Well people,
Welcome to my new website.
I think I best start from the beginning of my cycling career, which seems like such a long time ago. Well it is a long time ago.
It all started when I started to ride my little yellow bike around at the local grass tracks when my dad used to compete, yeah he was, still is a cyclist too. I think I was about 5 years old. My first racing bike came when I was 8 years old and I raced on it the whole summer in the kid’s races. But my first big race was that summer, the Cleveland Grand Prix hard track weekend, I was so small they gave me a half lap start in the under 14’s race, yes I was 8, 1 lap of the 500 metre track and I won by probably 30 metres. I hadn’t learnt to take my hands off the bars yet.
Each year of being an under 16 schoolboy I played football in the winter and raced in the summer, mostly grass track but some criteriums too. I still won a few races though.
Straight out of school I went to college to learn the building trade for two years, but these 2 years were the time when I started to train properly in the winter and race hard on the road in the summer. I still raced on the track too, the grass track to be precise. I feel that this is where I learnt my bike skills, how to get through gaps that don’t seem to be there etc..haha. This is also when I won my first big bike race, a British Championship at senior level, the 8km scratch on grass, I was only 17 and the youngest ever to win this event, pretty cool. I have gone on to win this a further 3 times over the years, 1996, 1999 and 2003.
When I was 18 I had a very good year on my bike gaining selection for the British Junior track team for the season and being short-listed for the World Junior Championships. I tried to manage my studies for my final year college exams and gain selection for the Junior Worlds. I failed at both. Oops. I still won some races though.
Choice time cycling or studying, studying came first and I went on to enrol in a 4 year University Degree course at Sheffield Hallam University in Construction Management 4 years of my cycling life put on hold. I still managed to win some races on track or road. I also got through a tough University course and landed a job in London for 18 months as a Site Engineer. This is what I had slaved over for 4 years and it all paid off, I had a great job in the big smoke.
But in my heart I was (am) a cyclist, my dad a cyclist, my grandfather too. I even won some races whilst working all hours that were sent to me.
1999 was my crunch year when my manager at work had a little talk with me, and persuaded me to have a crack at full time cycling. He put it this way ‘ You can work until you are 65, you cant race around on your bike at a top level when you are 65’
So off to Australia for 3 months to experience everything life had to through at me and train full time too, 3 months later and I was ready to become a full time cyclist.
I spent my first full time season in 2000 racing with Kingsnorth International Wheelers in Belgium, this was a hard school of racing but I seemed to fit in pretty good, winning 2 races that year.
2001 was spent back in Belgium with a Belgium amateur team, I liked it that much I stayed and lived there for 2 more seasons. I became British Criterium Champion in 2002 and British Madison Champion with my Brother Russ in 2003, before returning to the UK for 2 seasons to become a member of the Great Britain World Class Performance Plan I have to say I have had some of the best form I have ever had winning 20 races in 2 years. 2005 was my first year signing a contract as a Professional cyclist. This was a good year too, but also a bad one too crashing out in the middle of the season put me out for 6 weeks.
Now into present day and the 2006 season and back to Belgium to do it all again at the next level with new PRO English/ Australian outfit DFL/cyclingnews team.
Oh since I started racing when I was 8 years old back in 1983 I have won at least 1 bike race each year. I have a total somewhere in my book of results. Maybe I should add them up one day.
Keep logging on.
Deano
Living the Dream.
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