My Goals for Next Year and a bit more about My New Team.
As previously mentioned my new team for 2018 will be TBW Bottecchia Wigmore U23 RT. They run out of their Kent-based bike shop - ‘The Bike Warehouse’ or ‘TBW’ for short. The other team name sponsors are Bottecchia who provide us with bikes and Wigmore is the name of the local Go-Ride club that was the initial feeder club for TBW. So somewhat complicated but all are key to the evolution of this team, which I am very excited to now be part of. Right, that bit has satisfied my Mum, my Gran and my Grandad who need to understand these things.
‘U23 RT’ stands for Under 23 Race Team. There are however some slightly older riders on board to provide more experienced heads both in the races and outside.
The team has close links with a team in Belgium, Goma Dakwerken, based in East Flanders, which provides a great association for us to ride abroad.
As a team we have been meeting up in 2 groups - a Southern lot and a Northern lot!. Logistics are difficult at this time of year so I have not met everyone but I am gradually getting acquainted. It has been good to meet both UK riders and some of the Goma Riders already. Talking to the Goma riders has shown me a pathway towards living and racing abroad. Hopefully I will be able to get to know more about these steps that I need to make over the next few months.
My PE studies are a good reminder it that you need to have a range of goals with which to manage your season - a season-long goal; a results/events based goal; and a performance based goal. This means that if something goes wrong on a single day or over a single goal it is not horrendous.
My season-long goal is to get my British Cycling 1st Category Licence, which involves getting 200 British Cycling Racing Points. This is a step up again in my progression and will require a lot of races - the most local of races give 10 points to the winner with the biggest of races giving 100 points to the winner. To get this will be a season-long goal requiring consistency throughout the year and a bit of good fortune when in the sprint finishes and the strategic breakaways.
My event-based goal is the British Cycling National U23 Time Trial Championships. A simple event taking place at the end of June. Whoever is the fastest over a set distance is the winner.
My performance-based goal is to hold 6 Watts per kg for 20 minutes. Last year I got to 5.69. This year I would achieve this goal if I got down to 63 kgs, or by putting out 408 Watts at my current weight of 68kgs. The best solution is a mixture of both, somewhere around 400 Watts at 66/67. The reason I want to do this is to increase my ability at both climbing and time trialling. I also like the goal as it is a nice stat and would give me the confidence to know I have broken a key development milestone.
So that is how things stand moving into 2018. Over the next few months I will be looking to slim down by a kg or two and increase my by base work.