Simon James Thomas

• born:

  22nd November 1990

• team:

  KTM- Murcia - KCNC

• sponsors:

  El Gobierno de Murcia, KCNC, Microshift, KTM Racing

• Racing base:

  Javea in the Costa Blanca of Spain

• home town:

  Barrow-IN-Furness

• nickname:

  Flako OR 'El Ingles'

• website:

  simonjthomas.blogspot.com.es/

• Facebook:

  www.facebook.com/sthomascyclist

• Twitter:

  @simonjthomas1

• likes:

  Coffee, Music, The Sun! and of course riding a bicycle.

• dislikes:

  Losing, seriousness, boredom.

• favourite rider:

  Alberto 'Bertie' Contador

• favourite race:

  Le Tour de France

• If money was no object what would be the first thing you would buy:

  I could asnwer this with an object like a house, Ferrari, or even a wind tunnel; but truth is a pair of new training tyres and inner tubes from the shop next door!

• What do you do when not racing:

  I generally relax and spend as much time with my lady (Beth) as possible. And in between mix up a few beats and listen to all different types of music.

• Race history:

  I began my passion for cycling whilst living in Shanghai as a 16 year old, at the time there were many (coincidentally) riders from the past times and all ends of the world, including my Dad, who also enjoyed sometime racing. From there I came back to the UK and although getting hit by a car in 2008 I set out to take a result at the National Championships, and took 7th. 2009 was a year filled with 2 further operations and a recovery from the injuries sistained during the car incident. I decided that I wanted to just go for it and move to Belgium for 2010, essentially my first year where I was able to train relatively consistently and race full time.

  Spending my first year full time in Belgium racing for Asfra Flanders was, well, fantastic. Although I wasn’t aware of the challenge of jumping in at the deep end and spending a full year in Belgium learning the ‘ropes’ of racing, I managed to keep my head afloat and I learnt a lot and quickly, just to survive. Although I gained no wins that year, I finished the end of the season with a string of top 20’s. I did learn however, that hills / mountains were my style and hence why in 2011 when I was given the opportunity I moved to Spain to race with my current team KTM Murcia. It was last year when I learnt to ride up mountains!

  In my first event with KTM i took 3rd place, even after working all day for the team, the difference here was there were mountains to climb. We finished off 2011 at the 2.2 Tour of Bolivia, where despite racing and sleeping above 3800metres in altitude I managed to arrive first foreigner (oxygen breather) and take a 9th place in a sprint. My elite team were more than happy as I was only 1 of 2 of our riders to get to the finish of this 10 day gruelling event.

  I started my 2012 campaign with a win in my first event, beating in 2nd place Francisco Torella Gomez, winner of Copa de Espana and national champion years previous. Here i have a copy of the link to the video showing highlights from my first event, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN00bQUDaXc&hd=1 . (hold CTRL to go to internet page) . Although being quite seriously halted this year by another injury, which I am only just seeing the back of, I have secured a great position for 2013, I know my goals, and I am looking forward to proving what I am capable of. 

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