but just pleasant.

I got over the disappointment of the Tour of Algarve eventually. And had one race since then. This race was 1º Prova da Taça de Portugal G.P. José Zeferino in Povoa do Varzim. I was highly skeptical about my form having been relatively weak in training, however in the heat of the moment my body responded beautifully and I, together with a team mate controlled the entire race for 136km. Eventually we left the final climb and 10k to our fresh legged team mates to bring Cândido Barbosa nicely to the line and victory. I felt very good at all stages of the race and was just shy of passing the final climb, which means that even after all that work, controlling all those break aways I was ok.

That race was the remedy I needed to fix my head. Now I have an interesting calendar, which will take me to the Basque country and France in the next few weeks. I will be doing classic races which are very tough.

Volta ao Algarve

2010-02-21T18:31:00.003Z

The Volta ao Algarve began and ended in the worsted possible manner for me.

Due to a bureaucratic error, my name had not been added to the UCI database, so when my team went to enter me into the race I was refused. This despite all the paper work apparently being in order and having the appropriate licence and insurance. This was hugely stressful on the day before what to me is a hugely important race. I didn't know I was racing till 50m before the start. So I went to the start line already ill prepared and stressed to the core.

I felt at ease in the group and was optimistic of doing a good job at this race.

Stage two was a mammoth 216km with over 3400m of climbing. Added to this was 5ºC, rain and wind. I went out dressed for this weather, but my attire was inadequate, and I left the start line in Sagres teeth already chattering. This isn't good and I should have known better. Even on the mountain climbs I had teeth chattering and the bike zig-zaging as I trembled. On the descents my body went still with cold. My heart rate would rise above 75% of it's maximum.

When I realized that this was no longer for me a sporting competition, but an exercise in suffering, I pulled over. There was no way I could do the rest alone.

I was and still am really bitter about this.

The Prova de Abertura

2010-02-15T11:50:00.002Z

Portuguese cycling has changed, quite suddenly and from one season to the next. Before it was fully professional, with many hilly stage races of a very high standard. Now there are three. A 2.2, 2.1, 2.1. Is this bad? Many believe that portuguese cycling had grow beyond it means and regard this change as an evolution and that it will give rise to a big pro team, rather like Team Sky, i.e. nationaly representative.

A extremelly possitive development is the fact that dope control has become very rigorous.

The race was strange, no radios meant few people took initiative and many times the speed came right down to 20kph, to shoot up to 60kph, there was no particularly impressive riding, unless you count the last 30k. Which my team took at incredible speed. The last 8k covered at over 60kph. My team mate Samuel Caldeira came thrid in the sprint and said the team had done a perfect job.

I had the rather tiresome and boring task of riding on the front for ages, infact we controled most of the race with only 2-3 riders. Better than hanging on in the bunch, but not nearly as much fun as if we had blown the race appart. Oh well!

Now I will go to the Volta ao Algarve and be out of touch. However I will post next Monday my views on the race and how it went. The course profile can be found here:

http://jornalciclismo.com/guia-da-36%c2%aa-volta-ao-algarve

It's a very tricky, hilly race, with horrible weather predicted.

Season kicks of this weekend

2010-02-09T19:27:00.004Z

It's the prova de Abertura, the season opening race in Portugal. This used to be two races, an U-23 and a professional race. But this year, because of lack of funds it's one race. I came second in this race in 2006, and won the metas volantes last year, so I tend to go well there.

This year I don't know. I presume my team will want to bring it down to a sprint. Which is fair enough, I think we have the legs for a result here. That said I wouldn't discount completly a break arriving. We are racing with under-23's, there will be no radios... so it is quite likely. Infact attacking the race to force the others to chase might be more economical than burning up 7 in a chase for the line.

I'm a bit sick, usual plight of head colds and another virus thing. I should be better by the weekend. I've been stressed recently, moved house, living with my girlfriend. And with all the credit crunching going on, this wasn't as smooth as I had hoped. Although all is well now. It's amazing how hard it is to train, rest, feed, tidy and clean... I'll get on top of this though.

This year I am going to start to think about my post racing career. I want to have something there, to take the stress. I do of course want to take this to another level. I know I've got the fundamentals of an excelent cyclist. But that's just it. It's my tough luck should nothing more come of it. Suck it up and move on. I have enjoyed every moment of it.

I wish I was flying, I've got the "Volta ao Algarve" next week. This was the first race I ever watched. In 2004, while my mum was dying of cancer, I went to watch the Volta and gain inspiration from a certain Lance Armstrong. Inspiration was found. Six years latter there I am racing it myself. I have an autograph of Lance's from that race.

