IG-Sigma Sport rider Tom Murray has a strange relationship with the wooden boards that form an oval shape inside the National Cycling centre
Tom writes … I have a strange relationship with the wooden boards, no matter how much I try to stay away and concentrate on the road the urge to get back on always comes back. It’s always been the same, no matter how hard I try resisting the urge I will always crack and head over for a blast round the boards at Manchester every once in a while.
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I love the simplicity of it all, all that junk you have to carry around all road season. It just doesn’t seem to exist in that bubble of the track winter. Sure you have some spare sprockets and chain rings to lug about and at a push if you’re taking it real serious, your spare wheels. But that’s about that. You can even get into the track cycling off your own back still.
I’m lucky to have some great sponsors in Sigmasport and IG Market’s to support me through all 12 months of the season. I’ve also got my Specialized bike to be hammering round in circles on. But before that I had a track bike worth a few hundred quid and an accreditation gained from successfully riding around in circles a few times when I was fifteen and that was that it was all systems go!
Despite the new fancy National Cycling Centre and a few more Olympic medal stories, track cycling is still pretty much that accessible. In fact one of my major sponsors, IG Markets had a track day before the last revolution and ended up racing Alex Dowsett during the main event.
Now compare this to the road. All of those forms, costs, red tape and pieces of equipment. Again now I’m lucky I have the backing of some top companies and sponsors and the way the sport has developed over the last few years so have many others. But when you first kick your foot over a bike in anger you probably have your parents and you’d better hope they can afford all of those forms, costs, red tape and pieces of equipment to set you on your way to the world title.
Silver medal after Bronze last year … Gold in 2013?
Mixing track and road keeps me sane, I’m just about losing the will to live with one of them and then it’s time to switch and focus on the other. I’m looking forward to plugging into head winds and over moorlands in the Premier Calendars and bombing around city centres in the Crit’s during the summer. But I’ve enjoyed adding a silver medal from the National Madison Championships and donning the Iconic design of the Rouleur magazine in the Revolution track series through the winter months too.
I’m back on the road now, next stop the Tuscan hills of Italy for the IG-Sigmasport training camp before the first races kick into view. But the track bike will be back out of the loft come next winter, chasing derny’s and dodging devils seems to be in my genes.
Minty, Team IG-Sigmasport
Twitter @tomminty  | Web: www.tommurraycycling.co.uk
