Horton cannot wait to get his racing head on
FRESH from having dodged the ‘Beast from the East’, Tobyn Horton wants to get his season off to a flying start this weekend.
The Guernsey rider was in Spain with his Madison Genesis teammates when the snow hit Britain and, on the journey back to his Leeds base on Tuesday afternoon, he explained that that training camp coincided perfectly with what he described as the worst winter in his time with the team he joined in 2014.
‘We were very lucky to be away, really – it would have been pretty miserable stuck here being able to do zero hours out on the roads.
‘Over the last month, I’ve spent the best part of three weeks in Spain with the team training, so that’s been perfect.
‘We had the whole team there this time, all 12 riders, and everyone’s going really well. We have got a very strong team this year and we think it’s going to be a good season.’
Horton will race twice this weekend, with his season opener being the Roy Thame Cup over 120km in Buckinghamshire on Saturday followed by the Evesham Vale Road Race over 100km the following day.
‘We will carry a bit of fatigue from the training camp, but it is good to get the head back into racing mode again. I’ve basically been doing over six months of training and it will be nice to put that winter work into action,’ said the 31-year-old Sarnian.
‘They may be lower-graded races, but they are still important, not as much for exposure for Madison Genesis as a team, but as riders you’re getting your racing heads and legs back.
‘No matter how much training you do, it’s good to get competitive action as it gets you thinking as a racer again because you do lose race sharpness in your head and your legs in the off season.
‘There will be strong fields with a lot of the top British guys there and, for me, it’s where you can go and get good results and morale to carry forward.’
More in Thursday's Guernsey Press.
