Astellas Pro Matt Green

Two of my Astellas teammates are Ryan Aitcheson, 25, from Kitchener, Ontario (Canada) and Olly Moors, 19, from West Sussex (England). Ryan is one of the best criterium racers in North America. He is also my longest standing teammate. Olly has only been on club teams up until this point. He’s now a professional and he and I are teammates; Ryan and I passed Olly on the way home from our ride and he told us about a racing memory, because I asked.

When I count up all the brilliant places I get to visit, or live in, or pass through, they’re in their hundreds. When I try and recount whether or not I have made the most of all the places I’ve been in, the answer is a resounding no. I decided that was about to change. For the last three years I have spent the winter on the South-East coast of Spain in my apartment down here.

Florida would be a great place for time-trialling. Its pan flat. The only elevation you find are bridges. It’s flatter than both Holland and Belgium which is saying something. It’s rarely windy which means as soon as you’re out riding holding 20mph (32kph) is child’s-play. That makes riding really quite fun. Endurance rides are around 35kph and you really get the miles clocked up. Sometimes it feels like you’re in a race you’re going so fast.

For 2014 Jonny Bellis is with Denmark’s Christina Watches Continental team which this year has a big British involvement with Planet X supplying the Viner (pronounced, ‘veenir’) bikes and the team clothing – and two of the squad. Jonathan is joined by Jake Tanner – son of British legend, John Tanner – at Christina, and we talked to Jonathan recently at his new home near Pisa.