I started read "Minho and North Portugal", a book by my grandfather, Patrick Swift and David Wright. My girlfriend is from the Minho, which kind of brought me to picking the book up. I wonder if my grand father ever thought that 50 years into the future his grand son would be racing round those same montes? Amazing really. I won my one and only race in amateur on a cobble stone climb in the Minho!

New Season

2010-01-26T18:23:00.003Z

I haven't posted anything on this blog for a long time. But I now have the time and the facility to post more often. This has been the hardest off-season of my short cycling career. Hard but also rewarding.

I finished the season last year with some very exciting performances and really prooved to myself that I had a right to be in the peleton. I came 21st in the Tour of Bulgaria, 3rd on the 3rd stage, despite a crash on day one which forced me to do the last 80km including a huge climb before the climb and long technical descent through fog on a bike for someone 4cm shorter than I. 4cm in the leg that is. I also worked km after km for others in the team. So really, the results are kind of irrelevant, relative to my performance.

Starting the off-season full of confidence was fantastic. I jumped on a plane to England with zero stress, despite having zero guaruntees for the following season. This continued through out an October of insant partying and fun having. Cycling was far from my mind. I did a few runs for fun and was pleasantly suprised to see I could still run well, despite a couple of years of not running. I even finished 2nd in a charity mini marathon. Thankfully the guy who beat me was a fitness instructor, so I didn't feel too bad.

In November I did begin to wonder about my fate and was a bit annoyed nothing was said by anyone from anywhere. I decided the best thing would be to hold fast. But this niggle of stress is very destructive and like it or not, it will wear down even the the most mentally steadfast. I started to get depressed, after a three month high of happyness and achievement. Despite this, after a few rides, I entered my second moutain bike marathon with my "dog", dog being slang for a bad bike. I came 3rd. I felt bad about this. I have for years battled against a reputation as a poor bike handler. I think people forget I started riding at Loughborough at 20. I turned pro at 23. People should worry more about themselves than worry about me.

Finally, sometime right before Christmas I signed with my current team Palmeiras Resort/Tavira. Which made me happy. For all it's flaws, this is the team that has made me a cyclist.

We had a training camp in Serra da Estrela. Here team spirit bubbled to the surface and we had a very good time cycling and walking in the mountains. The weather was fantastic. We saw a little bit of snow after a long climb up the 2000m mountain. That made me happy. The decent was even more fun, but despite our best efforts we still rocked up late for lunch and got into trouble.

Training since then has been awfull. It's rained incesantlly and we are doing a new program which involves riding for 5,6,7 hours 4 days a week. Not nice and slowly but with many heavy going sets. When the weather is good it's fine. But rain and cold sap extra energy.

We did more tests to determine training zones. And have been training hard ever since.

My first race is the "Prova de Abertura" on the 14th, that is if it doesn't get pulled at the last moment...

2009-06-05T23:05:00.002+01:00

Currently I have no computer and only sporadic internet access... Hence I probably wont be able to update till I splash out on a new PC. But I will tell all of my French racing experience at the Tour de Gironde and all the other fun and adventures when I can! Next up is Boucles de la Mayenne for me, Abimota and GP CTT for my team.

Something extra:

2009-05-12T11:43:00.004+01:00

Cycling has a whole language and manner of comunicating all of it's own. It takes a while and some lucky guess work to tune in. This is an extremelly incomplete "work in progress"

Abastecimento Apiado:

Fomations:

Bordiu, Abanico (Por); Echelon (Fr,Eng): This an aerodynamic formation made by cyclists when there is a cross wind. It means that the rider in this formation are protected and can rest, before taking their turn to drive the whole fomation forward.

Pelotão (Por), Peleton (Fr, Eng): This is the name given to the largest group on course in any race. Some times it becomes hard to distinguish if the race splits into many groups.

Grupetto (Por, Sp, It, Fr, Eng): I think this is pretty much international. When the roulleurs and sprinters get dropped in the mountains by the GC riders and climbers they form a defensive group to try limit their losses and arrive at the finish within a certain pre determind percentage of the arrival time of the winner.

Echapé (Fr), Fugitivos, Fuga(Por), Break Away(Eng): This the name given to any cyclists that escape out the front of the main bunch.

Types of Cyclist:

Gregario (Por,Sp,It); Domestique (Fr,Eng): This a cyclist who work so that another may win, or may win more easilly, or insure a victory, without nessesarilly wining themselves. A good analogy or way to understand this is if you draw a paralel with defenders in football. Famous gregarios:

Roulleur (Fr,Eng); Rolador (Por,Esp): This a cyclist who specializes in roling or flat terrain. They are generally big quite heavy and powerful and can maintain very high speeds for long durrations of time. These cyclist specialize in break aways or controling the front of a race. Famous rouleurs include Jens Voigt, George Hincapie, Andreas Tafi, Vytcheslav Ekimov, etc.

