Privateer Diaries: My 2026 Plans, and Maggie wins Down Under
Plus: My biggest ever training month, and some team news.
Hello, how are you?
It seems that I put out one of these Privateer Diary entries on a monthly basis. It’s pure chance, I realised there’s a lot on my mind, and a few things to put out into the world.
I’ve just got back from London. I did a 30hr trip there to surprise my Mum. I bought her tickets see a show for Christmas, and flew in myself to see it too. It’s always nice to break the Girona bubble and get into the real world of London, even just for a day.
This week:
🚴🏼♂️ My biggest ever training month
🏆 Maggie wins a pro-race Down Under
📅 My 2026 Plans
✍🏻 Articles I’m working on
🤔 Team news
The 120hr training month
January really was my biggest month ever on the bike 120 hours or 3,486 km.
I’ve always ridden well off volume. And I genuinely love riding my bike, so it’s a pretty ideal match. My coach, Alex Welburn, is one of the more flexible coaches out there and usually lets me tack on a little extra within reason.
The weather has been the worst of my five winters in Girona, but I still rode 30 out of 31 days. One day was meant to be an optional recovery spin but it poured with rain, so I opted out. Another was indoors because we got a weather warning not to leave the house. My January had a simple weekly routine.
Monday: Optional 1hr Reco. Tuesday: Endurance + VO2 work. Wednesday: Endurance. Thursday: Endurance + Torque. Friday: Cafe Ride. Saturday: Endurance + Z3/Sweetspot. Sunday: Adventure day.
This is how I’ve always done it when I’m at home. It’s not the traditional three-day block style, but it allows me to break the week down mentally and still leave Monday and Friday for predictable work days.
January was also a month of exploring. We hunted for new roads and ended up on concrete goat tracks that I’m convinced hardly anyone has ever ridden. I love living in Girona. I don’t care what anyone says. The road riding here is the best in the world.
My favourite ride was probably this six-hour epic I did with Felix.
This past month was also the furthest I’ve pushed myself in a winter training block. Averaging just shy of 4 hours per day on the bike, with a bucket of intensity, I was limping into this rest week.
I am on Strava if you wanna follow the craziness, though I am kinda offended they took away my pro badge last year.
My 2026 Plans
My 2026 season starts a little later this year, which is why I could afford a bigger January block. I’ll open at Mid South Gravel in Oklahoma in March. I’ve decided to skip Santa Vall for various reasons, the main one being that I don’t enjoy it.
After Mid South, I’ll head to Boulder for altitude, then over to California for the Redlands – Sea Otter – Levi’s trio.
I really wanted to add the Tour of Gila at the end of that block. It’s a five-day mountain stage race with a TT at altitude, basically my dream race. But with most stages sitting above 2,000 m, you have to prepare properly. Doing Gila would mean dropping both Sea Otter and Levi’s.
After Levi’s Fondo, I’ll fly back to Europe via New York City. The plan is to go after the Central Park KOM. I do still need to sort a TT bike out for this, though, the deal I had fell through just this week due to supply chain issues. 😕
Then it’s back to Europe, maybe Lincoln GP, definitely Unbound, and I’m going to do British TT Nationals as well. My calendar after that is very much TBC.
I need to start organising, I leave in less than five weeks and haven’t got a single thing booked.
Maggie won a pro race!!
Last season was a tough one for Maggie. She had unexplained problems during the Classics, which eventually led to surgery on her iliac artery in July.
Getting everything sorted was a huge amount of work. You’d be surprised how much an athlete has to navigate themselves, even as an Olympian in the WorldTour. Finding the right people, the right treatment, the right rehab plan. It’s a lot.
I think one of the biggest misconceptions about pro cyclists is that everything gets done for you. It really doesn’t. Maggie was brilliant with her surgery and rehab. So much effort went into building the right team around her at each stage and doing everything properly.
She went to Australia high on confidence, but a DNF on Stage 2 of TDU had her feeling down. Luckily, it was ‘only’ some nerve issue after travel, and by the time the TDU one-day race came along a few days later, she was feeling better.
And she won. Her first win since Nationals in 2022, her first proper pro win. One of those moments where all the hard work suddenly makes sense. I was buzzing.
She’s been on the road for nearly a month now. She flies back via the UAE Tour, then home. We’ll be up in Andorra as long as the snow lets us, with some boring (and expensive) life admin like buying a car, before the Classics begin.
What’s happening with the team?
So, I have some news.
We’re doing a composite team for Redlands.
I know. Not the big news. But still news.
I haven’t found the money for the full team yet, as I’ve written about so many times, but we do have something small. Everyone who reads this knows how much Redlands means to me. It’s an incredible stage race in a brilliant town outside LA. Along with Michael Garrison, we’ve pulled together a squad of privateers to try to win races and, more importantly, have fun.
Michael and I both came up on the road, and both still love it. Maybe one day I’ll look back and see this as the first small step towards something bigger.
What articles am I working on?
I’m currently reading the Rapha Roadmap that I turned into an e-book for my Kindle. It was first published back in 2019 and collates 18-months of research into a 65-page-ish document. It, quote: “analyzes the various challenges and opportunities facing pro cycling and presents a series of bold reforms that could bolster the economic prospects.”
It was commissioned after Rapha ended their Team Sky sponsorship, and ultimately led their investment into EF, something which ended last season. It informed their decisions around the EF Gone Racing series and their Alt Calendar. It’s one hell of a read; everybody working in pro-cycling should read it. It’ll come as no surprise that I’ll be writing something about the Roadmap.
I’m also deep into a three-part series on the Red Hook Crit, fan-first racing models, and the whole Specialized–Rocket Racing universe. I’m having coffee with David Trimble, Mr Red Hook himself, this week. He’s based here in Girona and is always a fascinating person to sit with.
This topic is my favourite rabbit hole.
I’m sorry my Substack has been quiet in January. Partly because of the training load, partly because I’ve been doing other work.
What does it take to start a pro-cycling team?
This was for CyclingNews. I wrote about Ribble Rebellion, planning my next team, and the Unibet Rose Rockets.
I’m the writer for the Unibet Rose Rockets Sustack, and in January, we published two newsletters. My favourite was the most recent. I sat down with Marcel Kittel for a half-hour, and he walked me through their tactics for winning their first sprint with Dylan Groenewegen. It was kinda surreal, I grew up watching Marcel win Tour stages.
One final note. The Rockets are knocking their media out of the park currently. They’re uploading race videos on the same day as the race. That’s unheard of in cycling. And the proof is in the pudding, their videos are flying!
Speak to you all soon,
Joe
While you’re here…
I’ve added a paid subscription and a ‘Buy Me A Coffee’ link to this post.
This allows me to write articles that don’t necessarily fit in at one of the normal outlets. I’m currently working on something about the Red Hook Crit series. This article has been on my to-write list since 2022.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/joelaverick
Hi Joe, a great read as always about your life and views on the everchanging world of cycling! Are you able to share a link/pdf to the Rapha Roadmap, would love to give it a read?