Checking in with Marc Potts…

Written by Velo Staff on 15th September 2017

Astana, Belgium and Now

Astana

I was fortunate enough to get an invite to Astana, Kazakstan after my success at the Irish criterium national championships. We have a great support network in Neon Velo and wintin a few days my National champ skin suit was designed, manufactured and shipped to me in France before I stepped on the plane to Astana. The folks at Verge sports were fantastic and John Dempsey was instrumental in pulling off the speedy turn around on the suit. If you, or your club is looking for top quality custom clothing then give them a shout!

The criterium was a cool experience. I was lined up besides the likes of Chris Froome, who I had watched in the weeks previous winning the Tour de France he seemed like a really nice guy and I enjoyed chasing him around for an hour.

The race itself was 60 minutes long and included a number of intermediate sprints, my plan going in was to keep the powder dry and counter one of the intermediate sprints, brining a small group away. It went to plan and we had a small gap which for a while looked like it was going to stick…it didn’t and the field was back together for a field sprint in which I finished 17th.

Belgium

With the racing coming to an end in the UK I took myself to Belgium to extend the season a little longer. I did seven races in 9 days split in to 2 small blocks shown below:

15th August – Tielt – Winge  – 4th

16th August- Grembergen- 2nd

17th August- Evergem- 3rd

18th August- Wassmunster- 2nd

19th August- OFF

20th August- OFF

21st August- Mere- 4th

22nd August- Evergem- 9th

23rd August- Ruselede- 4th

I was happy with my condition there, the consistency of my results proved that I had developed proper depth over the past few years. I love racing in Belgium and I’m looking forward to going back again next year for more of the same.

September

I took a short break after Belgium giving myself some time off the bike to recover physically and mentally.

I am now in Mallorca with the Irish track team preparing for the up and coming European Championships and World Cups in the next 6-8 weeks.