All set and raring to go

Luckily no oversleeping and after a hurried kiss goodbye to Cress, I was out of the door at 4.30am in a taxi to St Pancras International. The last time I took the Eurostar it left from the terminal at Waterloo - St Pancras was a lot more impressive.

The taxi driver was a beast of a man, so had no trouble manhandling my huge and heavy bag into the car. He was a real salt-of-the-earth type, good honest hardworking Londoner who had brought up his 3 kids alone after divorce, working night shifts in a taxi so he could get his kids off to school in the day. Good bloke and a nice start to the day.

I received a lovely email from Dad overnight, telling me of his pride in what Clare and I are doing. Given he's not reknowned for hyperbole or excessive display of emotional content, it really meant a lot to hear that from him. So thanks Dad!

Lots of time to think on the train journey to Rotterdam - I'm embarking on one of the most demanding things I've ever asked of myself, both physically and mentally I expect. I'm sure there are going to be some dark moments over the next 3 weeks, but I feel that through my training and preparation in the last 6-12 months I've given myself every chance of succeeding. And I hope that pushing through and conquering the dark moments will be the making of this special challenge. I also intend to have a lot of fun while I'm about it. The support from friends, colleagues and family will drive me on too, although the very generous levels of donations has left me with some pressure to succeed as well!

I arrived at the Rotterdam hotel at about 1pm, to be met by Jake and Sandy, who'd travelled by plane. Alas without Jake's bag, which had been left in Gatwick by their dodgy sounding choice of airline. Ooops. Poor old jake, what a nightmare. Frantic phone calls ensued as can be imagined.

With plenty of time to kill before the England World Cup game this evening, we went off in search of some lunch, to be joined later by Rick and Steve. On our return we were pleased to see the Classic Tours people fully occupied sorting out all our nutritional needs for the following day. And we were even more delighted to see that our bikes had all arrived safely - would have been an interesting start to a bike tour if those hadn't arrived! They will be transporting all our kit and manning all our feed stops along the way, in their smart TdF vans. Indispensable.

We've got a team briefing over dinner tonight before expected departure at 8am - given it's the first day of the Tour and most of us are fresh faced multi-day riders, there are sure to be some hiccups in the morning. I hope it's not me...

Final preparations

So finally the day arrived when I could say that I was leaving tomorrow. That had a certain immediacy to it that "next week" or "in a few days" couldn't convey. The final day at work was busy, with a couple of client meetings and other loose ends to tidy up. Inevitably this meant the day's proceedings were a touch more frantic, but thankfully also ensured that the time rolled by quite quickly.

I sent out my final email reminders to people on my fundraising list, which prompted a fantastic late burst and resulted in total funds raised of over £10,500 by the end of the day. Big thanks to all who have contributed so far.

Having received a squaddie haircut - short back and sides - after work (lightweight, aerodynamic streaming you understand), I met Cress, Ella and Willow for a goodbye supper at Wagamama in Putney. Molly had already left for a couple of days away with a school trip. It was a lovely send-off, made even more special by the good luck cards the girls had made for my departure.

The only thing left to do was to pack everything up into bags ready for a 4.30am start in the morning. My kit didn't look too excessive spread out on the beds in the spare room, but for a moment I was worried that it wasn't all going to fit into the enormous 140 litre bag I had bought for the trip. Very unlike me not to have done a trial pack beforehand, but I hadn't got round to it this time. It was lucky I wasn't flying as I would've been sure to have exceeded my weight allowance.

Not expecting to get much sleep tonight, given the excited pre-Tour excitement and anticipation.

Summary details stage by stage

Here is a brief stage-by-stage summary. Note the dates on the map above refer to the actual Tour de France, not our Tour de Force dates. Full maps and profiles of each stage can be found on the official Tour de France website at www.letour.fr

Saturday 19 June - Stage 1
Start: Rotterdam, Finish: Brussels
Miles: 136
Totally flat, but could be hard due to wind, especially the section along the dykes in Holland. Quite urban but cycle lanes on almost all roads. This stage will include the 5 mile Prologue route before leaving Rotterdam.

Sunday 20 June - Stage 2
Start: Brussels, Finish: Spa
Miles: 132
Climbing: 2,300m
A stage in two halves: the first being flat almost all the way. Quieter roads than Stage 1. The second half includes 6 climbs from the “Queen of the Classics” (Liege-Bastogne-Liege) in the Belgian Ardennes (Grade 3) which will be hard due to the distance already cycled. The first 10% gradient climbs of the Tour.

