LA CRÈCHE

A great tool of the modern era is that of the social network. What a day we live in: through caressing a plastic block’s screen, you can have your unnecessary opinion projected to millions. I am truly thankful, as without it, I wouldn’t be able to broadcast my ramblings. Well, I could write them on walls with my own blood; but that would limit my word-count.

However, with pros come cons; and I absolutely loathe when cyclists refer to our outside world as ‘their office’.

It is in no way an office. A cyclist isn’t clogged in an oxygen-depleted container, filled with other sweaty colleagues trying to make a buck. A cyclist isn’t exposed to the monotony of the greyscale nine-to-fiver. A cyclist doesn’t have to chortle at an obnoxious trump on the other end of a phone line just to get a bonus at the end of the month.

A cyclist’s life is freedom.

A cyclist gets to explore so many different cultures and landscapes, their day-to-day visuals rich with exotic languages, fascinating people and jaw dropping landforms.

You could say I am labelled as one of these folk.

I thought I’d take you for a day in my life: ‘La Crèche’. Where I’m back at the nursery, learning by doing, living the simple life.

I’m taking you through a Tuesday. It seems the most productive day of a week.

Prepare to be WOWed.

I am always woken up at 7am by the church bells of Kervignac church, and Tuesday was no exception.

This remote little village in the centre of Brittany, about 5k from Hennebont, is battered by these religious fog-horns on an hourly basis.

I can’t admit to appreciating them. I’m not a morning person, and the church bellowing doesn’t help. Their hour notifications are somewhat crueller: they ring at four minutes past the hour; torture for a lad like myself who likes dotting the ‘Is’ and crossing the ‘Ts’.

I enter most days with a thought of vicious blasphemy.

I return to slumber, until about 9ish.

I grab my phone in attempt to survey the world without opening the shutters. My current WiFi is woeful, which leads me to halt internet information gathering, and return to my latest read: ‘Gang Leader for a Day’ by Sudhir Venkatesh.

After receiving a jewelled recommendation, I’ve become encapsulated. It details a sociologist who manages to waltz into one of Chicago’s most dangerous areas, and hits it off with a prominent gang leader, known as ‘JT’.

Judging aside from his blasé observations of crack dealing, prostitution and beatings; I am astounded as to how similar a sociologist behaves to how I act amongst the average Breton.

I see myself listening and studying, scared to exhaust my French, noting their mannerisms and behaviour, akin to Venkatesh.

I finally give up, and get up and drag myself to the coffee maker. I’ve reduced my caffeine intake since last year (http://tinyurl.com/o6o7wur), and replaced a hefty majority of it with the liquid herb: green tea.

However today I feel groggy, so I need a good slap in the face from Dr Caffeine, and he surely delivers.

I’m back bouncing, so I start to make breakfast: some muesli, shredded coconut and walnuts, lathered in natural yoghurt, topped off with honey.

I’m living in a kooky apartment at the moment. It’s a charismatic settlement. Basic in structure, it has a double bedroom with an en-suite, and a kitchen; all you need. It’s easy to heat up, and easy to clean up; and when July comes, this little flat won’t be far from ‘Le Tour’ action, with stage finishes in Plumelec and Mur de Bretagne not even an hour’s car journey away.

I cloth myself in my pink uniform and get out the door with my bike under me, into the sunshine. I have enjoyed learning that a Brittany spring is an Irish Summer.

This year, my winter lasted 2 weeks at Christmas time, as for the rest of it I was somewhere milder; which was great.

But that’s life in la crèche.

These country folk give you the same look they would if they are eyeing up the camera for a mugshot. It takes a while to get used it to it, and you learn they are waiting for a ‘salut’ or a ‘bonjour’.

I get out into the Brittany outback. Today, I’m doing a pretty brisk two hours. It flies by when you are blessed in such a great location.

You are either wrapped in oaks and pines or hand in hand with seaside and beaches; it truly is a wonderful part of the world.

I return to ‘studio un’, get some protein down my gullet and carry out some light stretching. I have a gander in the fridge to see what I’m going to have for lunch.

I find some double cream, rice, eggs and chorizo. What do you make?

Scrambled eggs with the consistency of mashed potato of course!

As the water with the rice gathers energy to boil, my mind wanders out the adjacent window. Thinking about anything and everything, I am in my own little bubble, just like the hundreds of others within the rice saucepan. Thinking about the future, thinking about the past, theorizing and planning, living and learning.

I fall back to reality when the rice erupts and I have to turn the heat down. I mix it into the poteggo mash and engulf.

The second session is next up: 30second efforts, 3 of them.

