More from "Our 50 (something) pro in spain" !

Happy New Year to you all and hope you had a great xmas.

My dad came over for the festive season and it’s the first time he’s been out here for 4 years. He only ever used to come in the summer but he had a great time, especially going to the beach on xmas day for a barbeque and then 2 days later eating a traditional xmas lunch in the back garden by the pool. The weather has been exceptionally warm for the past 3 weeks – today it’s 23 degrees and clear blue sky!

Reflecting on the past season, things have been mixed – one good race and two bad. I’ve put this down to the chest complaint (like asthma symptoms), but the last 3 months of 2010 I started to feel a lot better and surprise, surprise, managed to win the over 50s Murcia League Championship, so not a totally wasted year.

I was riding in Lorca at the end of November – 158 rders, 20 degrees, 80k. Not a chance to make a move in the early stages as it was so fast (average at the end was 46kph). This mainly due to the inclusion of elite riders. This is normal over here between October and February, before the elite/pro continental races start. After covering one big lap (40k) we moved on to the first of 4 x 10k laps. I was on my limit after 2 of these laps and was just hanging on when there was a crash in the middle of the bunch and at over 50k no chance for any riders near to move out of the way. Lucky for me near the back, I was able to move away from any fallen riders (the crash took down 30 riders of which 9 ended up going to hospital). The group I was in chased for another lap and made contact with the front group. At this point I had the feeling of going to be sick due to the effort. The race had to be cut one lap short as this big pile of riders had to be sorted out and they were on the circuit !! Juan Antonio managed to clip off in a small group of 5 and came in 3rd. I managed to stay in the chasing group and came 38th, so the two of us were in the prizes.







Well, Valverde still has another year to run with his ban but he’s been racing since he was banned. In 2010 he was riding all the sporting events in the region and he’s also in the races that I ride. In fact, I’ve raced 5 times with him since November.


My next race will be this Sunday 9th Jan – might not finish this one as it’s on a small circuit with a little climb and always fast.

If any of you want to get information on the racing results in this area, as well as reports and possibly the odd photo of me, you can check out www.ciclomaster.es. One of the photos I’ve sent to you all is of me and my good friend Guillermo Molleno, who’s over 60 but a past world RR champion.


Looking forward to our visit to UK in 2 weeks – we’re coming over for a few days to spend time with family and catch up with friends and then a 5 day “mini holiday” at Centre Parks in Longleat.

Bye for now and good luck with your racing in 2011.