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John Thomas receives award at the UCI Gran Fondo World Series (formerly known as the UCI World Cycling Tour)
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Earning my stripes in Bosnia at the UCI Gran Fondo World Series

So what on earth brings me to Bosnia and Herzegovina? I hardly knew where it was on the map until a few days ago. Well, COVID has meant my usual work in skiing and cycling has gone for the last 18 months. That, in turn has given me more time to ride than ever before. Time to ride and time to reassess cycling goals. Goals in a sport like cycling are crucial, you need a good carrot to motivate you on those mid winter turbo sessions.

Girona – where cycling belongs

By John Thomas – 2nd December 2019 Girona is now the home of over 100 pro cyclists and rapidly being discovered by amateur riders from all over the world. So what’s all the fuss about? What makes this place so good? I first visited Girona in 2014 and was instantly smitten by it’s charming, historic

Taiwan KOM Challenge 2019 race day

By John Thomas, 27th October 2019 All images courtesy of Taiwan Cycling Federation   At last – race day! So much anticipation and preparation, now it’s time to convert the work we’ve done into a result. I got a good 6 hour sleep, woke up as per usual 10 minutes ahead of my 4am alarm.

Taiwan KOM Challenge 2019 1 day to go

  Tomorrow is race day! We’ve been based in Hualien, the host city for the event for the last 2 days. Some chilled out riding enjoying the local roads and relaxing in our very comfortable hotel. Almost time for action. First let me talk more about the event itself and how it’s evolved into a

Taiwan 2019 – the build up to the KOM

As I write this we are on our team bus from Taipei, Taiwan’s capital to Hualien, host city for the Taiwan KOM Challenge. Last year Oliver and I came to participate in the event, this year we have a team of Alpine Cadence riders with us for a week long adventure culminating in the big

Haute Route Ventoux Stage 3 ITT

Haute Route 3 day events always finish with a time trial and this was a big one! 22km up the Bédoin side of Ventoux. 1600m of climbing in one hit. Lots of wind at the top. The leading riders would be looking at about an hour and 10 minutes of anguish with the bulk of

Haute Route Ventoux Stage 2

Stage 2 was scheduled to be 133km and 3300m of climbing, a summit finish on Ventoux via Malaucène. I woke up feeling good and confident that my cramps from yesterday were due to race rustiness, today would be better and my legs would be happier. That was my plan at least. We were greeted to

Haute Route Ventoux Stage 1

Here we go again! Another Haute Route adventure in beautiful Provence. Haute Route Ventoux is a 3 day stage race with 2 full length road races followed by a time trial on the final day. Each day would scale Mont Ventoux taking in the three classic ways up this iconic beast. For me this would

Haute Route Alps Stage 6

Briançon to Pra Loup, 104kms and 2300m climbing. Our penultimate day would see us roll out of Briançon before taking on the viciously steep Mur Pallon, then onto the Col de Vars and a summit finish up to Pra Loup. I woke up feeling good. Really pleased and relieved at how I’d performed over the