It’s hard to fathom how so much pain can be inflicted in ninety seconds. No matter how each thirty seconds go, you are left panting, exhausted and demoralised. Chris Hoy, Daniel Stewart and Joe Bloggs all feel exactly the same after an anaerobic effort.

I hate these intervals with a passion. As each second passes I feel the lactic acid sinking its venom deeper into my muscle fibres, ripping them apart; whilst my lungs are trying to turn themselves inside out, instead of pushing the bad air out and good air in.

I shower, have some more protein and collapse on my bed. My legs have clocked out for the day.

I’ve taken too much caffeine and my mind is still whirring. I want to sleep but my eyes can’t shut: they’re like a rabbit’s facing headlights.

Instead of napping for an hour, I lounge for an hour.

I get up to eat some more food. Hating the stereotype, I have some pasta. But not any old pasta; I’ve heaped every worthwhile vegetable from the local supermarché into this Bolognese. It is DELICIOUS. After all, I made it.

I retire to my bed and strum through some more ‘Gang Leader for a Day’. Another couple of sessions ticked, another day gone.

That was a day in the life, thanks for reading.

Follow @DanBikeStewart and @DaveRaynerFund on Twitter.

all cyclists are fruits

After a month of base training, whilst squatting in the Mallorca Cycling Ireland house, I’m heading to London for some downtime with a gem. I’ll then head off to France to start my 2015 racing campaign, with Hennebont Cyclisme.

What a jolly life cyclists/holiday makers have: frolicking and jet-setting, pottering across the globe.

This post gives you an insight.

I was never a fan of Shrek, but I would rather quote it than the Bible.

In the first movie, Shrek says to Donkey,

‘Onions have layers, Ogres have layers … You get it? We both have layers.’

Shrek posits the hardened, fearless and ruthless personality of his kind, through a common vegetable.

Cyclists are fruits.

this is an orange

More specifically, cyclists are oranges.

From the outside, they are shiny, colourful, happy people. The naked eye suggests their life is a breeze, they’re always in lovely places having a grand old time. And look at their legs; who can be annoyed when your legs look better than Pixie Lott’s?

However, their inside is mush. Physically and mentally; their innards are soft.

A cyclist going well is a normal human being not going well.

Physiologically, cycling turns your body into a shrivelled, bewildered old man. You walk at snail’s pace, you take regular naps, and you could thoroughly benefit from a stairlift in your home.

It’s a hard graft psychologically. You are always battling your emotions, living out of a suitcase, with no constant income. I now spend about 60% of my life in situations where I don’t have a clue what is going on, because my Spanish/French/German/Dutch is not up to standard.

Sometimes you ask yourself, ‘What am I doing with my life?’

It always helps when you know that others are playing the same quiz.

Jack Bobridge, a recent challenger to the world hour record, is an excellent case study. He was claimed to be the next big thing by many analysts, but never acclaimed his full potential.

Over the past years, he has battled with lack of form, illness and criminal charges.

This year it looked like Jacky Bobby was the original Jacky Bobby again, winning a stage in the tour down under, and securing the mountains classification.

But just when everything seems to be back on track, he misses out on an Hour Record he was expected to obliterate, by 500m.

Imagine how colourful his book would be.

What compels him to keep on riding?

What has troubled him to do the things that he has done in the past?

Jacky Bobby fully lit

Cycling is the cruellest sport known to man.

I have tried a lot of sports in my life time, and the only sport that is close to the cycling pain threshold is marathon running. But even then, cycling still wins the brutality prize because a race more or less always outlasts a marathon.

Cycling is a team sport rewarded individually.

A cycling career’s fate is two-pronged: You are either the individual who wins and gets the car, money and fame; or the individual’s helper who eats porridge every morning, with maybe some honey thrown in on their birthday.

It’s the most dog-eat-dog sport out there.

In a bike race, no one cares who you are.

If your legs aren’t good, no one cares.

If you crash, no one cares.

Nobody needs you to finish a bike race.

It’s only the cyclist’s sheer determination driving them to finish the race.

If a chicken can survive without a head for 6 months, an injury-free cyclist should be able to finish a bike race. Whether they’re number one or 30minutes down, they can always finish.

The time when you finish 30minutes down is when you learn about yourself the most.

After all this, I still find myself eager to get to France to ride bike races.

Is that the only difference between cyclists and oranges?

The juice inside a cyclist-orange is laced with some crazy hallucinogenic stimulant which makes you wholeheartedly dependent on pedalling a two wheeled bicycle?

Who knows.

All I can say is, I can’t wait to start my 2015 holiday in France on the 18^th February.

If you want a holiday yourself go to the Beechlawn Hotel on the 27^th February at 1900.

For more information go to http://on.fb.me/1DPkBJB - Remember to click attend.

