On Thursday I met up with my new team for the first time. Its full name and a bit of a mouthful is Omega Pharma Quick-Step. I don’t think I’ll get used to saying that overnight. We met in Brussels for a short, sharp get-together to get the ball rolling for 2012. First we had a little welcome meeting, introducing riders, staff, sponsors etc.
I found out a few interesting things about our team backer, Mr Bakala. He’s currently around number 530 in the Forbes list so, as long as we can keep him on board, I don’t think we have to worry about money for a while! When he was just 19 he fled Czechoslovakian communism and went to the USA. There he washed dishes for a few years to pay for his education. In just a few years he opened his own private bank, bought a coal mine and basically became a pretty rich guy!
We spent the rest of the day having photos taken, having health checks, trying on new clothes and chatting to our new sports directors about what races we are likely to do next year.
I came away feeling pretty excited and keen to get going. The bikes and equipment we will use will again be second to none and my race program looks pretty impressive too. We have one more get together in December which is a three-day “team building” camp in Belgium. Belgium and December don’t really go too well in one sentence, do they! I’m sure whatever we’ll be doing, it will sort the boys from the girls and for sure will be a good craic and hopefully by the end of it we will get to know each other pretty well.
After that we have our first of three training camps somewhere in Spain. It’s the first time I’ll have done three camps with the team before my first race so already I should be in a better position at my first race. It looks like I’ll start in Qatar and Oman and then head into the classics with, hopefully, some good shape.
I’m currently sat in a Hotel in Nuremberg, Germany. I set off from Belgium this morning on the way to the cyclocross world cup in Tabor, Czech Republic with my girlfriend Nikki and somehow I’ve ended up here. Nine hours of traffic jams cracked me in the end so we ended up stopping here for the night.
We’ll do the last few hours driving tomorrow and then I’ll start looking for excuses and ideas to disappear just as a bike needs cleaning or something that involves work comes my way. Its something I really enjoy doing in the winter time, coming to watch the ‘cross is pretty cool. There are always a few faces you know to catch up with and have a chat and of course there’s a bit of a bike race to watch. It’s not the normal bike race I’m used too, its one hour of flat-out chaos. So it’s something a bit different too what I’m used too and something I actually wish I was good at.
So fingers crossed for Nikki on Sunday and also for my new team mate Stybar too! I’ll try my best to get some stupid photos for you for next time!
Until then,
Matt