Climber (Eng); Trepador (Por): As the name implies, these a cyclist who specialize in climbing moutains. These cyclists are extremelly light weight. Weighing between 50-65kgs, while generally being quite tall. Famous climbers include Marco Pantani, Ivan Parra, Robert Millar, etc.

Completo (Por,Esp); All Rounder (English): These are the riders that can win stage races, they do everything well, especially climbing and time trialling. They are noted for their recovery from one day to the next. Famous all-rounders include Lance Armstrong, Bernard Hinault, Joaquim Agostinho, etc.

Sprinter (every where): Like in track and field, but imagine someone sprinting at the end of 1500m as they are nothing to do with 100m and 200m runner and are in themselves thoroughbred endurance athletes, merelly carrying a few more fast twitch muscle fibers. Famous sprinters: Mario Cippolini, Eric Zabel, Mark Cavendish, Adjamoulin Abdoujaparov

Director Desportivo (Por,Esp); Directeur Sportiff (Fr, Eng): A sporting direstor in cycling is like a manager in football. It's a hands on job and involves knowing the riders very wel, as to get the best out of them. A team director also must make the team to collude and work together. They are usually the boss in the team and determine tactics to a large extent. Famous Directors: Patric Lefevre, Bijarne Riis,

Classica Vila do Conde and Memorial Bruno Neves

2009-04-28T14:57:00.005+01:00

This past weekend I had my first "strech of the legs" since an acute infection. Not sure exactlly what it was, only that it was pretty rough and culminated in a fever.

Classica Vila do Conde:

On Saturday as part of a mixed professional and amateur team, I raced a fantastic little race known as Classica Vila do Conde. The Portuguese calendar is full of these "1.12" ranked races or "clandestinas" as they're called, toungue in cheek by the cyclists. Many complain they are not mediatic or serious enough, to justify their time. I like them a lot, as are a fantastic school of cycling and tremendous fun.

This race was on an easy circuit, with one hard climb. This was a short climb, but steep and on cobble stones. Infact there were cobbled sections through out the circuit, spicing up an otherwise easy event. The climb was too short to cause any real damage with any of the splits that occured quickly being annuled by my team. This meant that entering the finishing 2.5km circuit around the town we were guarunteed a sprint finish. And through Cândido Barbosa we won the race.

http://www.ciclismodigital.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1841&Itemid=26

Memorial Bruno Neves:

This race was a memorial, to a cyclist who died during "Classica Amarante" just under a year ago. I was perhaps two wheels away when I saw Bruno Neves fall. It was something so inocuous, I presumed it was just a silly clipping of wheels with a nervous under-23. As it happened, it was a sudden cardiac arrest something which some young people are lyable to suffer and athletes more so, due to "myocardial hypertrophy" (if my memory serves me right); abnormal growth of the heart muscle.

The race was 155km on a very hilly ~30km cicuit with an abundance of pot holes, round abouts and tricky corners. Not my kind of race being hilly and technical.

Early in the race the pack was split with a massive group going of the front. I was one of the last to bridge across. Four of my team mates unfortunatly found themselves on the wrong side of the divide, but we were reasonably well represented in this numerous group of about 25, with three.

Liberty Seguros quickly siezed control of this group and promptly put the "peleton" chasing behind out of the race. And then began what for me was a slow death, kilometer after kilometer in the heat on these infernal roads, with well trained climbers making me and my new motor pay for over 3 weeks of not training properly.

There was another split forced by Liberty, 60 km from the end, 9 riders of the front. I probably had the legs to go with them, in terms of speed. But I bonked (bonking in cycling refers running out of glycogen; fuel) so it would have done little good to be up the front.

However my team mate Henrique Casimiro was up there and nearly won the race against the formidable Liberty squad. He came in 2nd, all of his own doing as there was no one there to lend him a hand in the last 45km.

http://www.ciclismodigital.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1842&Itemid=26

G.P Llodio & Volta ao Alentejo:

2009-04-04T17:56:00.006+01:00

G.P. Llodio:

This race was very tough. Most of my team are based in the Algarve, one of the warmest, sunniest places in Europe. The Basque country on the other hand is basicly northern Europe. It was cold enough to hail, but not so cold that we avoided getting wet. The scenery was dramatic and beautiful. We raced through the green Pirenean foot hills, over hung with clouds and a snow line only a few meters further up.

We placed a man in the break away; Alejandro Marque. He was acompanied by two local Basque men riding in the colours of Euskaltel-Eusquadi, but still managed to win the "sprints especias" and "metas volantes" classifications, with only the mountains classification escaping his grasp. The best over all from our team was André Cardoso in 9th possition.

