A real pain!

Not being able to cycle because of the inclement weather is a real pain. But on the other hand, of the sum total of all the worlds pains it is not really that dreadful. And now I have to go back to work tomorrow, albeit for only one day. Having missed cycling, the holiday was still really great and I rearly look forward to going back to the office. Already plans are afoot for the June holiday. Hopefully going to Hereford and I have never cycled there, so something to look forward too. Also, my local Sportive in Swindon is around that time. So training needs to be done and will continue as soon as possible.

Back to it.

At last, today was warm enough, for me at least. Personal records show that this was to be my first ride of any substance for 4, possibly 5 weeks. The snow and ice had largely cleared and it was time to go. Nothing too difficult, a couple of hours would do it and definately stick to mainish roads too boot. The group consisted of 3 riders of differing tallents. One young and raring to fly the other two, old farts you may call them. Not a good mix for a group ride, but still a group of sorts.

Minor problems from the off when it seemed that Race Blade mud guards are not always compatible with all bikes, back tyre rub. Fixing this meant a number of stops en route and luckily the guilty rider was more than capable of catching up. Ten miles in, a puncture. Rider number 2 cursed. These things always take time and mostly involve only the ride thus cursed to fix it. I pushed on up the road to carry out an inspection of a local minor road regarding ice and to have a pee! Road surface not good so decided on a more main road back. More rubbing of said race blade and several stops later steady progress was still made. Did I mention another pee stop? Need to get that checked out!

Notwithstanding the various tribulations still managed 25 miles in just under 2 hours of actual riding. Not really good I know but at least it was 25 miles. Now I only have to another 300ish miles by the 31st to get the 6k in for the year. What chance that I wonder.

Car problems

Once again life gets in the way of cycling, or at least the car did. My 100 miles are rapidly slipping away for this week. It was turning out to be one of those weeks where, "every little helps". I missed out on 30 odd miles on Tuesday because of a bike mechanical as explained. So Wednesday and Thursday should have netted me about 20 or so miles and with a further 10 on Friday would have left me with 40 over the weekend. However, the car problems left me unable to use the bike at all. I am afraid that no car meant no riding. Odd really when you think about it! Usually no car equals loads of riding, but no this time.

Cycling cock-up.

Today was a cycling cock up from the start. What with cold and possibly wet mornings coupled with dark evenings, not to mention my age, I find the motivation to cycle the fifteen miles to work increasingly difficult to find. I had checked the weather forecast yesterday and it seemed just about acceptable for the morning ride. Got up, stretched on the Lycra and went to carry the bike through the house. A very flat, rear tyre. Not so long ago I would have changed the wheel and carried on. Not now though, just the excuse I was looking for and so took it. Out of the Lycra and in to the car. Prepped the spare bike intending to at least cycle to the office from an edge of town car park. Parked the car, out with the bike and on my way. Half way through the 3 mile ride I realised that I forgotten to bring a front light. I would need it to cycle back, legally, later in the day. Options, buy yet another light or return to the car and drive in. Having already enough lights I opted for the later option. Trouble was that there was nowhere to park. Ended up having to park a mile away, cycle in but push the bike back to the car in the evening.
The moral? I suppose it's, don't be so bloody lazey; the easy way out is often the most trouble in the end.

I recently bought a copy of Cycling Weekly's new publication Cycling Active. Don't really know why because it is mainly just a repeat of everything that I have read in Cycling Weekly. Still it is quite nice to have it all under one cover. My copy started on page 35 missing pages 3 - 34. It then started at page 35 again! Crap, really. Have attempted to contact CW about this but have had no luck via the phone or via email. So no big deal, it is only £3.99 after all! Still, I expect better than that from IPC. Just another massive company that doesn't give a shit about it's customers, I suppose?

It's really odd cycling in the dark again. I now have to use the Dawes and it feels so leaden and heavy. Since buying the Roberts earlier this year, I have been using the Pnarello for work. Areal treat. It always seems so fast and light, a real pleaure to go to work on. And now it is back to the Dawes and all the lights, darkness, huh, don't you just love it? Still, riding home on Tuesday was ok really, no, it was more than that I enjoyed it. Roads were dry, no traffic to speak of, it was fun and really who needs to go fast when it is dark? It is probably safer to go a bit slower what with dodgy road surfaces and stuff. Tomorrow though, it is finish work an hour early day, so no lights are required. So, one last chance to use the Pin, oh yeeeeeeeeeeeees!

I am still here, just have nothing to say at the moment.

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Below is a bit of the route I intend to ride on Friday, weather permitting. I have just seen the forecast for Friday and it seems that, although it may be damp, the temperature should be around 6 degrees which should mean that the roads are free of black ice and reasonably safe to ride. By the way, the end of this section finishes at a cafe that sells a rather good cup of coffee! See you there on Friday.

At Last!

Oh yes, today was good enough. We managed a ride, 13.5 miles may not be much but after a week of the sort of weather bad enough to stop me riding, 13 miles was fine. Snow was still much in evidence on some roads but cycling was safe enough along the car tyre tracks. Today's ride was ment to be on the Dawes Audax (left) but a last minute puncture put paid to that! Had to change bikes at the last minute and ended up going out on the Pinarello, prefer to ride that any way. The only problem was that it is mudgardless and I didn't really fancy the concequences of riding with out them, on the obviously soaking roads. Race Blades to the rescue (see right)! They did their job well enough and the bike didn't end up too mucky. To be honest, the ride was really very enjoyable and I fancied going on a lot further, but we didn't push our luck.

Another frustrating day, beautiful out there but not cycling weather I reckon. Still risk of icy patches on the roads and I am not prepared to chance it. Too old probably. Still it did give me a chance to catch up on other things such as "home maintenance" as my wife called it. Celling painting and some snow clearing and walking to the shops to get essentials, assuming they have any. I herd yesterday that milk and bread had run out and deliveries were unlikely due to the conditions.
On the left are the icy conditions to which I allude. Note the 4 X 4. Not mine I hasten to add, but perhaps one of the rare occasions where one may have been useful. I do think though that the snow does make dog walking a new pleasure and makes familiar walks seem, some how, different. I'm off to the shops now; later!

The Roberts

Well, here it is, the new made-to-measure bike complete with proud owner. All I need now is the weather to ride it. I have dreamed about a campag equiped bike all my life and I hope it will be worth the wait, not to mention the money. It has a full Centuar group set, almost. The brakes are veloce, I guess the budget didn't stretch to Centuar! Also the wheel set is built by Harry Rowland and are Mavic Open Pro rims laced to Novatech hubs. For any one who cares the tyres are Continental 4 Seasons.
The bike has been designed for long distance comfort and I intend using it for cyclosportives over the summer period. As such the front end is a lot higher than on my other bikes and I feel fairly up-right on it. One amazing thing was that when I picked it up I didn't even have to adjust the seat height. It fitted, so to speak, like a glove. Following very limited use, a nine and a 43 mile ride, it feels absolutely brilliant.

Musing about my new bicycle.

It's snowing and I'm stuck working from home. Coffee break at the moment! Of course the main frustration currently is that I feel I am unable to ride my bike, the roads being to slippery. When I see others attempting to ride I do think of myself as a little wimpy, but tough! Better safe than sorry. The thing is that I have a brand new Roberts just waiting to be ridden and it looks as if it going to be several days, weeks even before that will be possible on passibly clean roads.