All the guys have been told that they can have a few days off to celebrate the festivities but must be back on January 1st to start the really intense training schedule, so until we report again have a Great Christmas
We have a Christmas treat for you as we sat down with outspoken new Team Cymru Wales rider, Steve Moore, to interview him during their Winter Training Camp in Snowdonia. Ned Boulting is the man on the case.
NB: 'First of all Steve, congratulations on the three year deal.'
SM: 'Thanks a lot Ned and thanks a lot for conducted this interview. I've only been a pro a couple of weeks and already I feel like I have people misquoting me.'
NB: 'Why do you feel that is?'
SM: 'Well, mainly it is just the way the press works. I realise that more than most, after all I always thought that if I was ever in this situation I'd be in your chair rather than this one, but I do have to wonder whether it's envy of Wales or whether it's me and a little bit of 'Pistorious-syndrome' as it were.'
NB: 'Pistorious-syndrome?'
SM: 'Yes, where a disabled sportsperson suddenly becomes good enough to mix it with the able-bodied competitors and everyone tries to hound them out. People feel comfortable with us in our own little boxes. More and more people understand disability sport better than they have ever done before, but while we are in that separate compartment, it does not force the reality onto those who want to see us as 'people having a go' or just feel uncomfortable seeing these disabilities on screen.'
NB: 'Do you see yourself as a wall breaker like Pistorious then?'
SM: 'No. And there are two very specific reasons for that. One, my role at Team Cymru Wales will probably be too hidden, 'water-carrier' as it were, to make an impact; Secondly, I will always suffer from the same issues Oscar has, I'm in there world, it doesn't affect the neat box of disability sport. What it really needs is a proper outburst from someone within the Paralympics, because that is the only time we inhabit the mainstream consciousness, by someone upset with finishing fourth or even better second, it would force those that don't want to see disability sport as elite, to see it as elite.'
NB: 'Seriously?'
SM: 'Yeah, now I obviously know the Para cycling team quite well and I almost feel bad for saying this but as much as I love my man (Jody) Cundy, I almost want him to fail. If he was to have an issue come London 2012, he is just the man to throw the plumbing out with the baby, the bath and the bathwater!'
NB: 'You've always seemed almost Welsh Nationalist in your patriotism, but you sound like working-class Home Counties, what's going on?'
SM: 'Well Ned, truth is if it was purely done on where we were raised, you and I are just two boys done good from Bedfordshire. Don't get me wrong, I am vastly proud of my Lutonian routes. However, my family are from Wales, I am even prouder of my Welsh heritage and I consider myself a Welshman...
...probably not a Welsh Nationalist though, would need to learn Welsh for starters!'
NB: 'So what are you aims for yourself and the team.'
SM: 'Well, I am the cog in the team I love. So my aims are team aims. You'll have to ask them about specific aims they have sanctioned for themselves and I don't really want to step out of line there. What I do know is that, personally, I have a vision of us stealing England's thunder in 2014. We all know that the Tour is likely to go to Yorkshire in 2014, I have a vision of us working for a Welsh sprinter, or winning a breakaway with Geraint or another Welsh rider in Yorkshire on the Tour.'
NB: 'Thanks a lot for joining us.'
SM: 'It's been a pleasure Ned, good book by the way.'