I was pathetic in this race and disappointed becuase up to this point I had been having an excelent season. I did not finish and was quite eaten up with disapointment and wondering why I was particularly weak.

Volta ao Alentejo:

I was very aprehensive about this race given my peformance a couple of days before in Llodio. But I went with the full intention of doing my absolute best for my team. But it turned out I was infact quite sick, as I got a fever on the 5th that lasted another 2 days.

Stage One; Vila Nova de Milfontes-Odemira, 159km :

Constant breakaway atempts were made for the first 2 hours of the race. The pace was incredibly high, a 50kph average speed. The terrain was the beautiful but desolate south western corner of the Alentejo. I didn't see much scenery, mainly just the wheel in front of me. The pack split going through a particularly hilly area between São Teotonio on the coast and Saboia inland. I and three team mates closed this gap, as in our company was Cândido Barbosa, one of our team leaders. The front group raced along at top speed. They wanted to gain as much of an advantage over pre-race favourite Hector Guerra. He had been issolated in my "chase" group, left without any team mates to help him.

Three riders had mean while got away, Maxime Bouet (Fra) Agritubel, Glen Chadwick (NZl) Rock Racing and Vitaliy Kondrut (Ukr) ISD. Palmeiras resort/Prio/Tavira, Liberty Seguros and Madeinox/Boavista were put to work to reduce their lead, but a moment too late and the break succeded. With Maxime Bouet winning the stage and siezing the yellow, leaders jersey. The average speed was an incredible 45kph.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2009/apr09/alentejo09/alentejo091

Stage Two; Ferreira do Alentejo – Montemor-o-Novo, 209.9km:

This was the longest stage in the race 209.9km conecting Ferreira do Alentejo and Montemor-o-Novo. It headed out mile after mile across the seemingly endless plains of the Alentejo. Agritubel controlled the race from start till 20km from the end, the only eventful ocasion being the suicide escape by two riders early in the stage. My team and I siezed control of the race on the on categorized climb in the race and quickly killed the breakaway and any atempts there after. We pulled the race along at 55-60kph for the next 5km till just before Montemor, at this point I droped of, spent. This left just the quick and the strong of my team in comand, to launch a sprint for our up and coming sprinter Samuel Caldeira. He duelly won the stage.

He was disqualified from his first ever international victory. A Liberty Seguros rider, Filipe Cardoso made a protest saying his sprint was "irregular" and that he was blocked. I make no coment but include the following picture and ask: Did the protesting rider have enough space to come past? It's worth noting that the finishing straight was 150m long of a wide, fast, left hand turn and therefore everyones tragetory was slightly "curved".

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2009/apr09/alentejo09/alentejo092

Stage 3 Beja-Beja, 19km:

This was stage was the defining moment in the race. A 19km time trial. It was won by possibly the best time trialist in Portugal, Hector Guerra. Tavira's hopes lay with David Blanco. Also a fantastic time trialist. David arrived home in 6th possition. He lost the race in the first 7-8km on a long flat road with a tail wind. However, despite his chain falling and a couple of missed apexes he lost no time on the harder, more technical part of the course.

My race was a "rest" day, I was under orders and even followed by the boss to make sure I rested up and kept everything bellow threshold, so I could be put to work in the mountains the next day. I lost three minute. Which left me quite chuffed.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2009/apr09/alentejo09/alentejo093

Stage 4: Alter do Chão - Nisa, 164.7km:

This was the "queen" stage, consisting of 6 categorized climbs. Including the infamous "Cabeço do Mouro" familiar to any rider who has riden for a Portuguese team. This stage was bound to be attacked, as Hector Guerra had only a slim lead on the race.

I responded to the first attacks and was in the front group when I imbecilicly cliped wheels with rider in front, lost my balance and drove into the ditch smashing the front wheel to pieces and doing a double sommersault, eventually landing on my face. I was left with a few grazes on my face and I wasn't particularly worried, but was withheld from continuing with the race by the team doctor, whom was playing it safe as I was complaining of sore balls, after a near crotch impact with some part of the bike. Apparently testicular trauma can be quite serious. And even a niggle warrants caution. Thankfully all is ok, injury wise with only a few scrapes on the face. Potentially worrying had I been born beautiful.

As predicted the race split to pieces in the tha mountains and my team had all our team leaders in the front group and two sprinters. Cândido Barbosa won the stage with my team mates all with raised arms crossing the line. A fantastic sight.

