I wasn't writing. The kilometres were.

The last thing I published here was 2nd February.

I noticed. You may have noticed. I’m not going to dress it up as intentional.

What I will say is this: I wasn’t absent. I was just doing the thing instead of writing about it. And sometimes that’s how it goes. The kilometres kept coming. The races happened. The work got heavy. And the quiet part of the brain that turns experience into sentences just — went quiet.

Six weeks of material, though. Let’s talk about what’s been in the legs.

The Races.

There have been a few. And they went well — better than well, actually. Racing here in Spain has a different texture to it. The peloton is sharper, the roads are faster, and the climbs don’t ask politely. I got results I’m proud of. The kind that come from the training block actually working, not just from turning up and hoping.

I’ll write properly about those races soon. They deserve more than a mention in a comeback letter.

Valencia and back. 200km+.

Somewhere in the middle of all of it, my friend Timon and I rode to Valencia and back. Just the two of us.

There’s a particular kind of ride that only works with the right person — one where you don’t have to explain why you’re doing it, where the conversation goes wherever it goes, and the kilometres just pass. This was that. Over 200 of them. The road out was fast. The road back was honest.

I took some frames I’m still thinking about. That ride will get its own piece.

The new block.

The training has levelled up. New coach, new team structure, a proper programme with actual teeth. The kind where you look at the week ahead and feel something between excitement and mild dread — which is usually the sign it’s going to work.

It’s been a lot. The body is adapting. The numbers are moving. More on this as the block develops — I want to write about what structured training at this level actually feels like from the inside, not just what the data shows.

Right now: Girona.

As I write this, I’m in Girona for lactate and gas testing. The kind of session that strips everything back — no feel, no instinct, just physiology being measured with clinical indifference.

I find it clarifying. You find out what the body actually is, not just what it feels like. The results will feed directly into the next phase of training.

I’ll share the process — and what it means — properly. The data is one thing. What you do with it is everything.

So. That’s where we are.

The gap wasn’t silence. It was material. And there’s enough of it now to write properly — about the races, the big ride, the training, the testing, what all of it adds up to.

The next few issues are going to be good. I mean that. The kilometres have been earning them.

More soon. Properly soon.

— Julian

Girona, March 2026