Saturday 4 May 2013

Ramble on..

What a week!! So much to report on here!
...Well, actually, not really...and lets be honest it was an inevitability that I would eventually slip outside of 1 week between updates, it's not that I haven't been doing things and theres not much to say, well it's partly that but the hours on the bike have reached an all time high for the year and this leaving me rather fatigued in the evenings. It could also be due to the fact that I have whole heartedly adopted the french way of training and rarely start my rides before 11...It's fantastic! I get to sleep in (no alarm required) , have a casual breakfast and then when the weather is about to reach it's prime I roll out the door. Livin! The draw back however is that as I mentioned above, 4+ hours of riding and you're walking in the door near 5, a quick snack and shower followed usually by some type of lite meditation (comatosed on the couch), nows it's almost 7, another quick snack to up the energy for the journey to the store... because I didn't buy enough food the night before...After all that you're cooking dinner at 8:30, done a little after 9-9:30... peruse the interweb for a little while and bobs your uncle it's midnight and all those totally awesome ideas I had for the blog whilst out on said training ride have long since vanished like a dream after waking, lights out and the cycle repeats.
Sheep
That's pretty much it these days, last week I set the high mark for riding this year...a seemingly low 23 hours... I'm pretty happy with that too, given 2 days were under 2 hours and the weekend was a race. A race you say? Yes last weekend was the kick off to the UK premier calendar series. Basically the UK's version of the NRC but with no stage races, all circuit races. Well, that's not entirely true, the weekend was a "stage race" 2 road races (120 &170km) It was almost strange to race for such a short amount of time...after all most of what I've done this year has been in the 180-200km range and peppered with World tour guys. This was a nice change! To attack and actually do damage...well at least just to my self! If you're wondering about all the ins and outs of how the race was won check out the report on it here at  VELO UK or try cycling weekly....I think we even made some Eurosport highlights! I would like to point out a few things I found strange for elite level racing...warming up on the turbo trainer...Yes I know it was a fast paced start and on the first day it was uphill straight away...but really?! Come on guys...if the race is over 30mins you'll probably be ok...


Another things that has been an added bonus fromt this great weather break we've had is that I've been able to both venture out in bare legs and also venture further into the peaks and lanes with out risk of death from exposure...a reality I faced back in March! In the last 2 weeks I think I have ridden on nearly 85% new roads, while it has been super cool and kept the training fun a lite - in structure only, theres nothing lite about the amount of short steep climbs or "berges" here...FML, some of my ride profiles look like the inside of a sharks mouth! After a few days of smashing(being smashed by) the peaks I have also REALLY come to appreciate the easy days here, even found a little peice of heaven, a bike path that reminds me of The Goose...the irony here is that for the most part I can't stand riding the goose when I'm home yet here it's the part of my ride I look forward to the most...could just be that while on the trail theres little to no chance a car will try and "teach me a lesson". Yes, it's true, even over here the home of the Tour DE France champion himself there are still plenty of people whole feel it's their public duty to educate cyclist's on where/how they should ride their bikes...although taking your pet for a walk on the highway is perfectly acceptable..

Pass slow and wide
A few pics that should have gone with the last post from Tro Bro...good memories
Just some of the planning need to pull things off


Assemble the minion!

Apparently Eric was concerned about bonking...i thought this only happened in Tri's

D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S

DIDDO

Being famous doesn't come without its obligations
first attempt at a photo bomb..you get the idea

Stone cold killer


Scenery




I wish this sign had been at the bottom...

Scenery 


Smoke stack on stilts...engineers do explain

British dining leaves little to the imagination...hmmm

Down but not out! Team-mate of the year Alex Blaine!

Durham 

Scenery 

Scenery

that's a lot of rocks

Scenery

6hrs later...


just another day at the beach

prepping for Tro Bro 2014



deep in thought

Who does this?!! Best room mate ever!

I leave you with this...


Enjoy

Rob

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