RIDER DIARIES
Dan, Alex, George and Emilia
Procycling’s review of the year means it’s time for my take on my season. It was far from my best year and despite coming close on numerous occasions I didn’t cross the line first, which is actually a rarity in my career. Many would say it was a poor season but taking the year as a whole it was probably more consistent than 2018; it’s just the big race in July that went wrong.
Until then I had finished every stage race apart from Catalunya in the top 10, coming really close to both a stage victory and the GC at Basque Country. My view has always been that as long as you learn from your mistakes there is never a bad season, and although I’m far from happy with my results, that is my nature. Basque Country is a race that I had never performed well in and so that was a definite highlight. The race was one of the hardest I have ever done and the attacking nature of the last stage - a long-range attack of the strongest - and then coming close to the win, it was everything I love about cycling. Getting sick a few days later and arriving at the Ardennes with the illness still lingering summed up my season of highs and lows. The Ardennes have not been kind to me lately for various reasons and not performing in races that I love is very frustrating. I hope to change that next year.
So much of the season revolves around the Tour and I arrived in good condition, perhaps the best I’ve ever been there. We are still not really sure what happened. And for me, having such an analytical mentality, this is far from satisfying, but for whatever reason the wheels fell off when the race arrived in the Pyrenees.
I wanted to finish my time with UAE on a high at the Italian autumn races, and my form was improving. Somehow I always manage to get to Lombardia with good legs, even in 2018 when I had barely slept for two weeks after my twin girls were born. The races summed up my year, though. I didn’t have the legs at Emilia. Varese was another first for my career, being directed the wrong way when in what was seemingly the winning breakaway. And then I slid out on an innocuous corner at Piedmonte. At Lombardia, I was okay, just not as good as I could have been. Which nicely sums up my season: okay, just not up to the standards that I set myself, with massive room for improvement. This leaves me incredibly excited to get going with my new team, Israel Cycling Academy.