New bike and other nonsense

Last night included a much anticipated trip through to Velo Ecosse in Edinburgh after work to pick up my new bike and other bits and pieces. The new bike certainly lives up to expectations. I'll try and include a quick pic of it below. Its a Giant TCR SL1 and the guys in the shop have done an awesome job building it up with some really nice kit. Yet to get some wheels for it but since we're away to Toms in Switzerland tomorrow I'll not get a chance to ride it straight away anyway. Quite looking forward to the maiden outing though but will be a shame to get it dirty!

Latest controversy in the Scottish cycling community seems to be the critisism aimed at folk like me who've left their clubs to ride with new teams for this season. I obviously don't have a problem with folk shifting teams or clubs, my view is its part of the sport and riders should be allowed to develop. If a club has invested time or cash developing a rider its up to them to make sure they've agreed some kind of tie in if they're worried the rider might leave. In mine and I guess most other situations I had nothing from the club in terms of support other than what all members get. Having put plenty into the club in recent years I don't feel I owe it anything. Joining a focused race team if you're into racing is a no brainer especially once your involved and are the benefits.

So now that's all sorted, I've got a sweet new race bike and everything is set for the first race of the year I'm starting to really look forward to it. The trip to Toms will provide a good chance to take a break from work and spend some time with Laura and Oli. And Tom and Nat too obviously! Hopefully we'll get the chance to explore a bit round Geneva and where they live and just chill out before getting back to hectic goings on back here.
Robin Wilkins
my blog: http://thewheelabout.blogspot.com

Tour planning and the start of the race season

Things just seem to get busier and busier and this time of year is particularly mental.  Start of the race season is just over a week away and there is so much to do.  Still to get my new race bike, licence, kit and all the other stuff I need for racing.  Although its exciting to be starting a new season with a new team the pre season nerves are just the same as ever, and the mixture of feeling some pressure to do well mixed, with uncertainty about what kind of form I'm in is still not something I like much.  Once the first race is out of the way I'm sure things will all be a lot cooler.

So the new bike is apparently in the shop being built and will (hopefully) be ready to be collected on Thursday night.  Exciting getting a new bike, but I'll have no time to ride it prior to the first race at Gifford, so hopefully it'll be the right size and set up about right!  I'd hoped to get the bike a bit earlier, but things didn't really work out.  This weekend we're off to Switzerland to see Tom and Nat for 6 days which will be good.  6 days with no bike will be strange, especially so close to the start of the racing.  Hopefully my legs will be fresh and rearing to go after the break.

Other thing that is taking a bit of thought is my forthcoming Grand Tour of the West of Scotland.  This is going to be a 7 day cycle tour, taking in the Western Isles and hopefully a significant chunk of the rest of the west coast.  Last weekend I fitted a Tubus front rack to my Giant TCX.  I'd been a bit worried this might be difficult because the forks arent really designed for a rack, but with the use of a few cable ties I got it really secure and hopefully it'll do the job in May.  I've also been doing a bit of route planning and working out what kit I'll need.  Overall it's quite a lot to organise - more than I'd realised, particularly as I'm planning on camping, so the amount of kit required to be self sufficient seems to be so much greater!  I guess I can blog more on this later.