At the start of the month of July, I was racing in Tour du Piemont, which is probably the highest level race that the team would be taking part in this 2019 season. We got to the race on Thursday 4th July, where we stayed at the race accommodation at a boarding school, and all the meals were provided by the race.
The race started on 5th July, and ran until the 7th July, with 4 stages in 3 days, and World Tour U23 team squads it was always going to be tough. Stage 1 was super hot, 40 degrees on my Wahoo ELEMNT and it was 90 lumpy kilometres, with the main short climb having ramps up to almost 30%, and the summit coming just 3 kilometres from the finish. Throughout the race, the legs weren’t so good, but I rode into it, and by the end, I was feeling strong and ready to smash the last climb. I was in a good position for the final, but not ideal, after slamming on for roadworks shortly before the climb. The group completely blew up. I was just 2 beats of my max ever heart rate, and tried to keep the pace consistent to the top, I finished just off the peloton, and in the top half of the race, with many many riders behind me. I was pretty pleased, with it being such a high level race and me beating so many riders from big teams, so this gave me a bit of confidence that my training had been going well, and my sacrifices were worth it.
The second stage was in the afternoon, and was a team time trial. The last team trial I did was also in France and Orthez, at the end of April, where we got 3rd team, partly because we had the full TT bike with disc wheel and deep-section front wheel, so we had a big advantage. However, in this race, almost every team was fully kitted out and super strong, so we didn’t get the result we wanted, finishing almost last team from the race. That night, I got a recovery massage from Felipe, involved in the team, and I felt ready to go again.
Then, the third stage was ridiculously hilly, in the Pyrenees and featured a col going up to 1800m, which was in the 2019 Tour de France, just before they passed the Col du Tourmalet. I felt so bad on this stage, it was worrying. My legs were completely gone by the time we hit the first climb, after I attacked as they were my team orders. I was dropped and kept riding for another 2 hours, before throwing in the towel. This was a massive disappointment for me, I had targeted this race, and to be dropped with no legs, literally left me in tears.
Since then, I decided to make a big change in my cycling, by getting a new coach. I went back to Neo Pro Cycle Coaching, but with Josh Hunt, and I am happy with the training now, it is so much better, and the watts are going up. I am focusing on areas that through training, I have realised are weaknesses that I never realised, and I’m sure I’ll be strong again in for the August and September months.
My next race was in Cos in Cantabria. However, on the way there, I developed a terrible pain in my left knee. Once we got to the race venue, after 5 hours of driving in the car, I walked around a bit, and it felt better, so I started the race. I followed an attack, and the pain came back in the knee, so I knocked it off and pulled out of the race, as I didn’t want to do any serious damage, as there was clearly a problem with the knee. The next morning, I had an appointment with a physio, he did a lot of work, I had a lot of pain for the next couple of days when I rode the bike, then it went down considerably. Now, it is almost completely back to normal, and I have started my next block of training.
My next race will be in the Basque Country again, in Muxika. Hopefully I can start to see some results again for the last part of the season.
Elliot Reed Cycling 