2026 Starts here | Back In Training | Andorra Cafe | VEYO Breathing | WHOOP | James Shaw

Let’s do this… 👊🏻

A few weeks off the bike is always welcomed and needed, especially after so many race days and an especially turbulent time team wise.

2026 starts now, wherever that may be. We might have some news on that soon, but in the meantime, I’m continuing as I would any other year 🙌🏻

Let us know what you’d like to see from a pro cyclist in the peloton, training and day-to-day life, I’m all ears 👇🏻

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[Music] I am here and the general [Music] wish [Music] Now then, shorts fans. Welcome back to another vlog. Uh, don’t know what I’m going to title this one. Probably like first day back on the bike, worst day on the bike ever. I do this to myself every year, but why? Something along them lines. It’s always a bit of a hack this one. So, it is the I think about the 17th of November. I’ve had give or take about 4 weeks off now. What have I done in them four weeks? Went bike packing. If you haven’t seen that video, go check it out. And then basically spent the last week uh in Dubai rotting just sitting on the beach getting a lobster tan and realizing that it’s all fun and games. So yeah, this is day one of 2026. Let’s talk a little bit more about 26 cuz I’ve had so many questions and we don’t really know what’s happening yet. I’ll let this car pass. So, at the time of filming this, yeah, I don’t have a contract for next year and don’t really know why. We’re working on it. Obviously, there’s been a lot of stuff happened with Arca stopping and wanting and lotto merging, which is just kind of like saturated the market. I think when it’s all come out in the wash and we know what the situation is. I’ll go into a bit more a bit more detail about things, but for the meantime, that’s the situation. I’ll admit I watched uh Dan Jones’s video this morning and basically he’d like he was in a rut and I know the feeling all too well. It’s the second time I’ve been in this boat. 2018 I did 10th for the under 23 worlds. For some reason lot decided not to keep me still to this day. I don’t know why. It was very similar in the sense that BMC and CCC merged and Apple Blue stopped, which is a bit of a bummer. So anyway, that’s the situation and yeah, it’s grinding me down a lot, but I’ve had so much support from you guys, so much support from people trying to help. And uh yeah, you realize who your your true friends are when you’re in this situation and how much support you actually have from other people. Big thanks to to everyone that’s reached out really. So, what’s the plan from here? Yeah. So, the plan is continue as if it was a normal year. Like blinkers on, get stuck in, see what we can do. So, day one on the bike, just going to do a few rides, get used to riding again, and then next week probably start some more specific structured stuff. And then we’re hoping to go away to Calpe for two, three weeks before Christmas and then again in in January. I’m kind of really hoping that can invest in sorting that stuff out now and by the time I get there, it’s all it’s all hunky dory. So yeah, motivation is I don’t know what you want to call it, scarce, maybe. Yeah, that was the last time I was in this situation. Just a bit of a show really. Hopefully hopefully before this week’s out be able to to bring good news. So yeah, anyway, we are on my local climb of cold Ordino. It’s not warm, probably only like 5 or 6° proper winter training. Now I’m the celebs on the telly to rot everyone’s brain. But uh I’ve always thought that’s the first like leading to Christmas and leading to when the graft restarts. So yeah, day one back at work and uh I’m 12 minutes in and uh not regretting it yet. These rides are always so weird. you you start well and you you almost always blow. Uh remember last year came straight off my honeymoon, flew directly to team camp and was just like cramming 120 an hour carbs just to just to be able to see in a straight line. It’s really weird this time of year cuz you get some guys that have been on the bike a week or two and it’s sort of over that initial trough and then you have guys like me who often finish really late becomes a bit of a problem for that first few days. Had my first weigh in this morning. I think I’d have put Eubank and Connor to shame in the heavyweights this morning. The kilos are on. They are on. But hey, can’t go to Dubai on a beach eating burgers and chips every day and then complain about the the consequences. Anyho, today’s route probably two and a half two and a half hours going to go to one of our favorite cafes, cafe Delbos in Salo. Um, none of my I say none of my friends are here at the minute. Some of them are, but obviously a lot of the AF boys are on camp at the minute. So, they’re not they’re not here. The Inos boys go away soon. Israel boys go away soon. So, yeah, we will see. At the minute, glorious blue sky, bit of snow on the on the on the tops of the mountains. might see a bit today at like top of here. So, yeah. Anyway, let’s get some cool footage, crack along with another vlog, and uh get to the cafe. Now, then Shorts fans, like to take this opportunity to introduce you to channel partner and friends of the channel, Vio. 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A Whoop is a health fitness tracker that measures your heart rate variability and gives it a score. Now, if you’d like to try Whoop out for yourself, don’t forget to use our affiliate link, which is join.woop.com/cycling shorts and active enables. Huh. No, now the gimbal will move according to to where I am as long as I don’t go out sort of range. Oh, there we go. There’s the money shots. That’s why we pay early the big bucks. You’re basically what that that Cayman GTS was at at the mountain biking. [Music] Okay, this bus is looking mint. