Just testing out this new version, I’ve been a bit dubious about blogging on iPhone since using the old version of the wordpress app and losing two lengthy posts!
Anyway, this is pretty much a test so here’s a photo of me at the top of the col de la Colombiere from my summer holiday!
Actually, those photos aren’t on this phone so this is me and Frank at the top of Dunkery Beacon during the Tour of Wessex this May. That’s a nasty old climb!
I have to say that a lot of people seem to be ‘dissing’ 2009 as an awful year and expectantly looking forward to 2010. Not so for me, 2009 was a fantastic year! I started the year with a entry to L’etape and a whole load of training in prospect, slightly overweight and about to turn 40. Sitting here now I’m happy to say that everything went according to, or better than, plan and I achieved all my goals and a few extras for good measure. I recorded 6002 miles in training, commuting and competing – that’s 50% more than last year’s 4034 miles.
The year itself looked a bit like this:
Feb – Hell of the Ashdown
March – Comic Relief monkey bike craziness
May – Chiltern 100
June – Norwich 100
July – Dunwich Dynamo
July – L’Etape du tour
October – Dusk til Dawn (Post race report never blogged – I was proper broken though! 9 laps, 50th place in category)
So, there you have it. A year told in a few short words. It was fun all through and I’d do it all again. In other areas of life things are just as good; I enjoyed my 40th birthday with my family and closest friends in a fabulous hideaway on the north Norfolk coast. The kids continue to consume my entire being, my photography business continues to thrive and to top it off work hasn’t been all bad either, I even got a promotion recently – went back to people management for a bit of variety!
What about this year then, what are my plans? Well, the current thinking is to attempt the Tour of Wessex in May, an all-comers 3 days stage race covering 325 miles over the later-of-the-two bank-holiday weekend. Accommodation shouldn’t be a problem as the start village is about 10 miles from the in-laws house! That will be followed by Norwich 100 and the Dunwich Dynamo in July. My wife has almost committed to riding the 50 mile variant of the Norwich course which will be a huge achievement for her, I’m looking forward to helping her train. After that, who knows? The pain of the my D2D experience has faded enough for me to consider doing it again and I’d like to have a crack at the Summer Series races in Thetford – I feel like I should spend more time on my MTB this year.
Thanks for following the vagaries of my wittering on here through 2009; there’s more to come this year, I’m sure of it. Happy trails.
That the crazy notion of riding D2D solo this year isn’t meant to be. Not only am I struggling with motivation to train properly, I’m also having lots of niggly issues with the bike and general bad luck all round. Maybe I should bin this one and have another beer?
So, I managed to get the Hope XC rear hub reassembled after buying the correct tool from CRC (in hindsight this was SO the right thing to do and would have saved several hours or cursing and a couple of skinned nuckles!) Then when I got it back onthe bike found that the back brake was binding; this I sorted out by stripping out the rear caliper and having a good old clean, reassembling and bleeding thoroughly – quite satisfying in its own way, apart from the subsequent discovery that the rear disc rotor is slightly warped and is part of the rubbing problem, causing a low speed squeal – not nice.
So, I bought a replacement rotor from Superstar components, cheap and cheerful. I bought a 160mm in the belief that that was what I was running – note, check before ordering – cue Family Fortunes *honk*, nope: mine are 145’s. Bugger. Small rotors are not so easy to come by these days, i’m old school now it seems, so I still have an annoying dragging back brake. At least it gave me an excuse to clean the gunk out of the rear lever and make that nice and shiny and non-stick again!
Oh yeah, Lights. I’d been offered the potential loan of an USE Exopsure Maxx Daddy but that fell through – no matter, plan B was to run the Dinotte light on my helmet and run my Solidlights 1203D (recently ungraded to XB2) from the Nexus dynohub wheel that’s hanging in the garage. May not be loads of light but it would certainly last all night without any hassle. Tested the XB2/Nexus setup at the weekend; that’s right, it doesn’t work! That leaves me with my Dinotte, one battery and about 5 hours runtime on medium. Not enough and no backup. Grr.
I rode the superlight to work on Friday and the wider Q-Factor really stood out. I need to get some miles on it this week if I’m going to be half way ready for a 12 hour stint. This morning I took the Planet X to work, probably not the wisest choice in retrospect but I needed to cover the ground quicker than fat tyres would allow. I’m my own worst enemy most of the time.
What I need is a cunning plan…
Polos. Small, red and driven by an apparently myopic student.
This morning it was apparently my turn to be unseated from my steed during rush hour. I didn’t stand a chance.
Riding in the bus lane is generally, in my experience, preferable to riding with the cars. You have to watch out for buses (easy as they’re big, slow and noisy) and cabs, who’re normally fine save for the 10% who’ll try and kill you as soon as look at you. So there I was this morning, heading into the city along Newmarket road in the bus lane, rolling along steadily at around 20mph. Suddenly, I’m aware of a car moving across the bus lane from my right, behind me…slow motion ensues.. it’s a red car and he’s committed to a left turn and hasn’t seen me, I grab the brakes, open mouth to shout, rear wheel locks up and whack! crump..ughh. I’ve bounced off the rear quarter and hit the deck hard. The world spins back up to normal speed and I decide to lie in the road while I diagnose my injuries. There are 4 student in the car, they come over to check me out – wanting to move me, sit me up etc. I push past the urge to commit mass murder and ask to be left alone. A witness stops too, he’d been following the Polo and had seen the whole thing. Jesus that was too close for comfort. Could I have done anything to avoid it? No, a light may have helped but it wasn’t dark, misty, foggy or anything and I had the yellow rain cover pulled over my rucksack. Chalk it up to occupational hazard.
The bike was suprisingly undamaged, a tear in the saddle and a scrape on my shoe. I’d taken a beating though, with a big cut on my elbow, a scrape down 3/4 of my right leg and a bruised hand. We exchanged details and I rode gingerly into work. The elbow needed some attention and luckily I had some dressings in my drawer, turns out that they expired in 2003! Neil went out and bought some new ones, top fella.
The police weren’t interested, us exchanging details was enough for them apparently.
I’ve starter a personal accident claim through the CTC: After all I now need to replace my saddle, shoes closure, gloves, shorts and gillet which were all holed. I’m going to have a close look at my handlebars too; lightweight carbon fibre like my beautiful Zipp Contour bars don’t appreciate being crashed on tarmac – if I can get them replaced too I will.
More postings as the case develops.
I carried a camera in my jersey pocket for the etape, great for snapping the views but no use for pictures of oneself. Handily, the organisers have pro shooters at various strategic locations along the route (mostly towards the top of Ventoux to catch you a: going slowly and b:looking your best-not!). I was sucker enough to buy 3 of my pics, I thought I’d share them:
