Wednesday 2 March 2016 09:41, UK
I’m recently back home after my first major road race of the season and, I won’t beat about the bush, it didn’t quite go to plan.
Racing the sunny Dubai Tour probably sounds quite idyllic to a cyclist back in the wet-and-windy UK (it did to me as well), but before I flew out I managed to get food poisoning and so for the first stage I was in full-on survival mode.
Fortunately, I started to feel better and was looking forward to having a crack at the third stage, which ended with a little climb to the finish, but then I crashed right at the end of the second stage and cut my leg, and that knocked me back a bit. But overall, it was a solid week.
The most important thing was I didn't hurt myself too seriously, which was imperative given that we're just over three weeks away from the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London.
The worlds aren't on the same level as the Olympics, which are our main goal this year in the men's pursuit team, but they're still a major event in their own right and are made doubly important by the fact they're in front of our own fans this year.
As it stands, we're heading into them in decent form and condition. We've put in a lot of hard work in over the winter, everyone is feeling sharp and now it's just about fine-tuning, which is part of the reason we went out to race in Dubai.
The only member of the team who isn't yet raring to go is Ed Clancy, who had to have surgery on a back injury he picked up last year. But there's even good news there as well, because Ed rode on the track for the first time the week before last and he said he felt good. He won't be ready for London, but he should be back in time for Rio.
I'm delighted for him, although his return means competition for places in the team has just got even more intense than it already was.
I'll be honest, the competition can be a bit stressful. There are a lot of us hoping to be selected for Rio and a couple of us are going to end up very disappointed. But I suppose that's sport.
At the moment, I'm not really thinking beyond the Olympics. It's such a big deal for every athlete that you simply can't take your focus off of it. I'll start thinking about my longer-term future after Rio.
One thing my future certainly isn't going to feature is a motor in my bike. I'm still a little bit shocked about the news of the 'mechanical doping' at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships a couple of weeks ago.
It's a terrible situation for the sport to find itself in, but I guess the positive is that the motor was found, and if nothing else, that will be a huge deterrent for anyone tempted to go down the same path in the future.
I actually feel sorry for the girl involved a little bit. If she is indeed guilty, she didn't do that on her own. Someone must have been there to take apart the bike and put the motor in there. Young riders can come under a lot of pressure from time to time and I get the feeling there were external influences at work there.
Unfortunately, the whole incident has attracted some pretty bad publicity to my sport and, just when we starting to get past the whole blood doping era, we've now got this cloud over our heads.
I can only hope the cheats see sense and it blows over quickly.