We later celebrated with some espumante and although sad I my poor performance, I was so pleased with our victory.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2009/apr09/alentejo09/alentejo094

Stage 5, Vendas Novas – Évora, 169.4km:

A school boy error... I didn't follow this race as I went the masseuse whom I thought was going to hand up food at a midway point in the stage. Instead, I just saw the finish. It was a cobbled climb about 300m long, but easy enough for a sprint victory which is exactly what happened, thanks to my team mates controling things for Cândido Barbosa, who made it two stages and points jersey!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2009/apr09/alentejo09/alentejo095

Details on the forthcoming races:

2009-03-27T13:30:00.003Z

G.P. Llodio or "Laudioko Nazioarteko Sari Nagusia" in the local Basque:

This race is a "classic" in the purest meaning of the word. This race is going into it's 60th edition, first being held in 1949.

Classics are one day races, usually very long and very difficult. They dawn from a time when race organiser wanted the most dramatic and difficult course, designed to break the riders and create as much drama as possible. They tend to be either "hilly classics" or "northern classics" northern usually being in the wind and rain and over cobble stone sections.

Unusually, the two Portuguese teams involved are both Algarvean; Palmeiras Resort/Prio/Tavira and C.C Loulé/Louletano/Aquashow. The previous winner of this event, Hector Guerra rides for the Liberty Seguros squad, how ever they don't appear to be racing.

All the information about this race can be found here:

http://mipagina.euskaltel.es/scdad.c.llodiana/gp2009/conten/gpremio.htm

Volta ao Alentejo:

This is a normal road race, over five days through the Alentejo. It's highly ranked though, at 2.1, which is the same as the Tour of Britian for example. This race passes some beautiful scenery, especially in the hills near Portalegre.

On the third stage is a time trials. Which will probably determine the winner. Last year David Blanco came in second in the time trial and won the green points jersey.

I hope this year, will be as successful as the previous and that the weather is better also.

All the information on this race can be found here:

http://www.amde.pt/volta/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=8&Itemid=32

Exciting times ahead!

2009-03-23T14:17:00.002Z

This Sunday the G.P. Llodio classic tkes place in the Basque country. It's quite hilly apparently and very hard. In order to be fresh for the race the team management has decided that flying is a better option than a 1200km journey by car and caravan.

Following on two days later we have the"Volta ao Alentejo" a 2.1 ranked race, or the highest ranking in our calendar bar the "Volta a Portugal". Again I suspect we will be combative, but I am also fully aware there will be many other strong teams with powerful riders.

This is all rather exciting and I sincerly hope I can do a decent job. I am quite aware how hard these races will be and know that my form has taken a bit of a dip, probably by training a little too hard. I hope the hard training will have paid of and that I recover strong for this block.

Volta a Albufeira

2009-03-10T14:34:00.002Z

Palmeiras Resort/Prio/Tavira came out victorious this weekend, in the general classification, points and metas volantes and all through one rider; Samuel Caldeira.

The race was not straight forward. It is a fast, short and technical race, with many chances for time bonifications. We had to kill every break away and prepare a sprint every time there was a meta volante, which was often. Of course 10 guys against 110 is always going to make for difficult racing, but the sittuation was adequatly controled, alowing Samuel Caleira to take victory.

It was an impressive lesson in team work. We were greatlly helped along by the fact Cândido Barbosa, with an impresive 101 professional victories in his palmares, was able to guide us and tell us what to do and when.

Volta a Albufeira, Buenos Aires

2009-03-02T12:36:00.005Z

Volta a Albufeira:

On Saturday and Sunday we are racing the "Volta a Albufeira" a tight, sinous and dangerous race, around the little "concelho" - something like a council, of Albufeira. The plus side to this race is it can be a lot of fun and the hotels are excellent. And it's only 30km away from home!

We want to win the race through sprinter Smauel Caldeira, so that's the plan as it stands. He had a very good "Volta ao Algarve" and it seems likely he could win it. Last year I came in 13th after gaining time by winning some intermediate sprints.

The full, detailed race route for all three stages can be found here:

http://www.ciclismodigital.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1726&Itemid=1

Vuelta a Buenos Aires:

This race has been canceled, I would guess it is another casualty of the credit crunch. Although so far cycling has come through relatively unscathed. Cycling lurches from crisis to crisis anyway.

Volta ao Algarve:

We had a suprisingly good Volta, 4th in the team classification, as the best Portuguese team. The race this year was bigger and much better than before, though falling a bit short of what it was talked up to be. Live TV and Eurosport never turned up. It was a shame because during such a glorious sunny week, with Tour de France Champion Alberto Contador in yellow at the end I can not think of any better way to promote a region supposedly renown for high end tourism and sports tourism. Infact that little race alone attracted throngs of people who would wouldn't be here otherwise. I think some large developments, and comerce could through a few euros to have the race pass... On TV, to millions across Europe.

March Calendar Update:

2009-02-18T17:32:00.003Z

March is looking like an interesting month:

7-8th: Volta ao Munícipio de Albufeira: A 2.12 ranked event. 4 star hotels all round, dangerous, technical stages, nervous U-23's in the mix. This is one of my favourite events despite not being suited to it.