Follow @DanBikeStewart and @DaveRaynerFund on Twitter.

Part IV: Opinionated Mixed Grill (Case Study included)

I have so many stories from France. Some, great and some, not so great. But doesn’t this happen to everyone?

Time to be critical. I’ve built up the rapport to be able to speak my mind.

I’ve read a lot of blogs in my time, especially when I was in France, mainly due to my dormant to-do list, when throwing pine cones at a swing’s framework was popular recreation. One consistent thing kept on bugging me.

Well, two things. The first was excuses, although I sympathetic and easy on people who use them. Any great performer makes excuses in order to keep themselves motivated; even though at some stages, everyone else is thinking,

“They’re just shite”

And thus, I am okay with so-and-so’s reasons for why so-and-so didn’t do well in the this-and-that race. Someday, so-and-so might become a great, and it’s because of those excuses that they moved on, so that they could be great.

Excuses are how you cope.

Coping. This leads me onto my next point. Up-and-down. Oscillations. I was guilty of it myself:

Every single end-of-season report/interview/status update/smoke signal has the words ‘up-and-down’ in it, as if it’s a surprising thing to occur during your season!

Mark Cavendish, love him or hate him, is rather good at his job. I prefer to listen to paint dry than hear him speak, but he can fairly ride a two-wheeled cycle.

The most wins he had in a year is twenty-four: a serious amount of time with your hands in the air. This was in 2009 when he was with HTC. In that year, he had 82 race days, meaning he won 29% of the races he was entered into.

A world class cyclist only wins a minority of the races he is entered into on his peak year, and spends the remaining 71% of races grovelling and wondering why he is in this cruel sport.

After reading that case study, you can see why I am frustrated by reading the word’s up-and-down on people’s timelines. It’s part of the sport!

The only way you are going to have a consistent season, is if you are consistently shit. My point is, be thankful for those ups and savour them, as that is what this sport is all about.

You grovel, you curse, you sweat, and you suffer.

If you get across that line first, you were the smartest on the day. You were the strongest on the day. You gain ownership of that day:

‘That was the day I won that race in the middle of nowhere.’

They may come few and far between at some points, but the highs are what make the sport. That ecstasy you’ve been training towards. That five seconds which felt like 10minutes are why you ride your bike.

Looking ahead to the future, it’s pretty likely that I’ll be going back out to France in 2015. I look forward to arguing with them in the races again, and having a crack at their swear words.

I also hope to get a bit more ride time in the coveted emerald jersey of the national team. I’m going into the winter motivated, and wiser than 2013. In 2015 I have a lot I want to do. My legs will do all the talking.

I look forward to another up and down season next year.

It was a pleasure to write this strung-out 2014 blog and I hope you enjoyed reading it. If you are interested in rewarding me for my blog, I would appreciate a cult created in full support of me and my actions. That will be all.

peace

DS

Part III: Take me down to the Paradise Village

My first race in Brittany was Kreizh Breizh Elites, or KBE. It is a massive race weighing in at UCI 2.2, with 200 odd starters and some of the best up-and-coming riders in the world weighing in on the startline.

After getting soaked throughout the rás, I was blessed with a sun-kissed KBE. I was in great nick for it, and a part of me says I should’ve done better. I had the best legs I had all season. I just wish I got to France earlier so I would’ve been able to adapt to their way of racing sooner, which would’ve made me more competitive in the biggest stage race in Brittany.

I did a criterium the day after the last stage of KBE and came 4^th, underlining my form. Three riders from the same team got up the road and I was the idiot stuck in no man’s land, who had to chase them for 90 minutes.

A week after, I got my first win in France.

Similar to Ireland, French racing destinations are ghost towns, with a start banner planted in them for the day. The regional cycling community flocks to said location, as well as a charged up commentator, and a bittersweet symphony unfolds.

The race was in Melrand. I had driven the team van to the race, and I was wheezing the whole way there. My lungs were not in good shape. I have asthma, but it seems to be like a premiership football referee: inconsistent. Some days I wake up and have the lungs of an elephant, and on others I wake up and have the lungs of the mouse that the elephant is scared of.

Today was a mouse day. I rolled up to the start, chilled out because I didn’t really see much of an outcome in the race. The circuit was about 7 or 8k. It was lumpy, typical of the Breton countryside, with a 5 minute climb about 4k before the finish. With a moderate ascent, came a moderate descent, and a few dodgy corners which were welcomed with open brake callipers.

Halfway through, I was in the break with about 20 other guys. I haven’t the foggiest how I got into such a great situation, as I sounded and felt like a pig after a marathon.

