The postman brought me some goodies today. The brilliant, clever and no doubt very attractive guys at Ragley have sent me a TD:1 frame – it’s like the prototype I’ve been racing on for a while, but a production one with even fancier-shaped tubes. I really can’t wait to get this built up. I’m going to use the red sticker kit on this one, as I’ve got some red parts lined up for it and besides, the other one’s blue 😉

I’m going to have to make sure I’m doubly awesome by the spring to get the most out of it.

To help with that, they’ve also sent me a new Cragg Vale ‘winter training’ frame – a lovely, light road frame (complete with a matching fork) that’s got clearance for slightly wider tyres and full-length mudguards. Just the ticket for clocking up hundreds of winter miles in the usual weather conditions…

A really neat feature are the stickers. They’re made from that Scotchlite material that you’d normally see in road signs and cones. At night they reflect light really brightly – and I’m doing a really big chunk of my training in the dark evenings or mornings so for me, this is a great idea. I’ve not had chance to put all the stickers on the frame yet, but there are enough to see how super-shiny they are at night…

Watch this space for more pics once I’ve built both bikes up.