discovering Life on the continent
Scroll down for an insight into the life of a young cyclist chasing his dreams
2/2/2021 1 Comment A Brit AbroadFinally i'm back writing my next blog entry, a little later than expected, but i'm back none the less. In today's blog I will be talking about Life in France so far, new team sponsors and my plans for this season. However, first I would like to give you a little update into my winter of training up to this point. After around 3-4 weeks off at the end of September start of October I got back into light training, speaking with my coach we decided on my first set of goals and got our plan together ready to really attack the winter ahead and so for the next few weeks I slowly began to increase volume whilst still using a lot of diversity in my sessions. I was doing MTB, road, running, walking and gym switching up each week and making it interesting whilst working on different muscles I would never normally pay any attention to. From here we started to increase volume little by little and I got in some solid miles just before heading back home for December. Whilst at home, my first two weeks were spent on the turbo along with the final two days due to self isolation and heavy snowfall, this meant my sessions contained a lot of intensity. upon returning in France we got back to work with a 4 week endurance block with bits of intensity thrown in here and there. We also spent a long weekend in the Pyrenees during this time where we hiked to thee tops of the mountains and descended on ski's this was super enjoyable and my first ever time experiencing the mountains in what would normally be the ski season. This brought us up to the current day where I am currently bearing a knee injury picked up from an incident with a car in a local town. The car reversed out from its driveway straight into my path when i was travelling at 35kmh + I tried my best to avoid the car and in doing so ended up in the wall of a boulangerie with a pretty bust up knee, not to mention my brand new bike and kit that was on its second outing !! Currently. I am doing everything I can to recover and keep as much of the benefits gained this winter as possible ! I have been able to ride in recent days but no more than an hour so I'm just taking it easy whilst being active as possible. Now onto the main topic where i will be talking about my Life In France as a junior.. I first heard about the possibility of living here some time ago, almost 1 year ago to the day in fact ! I was on a training camp with the team and it was briefly mentioned in a conversation with our staff. At the time I was quick to accept it and the staff got to work setting everything in place, from this point i kind of forgot about the situation and didn't believe it would happen until the next training camp in July where my choices were presented to me, at this point it all became a lot more real and I felt pretty intimidated by the opportunity. Fast forward to the 23rd August and I was boarding the plane to a new chapter in my life. After weeks of debate and questioning I had decided to at least give it a try and I haven't looked back since, for pursuing my goal of becoming a world tour professional making the move here was possibly the best decision I could've made so far. That's not to say that it has all been plain sailing though, the first month or two were super tough ridden with serious illness and injury that is where my choice to take 3 weeks off of the bike came from to help me properly settle down. In terms of the french language, there's not much that can prepare you better than learning as much as possible, when I arrived I spoke the bare minimum and really struggled as I wasn't able to communicate with anyone which was a slight problem when I was submitted into hospital in my first week here with symptoms of concussion after a crash in training. If any of you reading are planning on making the move whilst still a junior I would try to get into the local school, this is the best way to improve your french fast and also keeps you in education and gets you some qualifications which will be helpful should you ever need anything to fall back on in the future. When it comes to a training environment here in Jonzac, its great. Although there is a lack of climbs, the winds are so strong it acts as a substitute especially when you hit a long false flat! The road surfaces are a massive improvement, and add this to the lack of cars on the road its such a great morale boost when ticking over those long hours. Living with my team mate is also a mega bonus as this means on those tough days I always have someone to keep me going and i'm always there to keep him going too ! once training is over we usually relax and give each other a kicking on the Play station, surprisingly this hasn't ended in tears just yet haha ! Below are some images of the town and my insane view from my bedroom window in summer !!! Hopefully you enjoyed that little insight into what its like to move away from home and live in France at such a young age, if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comment section below and i'll get back to them in my next blog! Now onto the big news, from now on my team will go by the name of AG2R Citroen U19 Team! Its super exciting for all the staff and riders to have such big companies backing and believing in us at such a young age. Vincent Lavenu the general manager of the World tour team decided it was time to integrate all three steps of the AG2R Citroen team under the same identity and with all the same sponsors and invest in the future of the sport ! Therefore this season the u19 team has undergone a complete transformation and we will now be riding in the iconic brown shorts too! We will be riding a BMC Team machine Slr02 disc which will be equipped with Mavic SLR 45 Pro ltd wheels, Ultegra Di2, Michelin Power Road tubeless tyres, FIZIK finishing kit and Look pedals. We will also have access to Mavic's Ksyrium wheel set should we need them for whatever reason. I am very excited to get racing on this bike and represent the companies as best as possible. My initial thoughts on the bike are that its fast, stiff, and agile. Take a closer look at the bike below: Alongside the new bike and component sponsors comes new Protection, kit, and nutrition sponsors and so for this season we will be racing in the HJC Ibex 2.0 helmets, Smith Optics eye wear (on and off the bike), our kit is supplied by Rosti, and our nutrition is provided by Named Sports. Off the bike we will be wearing Hummels clothing who will keep us looking sharp whilst not sacrificing comfort. Here are a few more images of our brand new kit design and what we have received from our sponsors so far: I'm super excited to do this kit justice now and get winning some bike races and once again a massive thank you to our sponsors for the trusting our abilities and deciding to support me and my team mates this year I am extremely gratefiul !
Whats next ?
1 Comment
Archie Atkinson
2/27/2021 11:27:53 am
Really good blog Ben, great insight to what it’s like to live and train in France
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