18th-22nd: Vuelta a la Provincia de Buenos Aires: A 2.2 ranked event. This will be my first excursion to the southern hemisphere and a welcome escape to the summer. This race will makes excellent preparation for the "Volta ao Alentejo" that begins on the 1st of April.

In Review: Team Presentation, Training Camp and "Prova de Abertura"

2009-02-16T13:11:00.003Z

Team Presentation:

The team presentation was in an old, restored market place in the center of Tavira. It was much more elaborate that in previous years. A professional photographer and film crew were employed to produce a video and accompanying photo’s for a brochure.

Many people came to the presentation, especially from the press. It was open to the public so anyone could come and go as they please, with canapés and drinks laid on for who ever. Cyclists and staff were all given brand new, tailor made suits for this. The sponsors were individually presented, followed by a short piece on each of the cyclists and staff. Here is the link to the brochure presented:

http://www.ciclismodetavira.pt/downloads/DossierdeImprensa%20CCT2009.pdf

I disliked being called "equipier" in the brochure and consider myself a "rolador". I think I have earn that, having frequently won intermediate prizes and worked a lot on the front of the bunch. One day, I hope to be; "completo".

Training Camp:

Training camp was fun. We are all friends on the team which helps. On occasion I have resented training camps. Usually this only happened when I had a girl friend, family or friends near by that I couldn't be with because of it. But after a bad month with horrid weather and no electricity, it was a pleasure to find myself in a four star hotel by the beach in warm sunshine! The incessant photographs do weary one after a while, but it was a small price to pay.

New Team Members:

One is a celebrity in the purest sense of the world; he has multitudes flock to the road side just to see him. He is Cândido Barbosa with 101 professional victories to his name. André Cardoso, only my age, has won a "Volta a Portugal do Futuro" and a mountains classification in the "Volta". Also new to the team are Henrique Casimiro and Daniel Mestre, but these guys I knew from my time on the amateur team; Tavira/DUJA.

"Prova de Abertura":

This race usually passes a similar course year on year beginning and ending in Faro. It's not very hilly and the roads are good, which explains the 44kph average speed we set. The sun was shining and a strong wind from the east just to make it a little more interesting.

My job was simple: To get on the wheel of anyone wanting to escape who might pose a threat or be from a particularly threatening squad. I did this easily enough. Eventually I escaped with a group of 12 that established itself at the head of the race. There were two “metas volantes” along the way and I won them both and the over all in that classification. But disappointingly this didn't merit a call to the podium. I was left wondering: What is the point in placing a classification on course if the winner is hardly mentioned?

After my escapade, I used up the rest of my energy bringing back Tiago Machado. He was formidably strong and made a fantastic -although predictably doomed- effort to stay away. The last 20 kilometers I rested up at the back of the bunch. I could not be of much use to my team as I had little top end power. And I was not part of the group preparing the sprint. I got caught in split in the final 3 km and didn’t have enough energy or drive to sprint up to the front, so I lost a minute to the winner: Theo Bos, winning his first road race! A five time world champion on track I believe. Here are detailed results:

http://jornalciclismo.com/?p=2461

http://www.ciclismodigital.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1700&Itemid=26

New Team Colours, Season Opening Race, Training Camp, "Volta ao Algarve".

2009-02-09T14:08:00.007Z

"Palmeiras Resort/Prio/Tavira"

Clube de Ciclismo de Tavira has new colours and a new sponsor for the 2009 season. The professional team is now called "Palmeiras Resort/Prio/Tavira". This is a very possitive development after the recent disappointment of Orlando Rodrigues and José Azevedo leaving the team after the sponsor they brought pulled out without warning.

"Prio" is a company that develops and markets bio fuels. I could think of no better partner for a cycling team. Cycling is "green" mode of transport and a healthy activity, complementing the "green" fuels industry.

Palmeiras Resort, is a new luxury development in Tavira. They steped in and helped the team to a "Volta a Portugal" victory when the previous sponsor unexpectedly cut short its promise.

And Tavira is an extremelly beautiful historic town on a Lagoon on the warm south eastern coast of the Algarve twenty kilometers from Andalucia. This town is home to the team.

http://jornalciclismo.com/?p=2122

http://ciclismodetavira.pt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=296&Itemid=1

Season Opening Race:

The season opening race, sponsored by the national broadcaster starts and ends in Faro, outside the offices of the "Radio Difusão Portuguesa"

Some of it will pass on television I am not sure when.

Details of this race can be found:

http://jornalciclismo.com/?p=2117

http://www.ciclismodigital.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1686&Itemid=26

Be sure to remember the under-23s race the day before, so if you're a cycling fan and wish to catch some action there will be a lot on!

