JAMES KNOX
Another month without racing ticks by faster than expected, I’m almost getting used to this new world we’re living in now. Well, maybe not wearing a mask but who is finding that normal? Things are getting moving and here in Andorra normal life is slowly returning. It was a treat to enjoy the first restaurant meals and café stops in months. And more importantly cases of infections and deaths appear to be moving the right way too.
So back to the riding and what’s on the horizon now. My team recently just did a camp for the classics guys in Belgium. I believe it all ran pretty smoothly, with added social distancing measures and covid-19 tests compulsory before arriving. All of which will be the norm moving forward, I imagine. We have another camp planned in July, away in the Dolomites, adding the final touches to a return to racing. It’s somewhere I’ve only briefly ridden, during a couple of races in Italy. It’s beautiful but brutal; hopefully we can explore some of the famous climbs. I’m eager to get back with my team-mates after months apart, but I guess it’ll be a strange environment if we’re required to stay apart as best as possible.
For myself, racing will be kicking off early August, but everything isn’t totally finalised yet. If everything goes to plan I’ll be restarting at the Tour of Poland, a race I did last year and really enjoyed, so hopefully the same again. I’m of course excited to get back racing again, I guess there’s still a bit of a cloud looming over it still; will the racing go ahead uninterrupted or will we see more races end up the same way as the UAE Tour. It’s going to be a difficult challenge to take on with riders still expected to travel in from all over the world and avoiding the usual contact we would come into with fans at races too.
There’s already a huge amount of talk about the effect on racing the lockdown will have, which riders were allowed to train outside, which riders were stuck indoors etc. I don’t see it making any difference. There’s been plenty of time for everyone now to get back training and I think the current trend has seen more riders arriving at the start of the season already close to top form. It’s not like it used to be, when the norm might have been a couple months of easy racing to build up to to the big races. The best guys will still be the best guys come race day.
“In Andorra, normal life is slowly returning. It was a treat to enjoy the first restaurant meals and café stops in months”