Published on 17th February 2017 | By Chris Walker

This Sunday it all kicks off. The first race in the Copa España series marks the start of my season. From this weekend it’s non stop till the end of September and I can’t wait. Starting with a Copa España race was not the plan: I was meant to have raced the Memorial San Roma last weekend in Almagro. While being fairly prestigious in its own right, the San Roma is the classic season opener for most Spanish riders. A flat first day means everyone gets round and a few hills on the Sunday allows everyone to test out their legs. But, due to a particularly bad stomach virus, I was bed-bound for a the best part of a week and so limited to following the race on Twitter. My team, Escribano, performed particularly well. Our sprinter, Cristian Torres managed second on the Saturday and another of our riders, Erlend Sor took the mountains classification the day after. For a new team racing their first ever race, it was a good weekend overall.

Having had a week off, it may take a while to get back to where I was, but I am feeling positive about this weekend. Until I got ill, the winter had gone to plan. I rode the majority of the Lee Valley Track League in London and got plenty of miles in. At the team training camp in January my power test results showed I have improved since last season and after a week of riding my feedback from the team directors was positive. So while the conditions might not be perfect, I am going to approach this weekend’s race like any other. Laps of a 40km circuit with only one notable hill every lap means that, more often than not, Don Benito comes to a sprint.

Hopefully I can do my bit to help postion our sprinter over the hill each lap for the finish. Look out for the race report on my next post.

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