Rolling with 2016.

Home training.

With the 2016 season well underway and having not posted an update on here since last November (apologies) I thought to keep this update more of a brief review of where the bike has taken me in these last 6 months.

Hanging out in Croatia.

It wasn’t long after that last blog post back in November and I was heading stateside. The trip to North Carolina provided an ideal transition into winter training, whilst getting to catch up with great friends and experience at first hand the Thanksgiving holiday in the USA.

Thanksgiving in the USA!

The festive season was ofcourse spent at home with family, but it wasn’t long into the new year before I was back in the sky again. Early January saw a 2 week team training camp hosted by the Cambrils Park Sport Village in Tarragona, the Catalan region of Spain, an ideal location to continue laying the foundations for the 2016 season ahead.

Tarragona training camp.

Whilst on camp it became clear that I would be starting my season with the Dubai Tour. A week after returning I was UAE bound to get the season underway and what a location to start the 2016 season it was!

Kicking off the season in Dubai.

Next it was back to Belgium and neighboring countries to kick off my 2016 European campaign. GP Lillers (France) in early March followed by Wanzeel Koerse Wanzele-Lede (Belgium), Dorpenomloop Rucphen (Holland) and rounded off with a nice breakaway in the Handzame Classic (Belgium).

Breaking away in Belgium.

Some racing in the UK followed including the first national series race of the season, the Chorley GP (another breakaway) and most recently a call up to Le Tour De Yorkshire. Sandwiched between these races was the Tour of Croatia, a first visit there and another good 6 days of racing. In between racing I've been keeping busy with Polocini, Yellow Jersey Cycles and Kinetic Velo, riding, chatting, advising and sharing stories from experiences on and off the bike.

Breaking away in the UK.

Its full circle for this 6 months as I head stateside again later this week for my first Amgen Tour of California. A race i've been wanting to do for a long time, i'm happy to say that in the last days its finally worked out that I will indeed be on that start line in 2016. As always keep following for updates on Instagram (@dfpatten) and Twitter (@dfpatten) and ofcourse on here in the future.