Thank you

A massive thanks to my supporters so far, Greg Bradley, Conrad Wynne and Philip McKeown.

Updates

The Commonwealth Games had been my target from the start of the season. In an ideal world I would have had a continuous block of uninterrupted training/racing bringing me into July in the form of my life. Of course things in life never go as you envisage them, and my season ended up being an emotional rollercoaster. My season started promisingly with a 6th place in the opening stage of Etoille des Bessages, wearing the white jersey for 3 days. That was the biggest race I had ever done in my career to date, so I had hoped that result would propel me towards a fantastic season! It wasn't to be, I fell into a giant slump for the next few months, I was sitting at the back of the bunch in Belgium feeling the full on effects of the elastic breaking lineouts. With each poor performance, I drifted more into myself.. eventually living in my own little world. I was questioning my ability on a regular basis, and coming up with some ridiculous solutions to my already turbo charged stressed state. Throughout the season I suffered three bouts of bronchitis the latest an untimely 6 weeks out from the Commonwealths. It was a recurring theme I didn't want or need, with each bout of sickness I gained a few more extra kilo's and became more and more sluggish, I was smashing antibiotics like they where going out of fashion and the sound of alarm bells where an ever present siren in my head! We where hitting the panic stations once again. I came home from Belgium and saw the Sports Doctor Mike Webb from SINI. He made out a plan of rest and recovery following my very poor blood results, consequently I missed the National championships, but arriving in Glasgow fit and healthy was all I cared about. Thanks to Mike I managed 3 and half weeks of quality training Tommy Evans had devised. I arrived in Glasgow upbeat, I kept reassuring myself I can get form very quickly. I had to be extremely positive, The Commonwealths presented a huge opportunity for me! To be honest it was quite stressful leading into race day, with a few mechanical issues, but the NI guys where great (riders and staff) eventually we got the problems sorted. I was in the zone on race day, It was the first time I had worked with power and I more or less hit the numbers Tommy and I agreed on, albeit I died in the last section of the race. Although that meant nothing as my power to weight ratio was nowhere near competitive enough to challenge for a high placing in the top 10 ( my goal beforehand). I was pushing 90kgs, and on that hilly course, I was found out bigtime! I lost over 4mins to the winner Alex Dowsett. To be honest if I had been pinging, like on top form, that course would have suited me down to the ground-I like hard! I finished 13th. I enjoyed the rest of the games experience, but I was at an all time low, It was hard for me to accept how far away I was. I didn't take the time to reflect on the difficult run up to the games, and where i'd come from. All kinds of thoughts where flowing through my head, I'll start rowing, or go back to athletics- even though my foots fucked! I came home from the games, and I think my friends actually thought, he's finally flipped, this guy is crazy!! I kept riding my bike, it still remained the perfect escape and I would forget my problems for a few hours at least. Then I started doing the TT league again, I think this sparked my motivation to get the finger out properly again, along with seeing cycling friends like Nigel Quigley- who always chirps on about my weight, and the lads down at Roe Valley Cycles. The TT league or (super 6) as its known, is full of guys chasing perfection- their latest pb. One man stands out for me, John Madden. A super vet in the best sense of the word, he holds national vets records in every distance as well as being a principal of a secondary school. I think that demands respect! John encouraged me to keep tackling Dave Mc Cann's national 10 record, keep coming to every time trial. On Saturday I came within 15secs of mccanns 10 record, with an 18.36. But secretly I had my eyes on the 100 national record for a few weeks. I remember Martyn Irvine and the guys used to slag me when I was on the track programme as a junior, that I should do the 100 tt. That actually gave me a chuckle on Sunday when I missed yet another bottle. Since the Games I've dropped nearly 6kg's and my power has went up, I went back to what works for me, that's just riding my bike with no stress. Long aerobic rides with z3 z4 on climbs without a seconds thought has always come up trumps with me. Tommy told me the avg speed which I needed to hold in order to break Bryan McCrystal's record. It was an impressive time of 3hrs 34mins. With the 100 being an unknown animal for me, I really didn't know what to expect! I thought to myself driving up to the event, this is going to be a barrel of laughs, chomping my 58 chainring for 100mile rolling along at my fastest cruising speed, nothing to worry about but the endless open road ahead. When I arrived, I searched frantically for a helper to feed me. To my luck I found a kid new to cycling from Ballymoney, who was up for the task! I warned him "Jason you will probably see my trial of snots beating up the road, before you see me"! I quickly stuffed about 6 gels into my skinsuit, many of which where never found! We where off, I had the perfect minute man in John Madden, I caught John after 6 miles and I thought to myself I'm on a ride today or else I'm going to need an ambulance at about the 70 mile marker. As the laps ticked by my main concern was trying to grab a bottle from the feed, this was an even contest at the end of the day, with about 3 collected, 3 dropped. Although my panic to grab a bottle was unnecessary, as I only took about 2-3 gulps from it, before seeing Jason again- throwing away a bottle 3/4 full, trying to recollect a full new one. A truly pointless process. I was on top of everything at 70miles, then started squeezing the last 30mile, I started fading at about 85mile, another 2 bottles may have prevented this, but I'm just thankful I didn't totally park the bus! When I crossed the line and saw 3hr 27mins, relief was the main feeling flowing through my body, as well as glute muscles that refused to let me sit down. I think this result shows I have an engine, I know with a few fine tuned tweaks over winter and improving my power to weight even more, next season I can be competitive. Although at this point I honestly don't know what the future holds for me. I would love to give the road another crack particularly stage races, and try reach my full potential in the time trial discipline. I would like to congratulate everyone who took part in the 100 mile TT! Once again a massive thanks to everyone for all the well wishes! That always means a huge deal to me. Marcus