Published on 26th February 2015 | By Chris Walker

A New Beginning

It’s been a week exactly since arriving in a rather cold Belgium. The journey started by catching the steam packet ferry from the Isle of Man to Heysham, which on the Ben-My-Chree is a good four hour sailing. After a tedious trip over to the UK, my dad and I had to endure a two and a half hour drive to Pontefract to drop my older brother Tom off for his Team launch. But before reaching Pontefract, we had to make another stop off at new team mate Jake Womersely’s house. After a coffee and loading some of his equipment into our van, the on going trip to Pontefract commenced. Soon enough we arrived where Tom would be staying for a few days. He’s the one normally saying the goodbyes, but now it was the other way round. After leaving my brother, the real journey started…

5hrs (11pm) later we arrived in Dover, parked up in Tesco and set the alarm for 6:30am. It was a sunny start to the Thursday morning, which was nice. It was only a short trip to Dover port, waiting until 8am and the DFDS ferry was set to depart the UK. Two and a half hours later, the boat docked in Dunkirk. From there on it was a 3 hour stretch to where I will be staying for the next 6 months, Herselt.

Before heading to the accommodation, my dad and I took a trip into the town to grab some lunch. For a small town it sure has some good shops. Lunch eaten, the drive to the house was only minutes away. On arrival we saw two GB number plates, so we knew it was the right place. After meeting the British lads and Joscelin Ryan, who only lives only a few kilometres away also, I then got a detour of the house in which I would be staying in for most of the year. I knew on first thoughts I was going to settle in nicely as it wasn’t too big or too small. Ever since the first day I arrived everything seems to be going great, with new kit, bike and wheels being delivered.

Learning to cook has been my downfall at the moment but I’m experiencing new foods and getting better as the days go. Only a couple of days ago I received some excellent news, as well as the Dave Rayner Fund supporting me, I have gained a sponsorship deal with Nigel Watson Ltd for 2015 which I’m over the moon with.

My first race is Gent-Staden (Belgium cup), which is on the 1st March. Riding with the likes of Matt Brammier and Dan Mclay makes training a lot better as they know all the good routes around the area.
I hope you enjoyed the read, I would of posted the blog earlier but I’m having problems with my laptop connecting to the Internet here.

www.nigelwatson.im/category/manx-youth-opportunity/

http://leonmazzone.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/a-new-beginning.html