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Oh yeah. Oh. Everything. [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I was skeptical about the Stanley about Stan when he first moved in. Yeah. You said Stan was just a Instagram faux par kind of thing. But actually Stan is brilliant. But when you look at it and he’s got this shamper, that size is exactly the same size as a cup holder in a Range Rover Sport. It’s also the same size cup holder as in your car. Mine’s adjustable. So, I am impressed with how cold it keeps water to be fair. Like, this will still be ice tomorrow morning. That’s impressive. But it does make you drink more water. Best way to stay hydrated by a Stanley. You literally have cold water on on tap. Future discount code Stanley CS10. Like, comment, subscribe. Oh, right. So, what did we do in the in two hours? We got separated on the ride, didn’t we? After the calf. Well, we didn’t get separated. You said, “I’ll catch you up.” And then proceeded to go a different route home to the way we had agreed. I stopped to put the GoPro on and realized the GoPro had got a flat battery and had to swap it to the Insta 360 and then my power meter at the cafe hadn’t work wasn’t working. So, I just stopped to take the battery out, the little coin battery. And then as I went to put it back in, I still my gloves on. I dropped it and it rolled and it went down a drain. And then you went home a different way. Well, I went home the way I thought you would have gone. I need to make sure I take a battery out with me in the morning. Luckily, we’ve got we’ve got enough batteries, haven’t we? Oops. I’ll take that. I’ll put that out now and then I won’t forget it. Yeah. And then I went a different way and then we came home, had lunch, and then we went to buy a Christmas tree, which didn’t go very well, but we we’ve got we were getting Christmas tree inspiration. Yeah. Committed. We are inspired though, aren’t we? Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. inspired by um Jehovah’s Witness and we’re not going to have a tree, are we? We’re inspired to get a Christmas tree that looks pretty real. Yeah, cuz I want a little Christmas tree, but with you wanting to go to Calpe and Train and stuff, feel like a real Christmas tree isn’t very you wanting to go and do your job. Um yeah, and then we actually helped Ethan. In fact, I’m We didn’t help Ethan. We did we did it for you cuz we went and put some books in the garage, didn’t we? Yeah, we made him a bite room. We made him a fire room. It’s basically like a service call on steroids tonight. And Amber makes a mean brownie. So, um, need to upload this footage now for Louis to edit. Um, we just like to sit down and have tea. What’s on the menu today, Mrs. Shaw? We’re literally just having tuna pasta. Yeah, we’ve hit a because we couldn’t be bothered to go to the supermarket. We’ve hit a bit of a rock, haven’t we? We’re a bit We think we’re coming out the other side of it, but we’re so knackered, aren’t we? We haven’t We were meant to go to the shops and we didn’t. Well, we’re still We literally got back into Andor yesterday at like 10:30. Got up, went on the bike for two We were probably out for 3 hours. Yeah. We went to the cafe for a good hour, didn’t we? And talked to Fred and then went to the shops. And now it’s dinner time. Went Christmas tree shopping when we should have gone food shopping. Yeah, we did the important shopping and then decided actually we’re too tired. We got some DIY to do, didn’t we? I went to the petrol station on my ride and got us a baguette and drove back with a baguette in my jersey. So we had lunch. We did. Um yeah, that is all. We filmed a vlog as you would say. Do they sell these in Zara home and watch Molly May’s ones? I’m actually watching one of his sisters. That’s That’s worse. Anyway, stop rambling for the vlog. He doesn’t want to hear anything else. Want interestingness. Not carbs and protein. And we’re done. Yeah. Tuna pasta with some pickle. Tuna pasta. Pickle. Pickle bought from the UK. Yeah. We stocked up in the UK, didn’t we? And we drove a truck out and smuggled a load of baked beans. Is that the last one? No, there’s another one. Oh, nobody panic. Bay beans. What is it? Ambrosia custard. Ambrosia custard. Brown sauce and Rabina squash. We Yeah. And tea bags and a chocolate Labrador. No. All good. Nice. Right. We’re going to have a dinner. If you’ve enjoyed this and you want to see more, don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, turn notifications on. Um, play the algorithm. What what can we get people to put in the comments? What Christmas edition vlog should we do? Oh, yeah. What do people want to see of the Christmas ride? Yeah, Christmas edition vlog. I feel like we could do something pretty cool. We could do something if we go to Calpe. What do people want to see in Calpe? Calpe. Christmas. Christmas and Calpe. That’s about all we’re going to be up to. Yeah. Christmas cowpay. Riding again. Yeah. Yeah. And we might buy a motorpacing scooter. Oh, and maybe buy a scooter. Vesper. I want a Vesper, don’t we? Yeah. And maybe we get a puppy. What? No, we’re not. That was from Sage. Oh, did you say that? Do you want a puppy for Christmas? And a friend for Christmas. You’ve got Ralph. Angry Ginger, too. She says she doesn’t want a neighbor. She wants a housemate. She got you. True. Thanks for watching. See you in the next one. [Music]