Sunday 1 January 2017
GOOD BYE 2016
2016 was a very diverse and mixed year for me regarding everything bike related. With the onset of a previously unencountered decline of physical ability and performance, from around August 2015, I knew I had entered a new phase in my life. Somehow the ability to "go for it" to push myself to the limits, the "urge to win" had gone. Blame it on the many crashes in 2015, blame it on a somewhat prolonged recovery from my accident in 2014, or wonder as I did, if I was ill or suffering from some kind of cardiovascular disease. So, I went through a whole lot of medical assessments, again. The final verdict by the cardiologist was: "You are expecting too much from yourself, you are young at spirit but your heart has been beating for 47 years, which makes it much older than you may feel, otherwise."
That's great, isn't it? Being told you are healthy, but just getting older and these would be the signs of just that, aging. I just had to accept that, but I still don't buy it. Getting sharp pain in the left side chest when breathing to me is a clear symptom of something not alright and not an age-related sign of natural decline. So, it required a shift of my cycling related activities away from racing more towards enjoyment of riding. This also allowed me to invest time into the development of the London Dynamo Race team. From November 2015 to Nov 2016 I did my best to shape the format of a race team to something more significant, structured, managed and integrated within the club. I took them out for 18 Sunday training rides throughout the winter 2015/16 and coordinated the race calendar and entries throughout the 2016 season. I accompanied them as sports director to most of them.
Whilst this took a lot of my time (time that otherwise could have gone into my own cycling and family) it was also an interesting experience and the club rewarded this with the glamourous "Dynamo of the Year" award. Now my responsibilities have been transferred to a team of three and I have got my life back.
From the perspective of my own riding a number of events really stood out this year. Starting with the 3rd best time at the "Kentish Killer" early in February (I won it in 2015) followed by my first ever training camp on Mallorca. The mountains with the beautiful climbs, in particular Sa Calobra really did it to me. Unfortunately, I crashed on day 2 and in the following caught out by terrible flu, which saw me on the bike for only 3 days in total. More memorable rides I had in Germany, where for the first time I climbed mount Brocken (at 1,142m the highest in Germany outside the Alps). A 20km climb within an epic ride through the entire Harz was something I had never done before.
Later family holidays to the Dolomites allowed me to experience Alpine climbs of the Giro d'Italia. The most memorable ride ever will be riding the Maratona route on my own, not within the event. This was truly spectacular, with so many iconic climbs and beautiful landscapes. The top of the list of climbs this year though must be the Passo Stelvio. I had only got to know it 4 years ago when researching about mountain road infrastructure but since then I had imagined to do it, until this summer's family holiday. It was a greatly rewarding experience.
The Prudential 100, the TMG Horizon Trophy Elite and a Surrey League Road Race concluded the competition season for me, only to restart the Race Team winter Training again, for the first 5 sessions until the end of November. This was my year, as animated by STRAVA:
Riko Sibbe 2016
https://2016.strava.com/en-gb/share/3651224
That's great, isn't it? Being told you are healthy, but just getting older and these would be the signs of just that, aging. I just had to accept that, but I still don't buy it. Getting sharp pain in the left side chest when breathing to me is a clear symptom of something not alright and not an age-related sign of natural decline. So, it required a shift of my cycling related activities away from racing more towards enjoyment of riding. This also allowed me to invest time into the development of the London Dynamo Race team. From November 2015 to Nov 2016 I did my best to shape the format of a race team to something more significant, structured, managed and integrated within the club. I took them out for 18 Sunday training rides throughout the winter 2015/16 and coordinated the race calendar and entries throughout the 2016 season. I accompanied them as sports director to most of them.
Whilst this took a lot of my time (time that otherwise could have gone into my own cycling and family) it was also an interesting experience and the club rewarded this with the glamourous "Dynamo of the Year" award. Now my responsibilities have been transferred to a team of three and I have got my life back.
From the perspective of my own riding a number of events really stood out this year. Starting with the 3rd best time at the "Kentish Killer" early in February (I won it in 2015) followed by my first ever training camp on Mallorca. The mountains with the beautiful climbs, in particular Sa Calobra really did it to me. Unfortunately, I crashed on day 2 and in the following caught out by terrible flu, which saw me on the bike for only 3 days in total. More memorable rides I had in Germany, where for the first time I climbed mount Brocken (at 1,142m the highest in Germany outside the Alps). A 20km climb within an epic ride through the entire Harz was something I had never done before.
Later family holidays to the Dolomites allowed me to experience Alpine climbs of the Giro d'Italia. The most memorable ride ever will be riding the Maratona route on my own, not within the event. This was truly spectacular, with so many iconic climbs and beautiful landscapes. The top of the list of climbs this year though must be the Passo Stelvio. I had only got to know it 4 years ago when researching about mountain road infrastructure but since then I had imagined to do it, until this summer's family holiday. It was a greatly rewarding experience.
The Prudential 100, the TMG Horizon Trophy Elite and a Surrey League Road Race concluded the competition season for me, only to restart the Race Team winter Training again, for the first 5 sessions until the end of November. This was my year, as animated by STRAVA:
Riko Sibbe 2016
https://2016.strava.com/en-gb/share/3651224
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