Final part of racing for the year

With the season now over, I have had my off season and am now building back up going in to the winter, I’ve had a great year and have so many people to thank for it.

First winter outing with the team

   In the final part of the season I raced the Junior Tour of Wales in the last weekend in August and then La Philippe Gilbert Jrs at the beginning of September, before winding down training and officially starting my off season after my end of season testing with Trainsharp. It’s been a long year with lots of new experiences at this new level of racing, but I have learnt a huge amount going forward in to next season where I can hopefully build on my results and put together a good Palmares going in to the under 23 category.

   

      I am only a couple weeks in to my winter training so far but am very motivated and enjoying getting back out on the road for some hard rides after my end of season break and am not as of yet bored of getting on the turbo. After I have built up a bit of a base in this first month, I am also going to get back on the boards and go to the Tuesday night track league at Manchester velodrome to build up some speed for the season, something which I found to be a little of a weakness this season in races. Something that will definitely keep me motivated going in to winter is the training camps that are planned for me and my team mates at my new team for 2019: HMT cycling team. I guested for HMT at 4 different races this year and I am really looking forward to what lies ahead with them. The winter training camps are based in Leeds, where I live, so it’ll be great to get out with the rest of the team and smash it up on some of my local lanes and will definitely do us all good throughout the winter. A big focus of mine also through the winter will be on strength and conditioning, something which I did not focus on enough last winter and I certainly think will help me a lot after a big block of this through winter to strengthen my core and upper body as well as my legs.

    

Winter bike

       The winter bike that I will be using for all my winter rides is a blue and white aluminium Dolan Prefissio with 105 5800 groupset throughout and Mavic Aksium wheelset. I use Continental GP 4Season tyres on these winter wheels and have done for years as they seem to be an extremely trust worthy tyre which is something I think is very important in winter. The bike also has my Quark power meter on and of course mudguards and a mud flap for the rainy winter group rides. I think that this bike is great for winter and have used it for the previous 2 winters before! On the indoor sessions on the turbo trainer, I try to do as many as possible on the TT bike to get used to putting out power in the position for the TTs that will be so important later in the season.

   

Wales TT

      I am really motivated for this winter as I now know what it takes to have a good season coming out of one and really want this for myself. The season is a long way away but as long as I stay motivated, it will come around in no time. It was a bit of a shame I couldn’t finish the 2018 season off the way I wanted, being ill for the Tour of Wales and then crashing in La Philippe Gilbert Jrs when in a decent position but the year has been great with so many different people, places and experiences. The highlights for me were definitely the Vuelta a Pamplona where I finished 7^th overall and placed 3^rd in the final stage, as not only was it my best performance of the year, but a brilliant race with climbs, descents, cobbles, dirt roads and cross winds! My other favourite races of the year were The Tour of Upper Austria UCI 2.1 as it was a great experience with some good mates even if I did come away from it a little disappointed. Danum Trophy Nat B Road Race as it was just a great race and not very far away also. The Junior Tour of the Basque country as it was my first real experience being away from home for a long time and was by far the biggest junior race I had competed in, and also Cadence Jr Road race and the Ilkley 2-day stage race, as I got some good results there also!

    

     I would like to say a huge thank you to my dad, Barry Greenwood and Mark Rushby, and any one else who helped over the year at Giant Halifax RT as it allowed all us riders on the team to have some great times and experience races that we otherwise wouldn’t have, and also progress to the next level. Cheers to Josh, Jenson, Max and Tom as well for making the year so great, I am extremely grateful for it all! I would also like to thank Trainsharp, who I will continue to be with next year also, as without them I wouldn’t have been able to get the results that I did. A final big thank you to Pedal potential as well for all the support they have given over the year.

Giant Halifax RT

      I am now looking forward to the next chapter with HMT cycling team, but first a solid winter of training before the season begins again.