Photos from Manc & Haywards Heath.

(c) British Cycling

(c) Paavo Aro

Having it good at home.

At first, for once I do have shitloads to write about. Don't panic though. Grab a cup of coffee or whatever you wish and have a read. At the moment I'm spending the last night of my home stay, but more about that later. Let's go back to Manchester first...

So I went to Manc for my first world cups. We had three days of official training and then on Friday I had my race. The training went really well, considering that I haven't been on track too much. I was quite confident to hit my target and that feeling got just stronger as the Friday came closer. It wasn't wrong. The near catastrophical times in arctic Kaarst were behind and, for everyrone's luck, the drome in Manc was nice smooth and warm. The official hotel was lush in terms of the rooms, but as we went for dinner – it wasn't quite so pleasant. Organizing dinner and lunches for athletes; and they give each rider one piece of salmon or whatever. What the hell was that all about? The best bit of the food happened to be the canned yoghurt, they couldn't destroy it. More about the training, I felt good and managed to do my efforts, so happy days.

Race day baby! I had a good chat with my father/coach/chauffeur/chef/soigneur/physio (the problem with being such a small cycling country) about the days schedule and warm up. To the track we went well before the race, to grab our lunch bags and have chill time gettin' ready for the race. Sad but true, the lunch bags were better than the actual lunch in the hotel. Some areas for improvement, ha? At the track center it was cool and I warmed up well, went to the bike check, checked the position and 5-4-3-2-1-beep! The race was on.

Well, I had a good schedule. But what if I don't follow it? The planning has been real waste of time. And I made sure of that at the very first lap. At 1k split I was three seconds ahead of the planned pace. Mitä junnuhöntyilyä, hä? That somehow caused quite a struggle for the remaining three kilos. The good news was that I wasn't doing badly after setting 70s kilo for the first one. FYI: my kilo record is 67 seconds. But at least my pair didn't overtake me at the very start, and I was in Top-3 for a quick while at 500m mark. So I've been in Top-3 at world cup level for a while... Yippikayey. I didn't end up high though by placing on the bottom side, which really wasn't a surprise. Tough guys are tough, I'll be there one day. Despite that I managed to keep the ride together quite well. I ended up recording my PB's for 2k, 3k and also for the full distance 4k. I ended up with 4.49,526 and I gotta say I'm pleased. There are some easy seconds to cut from the time and then there are the hard ones. There's always next time and we are on the track now.

After that we just enjoyed the experience and had quality time watching the races and eating the crappy food. Or if you can call couching badly for all night quality time, I don't know then. One day off and then some floorball. Not many guys go for world cups and national championship tournaments at the same weekend. I did that, but I also was dead tired at the end.

Now I've been home for a good week. I played some hockey and I'm fair bit disappointed with my parents (not really). I'm sure I could be in NHL now if they had let me play as I was a kid. But no. My mom would have the Porsche I promised, but no. I was about to go for some xc-skiing, but successfully killed those thougths for some reason. I've also eaten whatever I like. Also my father seems to have successed with me, I've began to like red wines as well. Anyway, it's been good times and now it is back to basics.

P.S. Some pics will follow later on.

Counting days.

'Fresh and ready...'

So I've now been back in Wales for couple days after the training camp and the new season is on the door step. Less than a week to the first race of the long season ahead. So now I think it is worth to give a bit of insight to my season and expectations.

So yes, only couple days to go to the my season opener. I will give my first shot in longer disciplines in Manchester World Cup classics. Its my debut in such a race and I'm feeling great about it and looking forward to the experience. I'll ride my first 4km Individual Pursuit to my best. For that race I don't really have expectations. Its my first time riding IP, its my first race after the illness and its the first race early in the season. So I'll go there well prepared and relaxed. I'll ride full on and have some quality fun! I'm stoked and counting days. Couple more taper session and off I go.

Then it is only 5-4-3-2-1...and the season is on.

As I might have mentioned some months ago, that I have no idea what's gonna happen next season. Well, now I do know at least something. I changed my focus a bit after last season. But don't worry, I won't be turning onto a mountain goat with legs as skinny as my bicep at the moment. That won't happen. I'll concentrate the next step in longer distances as I feel that I might have the progression I want by doing that. I can't still say where exactly my main focus will be, that will be only told by time. But no Le Tour for me and that's for sure, even if people tells me never to say never.

The winter training has been good, despite the weather in Britain. Rainy and windy, as you can guess. It took time after the stomach infection to get back on track, but as soon as I had recovered from that I've been good. I still reckon that my main goal resultswise will be in U23 Euro champs, but there still are plans in the background, will see how this all comes together. For more information follow the racing page. But as long as I progress and enjoy it will all be good. By my targets it ain't so straight forwards. I definetly have set them up, but won't talk about them yet. It's a long season with so much new to me and really look forward to it. Lets just hope that I can for once race a complete trouble free season.

After that I'll carry on with the base training and start to build up for the summer and the races coming up. Good summer to look forward, I guess. As if I can stay on the same track as I've been the winter months, the summer will be good from any perspective.

See you on track guys!

(c) Paavo Aro

Gettin' in there

Recovering means sleeping.

I spent a week on the old continent riding my track bike a lot. Early morning at 9^th of February I headed to Kaarst-Büttgen with my father, aka. coach. It all looked good until we went to the velodrome next morning. It was f*ckin freezing. Tad over 0 degrees indoors wasn't quite very pleasent temperature. Although I have to say that it is quite an experience to train indoors having my winter kit and bit more on.

All in all the hotel had lush breakfast and the schnitzels were amazing. Neither have I complaints about the kebabshop next door. My riding wasn't about my nutrition. I got fair bit frustrated with my riding as my times were sloppy, as I'm too much timing oriented lad. Oh well, I forgot to mention the grilltellers, those were proper food. All together I wrapped up six intense training session, three kebab rolls and some schnitzel during the three days in Büttgen. As I think afterwards, it wasn't bad at all.

Still the riding was the main thing there and not the food. We decided to leave Büttgen and head to Gent for higher indoor temperatures. It worked well. We had two amazing days in Gent eating, guess what, kebab...

...And training a bit. Training in Gent felt really good and I gained loads of confidence back as the speed came back. The temperature change made a difference not only to my mood, but also to my form. The last session was the toughest by far, but also the best. I had good fun on the track and good food in the restaurants. At the end I had trained really well, eaten well and most importantly progressed well.

So, no worries. I seem to be on track for the season opener....

(c) Paavo Aro

Life off track.

Back in Wales again. At the end I gotta say that the training was really good. Longer report about that is coming in couple of days. I already want to mention that, as we changed our place from Kaarst to Gent - Gent was a heaven an earth: warm, welcoming and nice. As if on the training camp I have to recover. Some shots off the track:

Shopping in Roermond.

Little enjoyment.

Dinner in Aalter.

One must-do in Europe: Apfelstrudel mit Vanillensaus.

Packed and ready to move.

Resting spot-on.

(C) Anton Aro & Paavo Aro

Life on track.

Greetings from arctic Sport-Forum Kaarst-Büttgen. Its all good, despite the chilly temperatures. Ain't it great to ride indoors in +6-8? Well, at least its indoors.
Some shots, enjoy!

Just another session.

Ride around.

HR check.

Recovering.

Passive recovery.

Base camp.

Bumpy ride?

The surface.

(C) Paavo Aro & Anton Aro