Monday 21 June - Stage 3
Start: Wanze, Finish: Arenberg
Miles: 129
Cobbles sections: 13km
A flatter stage but another one with a harder element towards the end: 7 cobble sections with a total of 13km of cobbles. This can be just as challenging as climbing and needs to be ridden with care if roads are wet. This area is loaded with cycling history and culture and there is bound to be local encouragement from the roadside.

Tuesday 22 June - Stage 4
Start: Cambrai, Finish: Reims
Miles: 101
A gently rolling stage - we are finally into France & into wide open spaces that could be windy again. Overall this should be a breeze though.

Wednesday 23 June - Stage 5
Start: Epernay (Moussy), Finish: Montargis
Miles: 109
Now the roads start to get ‘lumpier’, quieter and with longer stretches between villages. Never flat for long, this stage and the next will begin to check out our climbing legs. Starting in the Champagne area and passing through the Brie region, this is a fine cyclo-tourism stage.

Thursday 24 June - Stage 6
Start: Montargis, Finish: Guegnon
Miles: 148
Climbing: 1,500m
More woods, more climbs, less houses, less cars. Into the heart of rural France through the Saone-et-Loire and into the Bourgogne region with some great stretches of road. Slightly flatter than the previous stage in the early part of the ride, this one does have a few inclines later on. The longest stage of the Tour and the last ‘rolling’ one before the tougher stuff.

Friday 25 June - Stage 7
Start: Tournus, Finish: Les Rousses
Miles: 114
Climbing: 3,300m
After 40km of real flat, the fun begins as the route goes up and down a succession of ridges in the Jura Massif before hitting two big climbs to end the stage. The final one, a 14km climb up to the plateau of Les Rousses will be the hardest obstacle to confront so far.

Saturday 25 June - Stage 8
Start: Les Rousses, Finish: Avoriaz, Morzine
Miles: 110
Climbing: 3,616m
After a long descent almost to the shores of Lake Geneva, this stage gets lumpier as the day goes on. Our route will differ slightly from the official one in order to avoid long sections on busy main roads south of Geneva. Again, two big climbs provide the real challenges of the day. The Ramaz climb, 40km from the end, appears for only the 2nd time in Le Tour and is as tough as the final one up to the Avoriaz ski station which provides the second consecutive mountain-top finish.

Sunday 27 June - Rest Day in Morzine

Monday 28 June - Stage 9
Start: Morzine, Finish: St Jean-de-Maurienne
Miles: 119
Climbing: 4,800m
The rest day that precedes this stage will be vital since this is definitely one of the hardest of the Tour. The Colombiere and the Madeleine are both Giants and are separated by two climbs (Aravis and Saisies) that are no easy challenge either. However, to get through this will put climbing legs on us for the rest of the Tour.

Tuesday 29 June - Stage 10
Start: Chambery, Finish: Gap
Miles: 111
Climbing: 3,600m
An exceptionally beautiful stage with much drama after a flat run of 40km before some serious climbing begins again. Our route follows the N85 as little as possible in order to avoid traffic but changes nothing in terms of climbing. The Col du Noyer is the highlight of the stage: a shorter but tough climb with a very, very steep descent

Wednesday 30 June - Stage 11
Start: Sisteron, Finish: Bourg-les-Valence
Miles: 112
Climbing: 2,800m
This stage takes riders out of the Alps and into the Drome region. After an initial short spell of climbing the stage has the longest section of descent of the Tour (60km hardly having to pedal!) but there is a bit of work to do for the last 20km to the hotel. A well deserved ‘easy’ stage.

Thursday 1 July - Stage 12
Start: Bourg-les-Valence, Finish: Mende
Miles: 130
Climbing: 4,200m
From the Drome to the Ardeche, via the southern Massif Central, this is an epic stage with some truly great cycling in store. Many climbs but none of them sharp, until the last 4km ‘wall’ to the finish line above Mende. Hard, but this stage is there to be enjoyed, such is the variety of scenery through which the route passes.

Friday 2 July - Stage 13
Start: Rodez, Finish: Revel
Miles: 90
Climbing: 1,400m
This stage is again hilly but only for the first half of the route. No hard climbs, but sustained gradients of 4-6% and long enough to have to be taken seriously. Then the route plunges down into the Tarn valley leaving only a short ‘rolling’ section to be negotiated before arriving at our stunning hotel in an old abbey in the village of Soreze, just outside Revel.

