Welcome back to the Ian Field Blog. Here's the season in a sentence; 33 races done, 500 UCI points scored, 1 British Title Won. Sat here now it feels like it was a long season, which left me both physically and mentally drained but on the other hand it doesn’t seem all that long ago I was sat at the top of a French mountain at the end of 2 week training camp itching to get on the plane to America to start racing another Cross season.
When we heard on Sunday that our blogger Ian Field had won the British Cyclo-Cross Championship on a dry and sunny day in Suffolk, we wanted to celebrate that win with a chat.
Bar Clemenceau was open again today, for our afternoon 'snifter.' The bar tender must have had a heavy Sunday session, he was asleep at one of his own tables. I went for a Ricard today; it reminded me of the time John and I were in the Bar Britanique on Alpe d'Huez. We drank so much pastis that we only just made it outside in time to catch Pantani on his way to the stage win - those were the days!
I watched the stage from Limone sul Garda and the finale at 'Casa Vik', today. It was kind of him to invite me over; I wouldn’t have made it home in time to see the finish. But it wasn’t the same, not being there, not being part of it all. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and more sentimental, but this year I felt the strongest connection to the race I’ve had in the seven times I’ve covered it.
Who else but Jason MacIntyre ran out the winner of this year's Tour des Trossachs classic time trial, held around Aberfoyle, Scotland. A solid minute and a half space between him and Evan Oliphant, with Ray Wilson in third a further minute back.