JOE LAVERICK - The benefits of de-training

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, not Christmas but the ‘in-betweeny season’ – allow me to explain. My race calendar finished early this year, with a lot of our staff heading to Australia for the Worlds, and a depleted rider roster due to injury meaning I finished racing in the middle of September.

That’s too early to start the off-season; I like to take a month completely off the bike, and if I start my off-season in the middle of September, I’ll have to start training again in the middle of October. Restarting training that early makes it a very long winter, so instead, I agreed with my coach to spend a couple of weeks ‘de-training’.