Training Camp and Team Presentaion:

We have a training camp starting Wednesday. Photos to be taken and video to be shot on Thursday. And the team presentation on Friday. On Saturady the U-23s racem, starting in Vilamoura and finishing in Loulé. Followed by the professionals on Sunday. If further details are required I am sure they can be solicited from the team.

The Volta ao Algarve:

Will feature many big names including Alberto Contador and Damiano Cunego. It will pass on national RTP1 television as well as highlights on Eurosport. It will follow a format much the same as previous years. I think our main bet will be prior winner in the event Candido Barbosa. Who won in 1997 and 2002; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volta_ao_Algarve

A detailed route description, results and standings can be found here:

http://www.edosof.com/2009/algarve/

Cycling and the Credit Cruch

2009-02-05T17:29:00.006Z

These might not be bad times for cycling. People are hard up, companies are tightening their budgets.

Cycling does not charge an entry fee. On television too it's generally available on free to view chanels. This is the sport of the people. Football involves paying lots to view it either on satelite chanels or costs money to go and see it live. Footballers and other athletes have incredibly over-inflated salaries running into several millions, incomes that dwarf all but the greatest champions in cycling.

The "Volta a Portugal" regularly gets between 40% and 50% share in television viewing. As well as this there is the extra coverage in the national paper some times running to an extra supplement. And the massive crowds which inundate the finishes of races here run into the hundreds of thousands. To buy into this and another 90 races you need a mere €350 000 -the price of a house- to finance a Continental professional team for a year. It also keeps about 20 people employed. Here are just the Volta's viewing figures:

http://jornalciclismo.com/?p=989

Cycling mirrors the state of society through the hardships the athlete's endure, often for no glory and little money.

The cyclists may not become known in the same way as other athlete's, but this is due more to a media discrimination as pointed out by Fernando Alonso before a training ride with Carlos Sastre.

Cycling is a sport any kid with a bike can take up. It doesn't require a pitch, or a gym hall or a pool. Merelly a road and any bike will do to allow a 12 year old access to the sport. You don't even need other people to do it with, as proven by the time trialists.

It's cheap, it's accesible, it's exiting. As a marketing tool in these times, it is ideal.

Computer is Broken

2009-02-02T18:03:00.003Z

Unfortunatly both my computers are broken. Typically things like to go wrong all at the same time! Also have piles of stress due to miss filed insurance claims and misread bills and even an invalid will. When it rains it pours and this has been the wetest January in the past 30 years here in the Algarve. So wet infact I have done about 4 hours on the turbo trainer! Shocker.

Anyway, I will only be updating this on Thursday with something hopefully quite interesting.

Maximum Sustainable Power

2009-01-29T13:54:00.003Z

This is the key value in cycling. Whether your a climber who can do 400w a GC rider who can win grand tours; 450w, or a rouleur who can do 430w, it's the key value, along with weight of course, which together determine what type of rider you are, or indeed, if you're a good rider at all.

It's measured by going flat out for twenty minute and having lactate samples taken at five minute intervals.

All it is is a tool to prescribe training zones accurately. And there is no prize for going fastest in the lab, but it is interesting.

Different people accumulate different quantities of lactic acid and many things about performance and physiology, I accumulate very little, which I am told means I am more endurance and less explosive. My power output was down a little on last year, not sure why. But I am fatter also so I presume I am less trained, or haven't trained as well as previously. It's negatively encouraging, but encouraging all the same. I will apply myself more now, so that I am that bit faster.

I will also practice pacing. So I know how to go the very fastest possible, as apparently it's possible to try too hard and go slower as a result.

Amazing, three years cycling and I'm still so ignorant about it!

Mini Pumps

2009-01-27T19:27:00.000Z

They're rubbish, don't buy one. Get instead a thing to screw on the valve and use the car pumps, You'll never be more than 5km away from a garage and to get there you can use one of those aerosols with goo. Then there is the CO2 things which although alarming and one use haven't let me down. Or a proper pump under the top tube. And bring money and a mobile. At least a couple of times a year I need to call someone for help. When all else fails.

Mini pumps are the devils handy work.

I got a puncture today.

The Hour Record:

2009-01-25T19:14:00.000Z

50km in one hour is to cycling perhaps what the four minute mile was to Track & Field.

50km in one hour. On a standard bike with no gears or any fancy aerodynamic gear. Few ever even try it and even fewer ever beat the mark no one's gone past 50km by the standard UCI rules. In fact it's barely improved since Eddie Merkx rode 49431m way back in 1972¹. It stands at 49700m at the moment. And it's held by Ondrej Sosenka. Incidentally, Sosenka was recently caught on amphetamines at his National Time Trial Championships².