Saturday 3 July - Stage 14
Start: Revel, Finish: Ax-les- 3-Domaines
Miles: 110
Climbing: 3,300m
The beginning of the end: the Tour arrives in the Pyrenees. A welcome flat start of almost 50km takes you into the foothills of the Pyrenees where gentle climbing turns into climbing of Giants as the Port de Pailheres looms ahead. This will take you up to 2,000m altitude and the first vistas over the mountains. To prove how the Pyrenees mean business, the final climb up to Ax-les-3-Domaines could be rated ‘Grade 4++’.

Sunday 4 July - Stage 15
Start: Pamiers, Finish: Bagneres-de-Luchon
Miles: 116
Climbing: 2,300m
This stage again leaves the worst until the end: the route along the valley of Cousterans to St Girons provides almost 60km of flat, with the exception of a couple of very short climbs. The climb up the Portet d’Aspet should not prove too hard either. However the final 18km climb to the Port de Bales will be one to dine out on.

Monday 5 July - Stage 16
Start: Bagneres-de-Luchon, Finish: Pau
Miles: 121
Climbing: 4,400m
Then came the crunch! The Peyresourde, the Aspin, the Tourmalet, the Aubisque. Right from the hotel the road goes up. Then down. Then up. Then… But this IS possible. It may just take a long time.

Tuesday 6 July - Rest Day in Pau

Wednesday 7 July - Stage 17
Start: Pau, Finish: Tourmalet
Miles: 108
Climbing: 4,400m
Mercifully stages 16 and 17 are separated by a rest day. This stage is the choice of the Etape du Tour, a guarantee for a tough time. But what a great way to finish your challenge, since after this it is all free-wheeling (so to speak) to Paris. After the cruelly steep Marie Blanque, which comes 50km into the stage, the long grinding climb up to the Soulor is all that stands in your way before the final climb up the most challenging of the two sides of the Tourmalet.

Thursday 8 July - Stage 18
Start: Salies-de-Bearn, Finish: Bordeaux
Miles: 118
The flattest stage of the Tour after stage One, and a beautiful ride through the Landes forest. A long trek, but sheltered from wind it should provide no difficulties at all.

Friday 8 July - Stage 19
Start: Bordeaux, Finish: Pauillac
Miles: 32 (time trial stage)
A 50km route which the Tour uses for its only Time Trial in 2010, this ride through the Medoc vineyards provides an excellent way to celebrate our achievements on the previous stages. Approx 5 hours transfer post-stage including train from Pauillac to Paris.

Saturday 9 July - Stage 20
Start: Longjumeau, Finish: Paris
Miles: 30
The chosen route into Paris heads north-west through the Foret de Verrieres and past the formal parks & chateau of Sceaux. Avoiding the main roads into Paris we take tree-lined avenues before heading to the centre of the city. Passing some of Paris’ most famous sites we finally reach our memorable finish at the Eiffel Tower.

The start line is coming into focus

Just thinking about the start of the Tour de Force is now enough to set my heart racing with excitement, with less than a week to go. There’s nothing more I can do to improve my fitness at this stage, so from now until the start it’s just a case of getting as much rest as possible, keeping well fed and watered, and avoiding any accidents on the commute to and fro work. I laid out all my kit on the spare beds last night and was quietly reassured that it doesn’t look too much, and I’m a lot more confident that I can pack it all in. It’s a massive help that I can send all my nutrition (energy bars, gels, powders etc) with the Classic Tours lorry, together with my bikes.

The Tour de Force jersey arrived last week. It’s, how shall I put it, pink. VERY PINK. There is absolutely no way that any motorist could say, “Sorry, but I didn’t see you…”. It fact it’s such a bright pink that it is almost unwearable (apologies Rick Wates if you’re reading this, but I’ve got to tell it how it is!). And it’s really shiny. Think cycling, think nasty bright acrylic lyrca – then double it and you’re getting close. But maybe it’ll look better in a large group. Maybe. Mmm.