I was squealing for air, on my hands and knees (still keeping the pig comparison going), and completely red (or some would say pink) in the face.

But I made it to two laps to go. We were approaching the now, bastard, of a climb, so I thought I would just mill up it. I did, and no froggy French climbers, built like a crisp packet, were able to attack. Mission accomplished.

I thought, ‘If this stays together for the last lap I have a chance of getting up in the sprint.’

Two kilometres before the climb, everyone was looking at each other. They were playing cat-and-mouse a whole 6k before the finish. My lungs may have felt like bubble wrap after all the bubbles had been burst, but my legs felt okay.

I was thinking about an attack. Teammate Foley was in the break too, so if I was caught, I’d just blame him for not winning the race. Love/Hate.

I launched one and didn’t look back. I never look back until a good minute of ‘chin on the tank’ effort. This is where the struggling in early season became a benefit. My legs were jet engines, and it didn’t matter about my lungs. I could suffer through it all. I wanted to win this and at the time, I was in the best position to carry out what I wanted -off the front with 5k to go.

I reached the foot of the climb and had a Jeffrey Juke over my shoulder. The break had split to shreds and two Frenchies were allez-ing towards my tail. I absolutely buried myself up the climb. I thought I was going to die at the top, which lead me to carry out a descent where I was not worried about dying, the speed I was going.

There was a tight right hander at the bottom of the descent, and brakes would’ve been a pathetic way to concede the bend. I went through it flat to the mat sideways, didn't have enough of a run off, had to go onto the grass verge between the tarmac and the ditch, but got round it.

Phew.

I won the race without any other competitor in sight. If you said I was going to achieve that the morning before the race, I probably would’ve greeted your claim with a phlegm-filled, chesty cough.

Part II: Self-harm, Racism and Bonuses

The tank spewed flames out of the exhaust in Belgium a week later. 

I was there to put some hard racing in prior to the National Championships in June.
For 15 days, I rode 6 races within 42 hours of training. Of those 6 races, I finished in the top 10 four times, as well as getting a few prime envelopes along the way.
The slow start to the season was blessing in disguise: I learnt how to suffer like a dwarf with a gorilla on its back, which meant when I had transformed into a rocket ship by June. My body was able to go into new levels of pain.

Cyclists are just self-harm addicts.

From self-harm I moved onto the National Time Trial. For about 2minutes it felt okay. For the following 46 after, my muscle fibres were being ripped out, like a terrier would rip the stuffing out of a fluffy toy. I got a bronze medal out of it, so all was not lost.
The road race was like the rás. I believed I had the legs to ride the race to the ground but in the end, I missed all the moves. I was just too busy looking at the green, green grass of Mullingar instead of the green, green jerseys of 3 anPost-Chain Reaction riders up the road.

I was ecstatic when I got picked for the European Champs in July. It had been nearly a year since I was last picked for a proper u23 Irish team, so to be called up again was an awesome privilege.

I believe the experience made me racist.

While the torrential rain started to cascade down, I was thinking, ‘Fuck off, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, Kazakstan …’

The only jersey I wanted to see was a soaking green one. All other nations where inconvenient, unnecessary.

I finished minutes off the lead group which was disappointing personally. Although, with the season I had leading up to it, and no massive races like this included, I think I should’ve been happier with my performance. In the race itself, I could’ve just sat at the back, finished in the main bunch and be that guy who has a respectable result but never gets anywhere.

However, I’m Daniel Stewart. I nearly hit my ego off the start banner.

I hardened up, got to the front and became part of the race.

Yes, it didn’t pay off this time, and the on-lookers who weren’t there but saw the result probably rated me as more of a wanker than usual.

Next time though, things will be different.

After the Euros I went onto le France, to guest ride as part of the Britanny based team, Hennebont Cyclisme.

I got on the plane in Dublin to go to Nantes, without really knowing much about where I was actually going. The only person I had to blame for this was myself, and my lack of knowledge around the French language.

Basically, if you only spoke French and were not concerned with knowing my name, where I live and what age I am, we would have a conversation of silence and maybe, if you were lucky, hand signals.

Imagine that, a boy who studied Spanish, German and French at one point, cannot speak any other language fluently other than English.

Cramming may get you results, kids, but it doesn’t actually teach you anything.

All this considered, I didn’t really give a fuck as I had nothing better to do in August. Lap up some Brittany sunshine and make the most out of a saturated racing schedule. All I was hoping for, was a roof over my head, anything else was a bonus.

As soon as I got off the train in Lorient, I was staring at the best bonus I’d ever seen in my life. Who that bonus was, I’ll keep to myself, but they know who they are.

Who knew I would’ve found a gem dans la gare.

My time in France got off to a great start.