To break this record:

-The best technology possible; Eddie Merckx had a titanium bike weighing 5.5kgs³.

-The most phenomenal engine humanly possible. Some idea of the power required would be somewhere in the region of 450watts for an hour. Some estimate lower, 425watts. But I believe the true figure to lie closer to 460 or higher. In non cycling terms; an ordinary person would probably manage about 120w, so imagine the power of three or four people in one.

-A very good velodrome. Things to consider here are altitude, the running surface, the ambient temperature. It was rumoured that Armstrong wanted to build a velodrome at high altitude, break the record and subsequently demolish the velodrome so as no one may gain said advantage easily.

Moser suggested Lance Armstrong might want to make an attempt. Without a doubt Armstrong has the three above sorted.

Th process of breaking this record would start by proving potential, first on the road in long time trials, followed by testing in the lab and finally testing on the track. Second step would be team backing. Third, private backing would be required to pay for the attempt, right through training, technology, assessment to completion. Fourth, a very good engineer to optimize and complement the work of the athlete, the coach and the team, with the fast bike possible.

I recommend reading "The Hour" by Micheal Hutchinson. This book is very informative, while being quite amusing at the same time.

I would love to give the Hour record a try.

¹http://www.wolfgang-menn.de/hourrec.htm
²http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/sc/news?slug=capress-cycle_sosenka_doping
³http://www.cyclingnews.com/sponsors/italia/2004/colnago/?id=colnago5

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0801.html

"The Flying Scotsman"

2009-01-22T15:14:00.000Z

I just finished Graeme Obree's autobiography. He's always been an inspiration to me, but learning so much more about him was interesting.

He suffered extremely from Depression. And Borderline Personality Disorder. I am not sure what either of these diseases entail. But I guess they were part of the engine that helped power him to two World Pursuit Championships and two World Records. It's an inspiration. But like reading of Lance Armstrong's exploits at the Tour de France, so untouchable as to kind of frightening and a little bit depressing, from an athletes point of view.

A streak of mental illness must run in all high performing people. But not in the same way as Graeme Obree. I think most athletes, musicians, actors, etc, embrace stress and competition in a positive way and need it. Almost like compulsive risk takers, or gamblers. He seems to have dreaded it. Used it as a means to an end.

There was so much pain in Obree's book. It comes across so heavily in the last chapter that I just threw the book to the ground. Why could he not just suck it up? Or at least try and kill himself properly? It's not hard to think of ways that would lead to a definitive end to our fragile existence. It struck me as very cruel to the people that evidently love him. And incredibly selfish.

The world at large is to blame in big part. Those children who bullied Obree and his brother, without a care but their own satisfaction, at putting another human being down. There is a negative vein running through human nature that allows this to happen. No one is happy being renegade but this is the inevitable position some people are pushed to by the thoughtless and shallow actions of others. Ironically it's the renegades who tend to shine the brightest.

He has given so much to the world through his inspirational performances. On the bike and a brilliance which transcended cycling. His suicidal efforts and depression are perhaps also the down side of harbouring such a gift?

I hope that Obree is happy now and can nurture his talents, even if it's not for the world to see.

I definitely emphasized and identified with him being motivated through social exclusion as a child:

I remember clearly one day, in the winter 1999, lining up for chapel, being mocked for something stupid and shutting myself off from the world. From then, through school I had no evident problems with depression or emotional hurt. I did not have many friends either. Shutting of emotionally is a completely isolating experience as both the negative and positive sides of human interaction are blocked. It was definitely a motivator. I wanted to beat those that mocked me, both on the sports field and academically.

I reconnected with my emotions to some degree at university. My mothers death, dropping out of uni and the Madeira accident still haunt me. Always work to be done.

Palmeiras Resort/Tavira Racing Calendar

2009-01-16T12:47:00.000Z

http://ciclismodetavira.pt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=27

On our website there is all the information relating to the team and where we are racing. The team has one of the best calendars for a Continental team division team. There are also other races rumoured, some in exciting and exotic destinations. I can't wait to get started!

Racing Calendar till April

2009-01-14T12:34:00.000Z

I recieved my calendar up until the end of March:

Troféu RDP Algarve, 1.12, 15 February.
Volta a Albufeira, 2.12, 7-8 March.
Volta a Santarem, 2.2, 12-15 March.
Volta ao Alentejo, 2.1, 01-05 April.

I am reasonably happy with this. I will be workinig for other riders though this block. The only regret I have is not doing the Volta ao Algarve. And I am a bit jealous about not racing in Argentina. It gets more interesting futher into the season, though the rest wont be know exactly for a while thoughI have a vague idea. The idea of the Tour of Turkey was also discused- which would be interesting.