Nearly had a complete disaster yesterday afternoon. Having cleaned my bike on Saturday, I set about degreasing and re-lubing the chain on Sunday. I took the chain off and cleaned it successfully - I then threw the chain links down the drain with the dirty water. Not very clever. So had to go and buy some replacement links. I then refitted the chain, lubed it up and rode up and down the road shifting gears to make sure all was well. Unfortunately it wasn’t. I hadn’t fed the chain through the rear derailleur properly. Not at all clever. In fact, incredibly stupid. I was alerted to this mechanical incompetence by the sickening crunch of bending, grinding metal, and looked down to see my chain wedged between the wheel spokes and the rear cassette – together with my rear derailleur in a very unusual position. I felt sick. This could be terminal and worryingly expensive. Cursing my complete idiocy, I sheepishly wheeled the bike back home along the pavement hoping the neighbours weren’t watching. Over the next half an hour I managed to extract the chain, twist it back into shape, and likewise manoeuvred the derailleur and its hanger to something that looked like their proper positions, all the while dreading the potential snap of metal going beyond its natural elastic limits. I’m happy to say – and mightily relieved not surprisingly – that I think I’ve mended it and the gear change is running smoothly. Phew and double phew. I really didn’t need that.

I hope the rest of the week runs a touch more smoothly.

And a final massive thank you to all who have sponsored me. Including the single biggest donation, received this morning, I have raised just short of £7,854 and hope to secure a few more £s by the end of this week.

For anyone who wants to know the route and timetable, I will be posting details of every stage in my next blog…

Weekly totals
Commute – 64 miles
Other rides – 51 miles

Funds raised to date £7,854

That's it then...

The final weekend’s training done. Now just the small matter of riding 2,300 miles in 20 stages in 22 days. Have I done enough? Not sure, only time will tell, but I know there’s little more that I could have done without divorce or redundancy, especially given the winter we had. Importantly, by the time I leave next week, I’ll be only a couple of hundred miles short of the stretch target of 3,000 miles that I set myself in the middle of March. And I’ve now done 13 century rides this year, which is 10 more than I did in training for the Etape in 2008, and overall I’ll have done 50% more mileage than I did in the 4 month lead-up to that event. And (because it looks further in kilometres than miles), by the time I leave for the start-line, I’ll have ridden over 6,000km this year. Please please let that be enough training.

Of course it’s not just being fit that counts – as I have found out this week to a small extent. Having been surrounded by the diseased at home and work for the last 3 weeks, I started to feel a bit rough myself during the week. Nothing serious, just a sore throat, achy bones and tiredness. 3 nights of broken sleep on the floor of a tent and several beers the wrong side of sensible probably didn’t help matters either. But anyway, not enough to keep me off the bike, so I still completed both planned century rides this weekend. However, for the first time in a while, I didn’t feel particularly strong and my legs were definitely not up to much on the steeper stuff. So I actually got distanced on a couple of the hills on Sunday which really hurt my pride, as I’m usually one of the better climbers. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself though – this week comprised my highest weekly mileage, my fastest average speed for 100 miles and Saturday was also very muggy.

Now we’re into the final stages of preparation, the fear of things going wrong, astray or breaking is beginning to pervade my thinking day and night. So, inevitably, that means my checklist is getting longer and longer as I think of back-up options for potential failed parts and buy yet more spares that I’ll probably never need. The list is now over 150 items and counting…God knows how I’m going to pack all this stuff and carry it around! But with the start-line now so close, just thinking about it fills my stomach with butterflies and sets the adrenaline pumping – I rode with Steve on Saturday, who is a veteran of the 2006 TdF and completed the Race Across America in 2008 (3,000 miles non-stop!), so this kind of thing is old hat to him – but he told me that while waiting for me he’d popped into Dauphin Cycles and was talking to them about the TdF we are just about to embark on, and even he’d started choking up as he was speaking to them…and we haven’t even started yet. What the ‘eck are we all going to be like at the end of this all!


Weekly totals
Commute – 110 miles
Other rides – 225 miles

Funds raised to date £6,172

So there is life outside cycling

A total mileage for the week of just 15 miles isn’t going to impress anyone is it. But a rest is also supposedly meant to be an essential part of any training plan too. And so began 7 days off the bike due to ‘work commitments’ (loosely termed you understand) and a weekend’s camping. Thing is, it didn’t really end up being much of a rest in the conventional sense, just something different. And I’m not sure that replacing training hours with digestion of liquid carbs (i.e. alcohol!) is what the text books have in mind either – but it sure was fun.

On Tuesday evening we had the final TdF briefing from Rick Wates et al, where about 50 people turned up. Those doing more than 10 stages had a pre-briefing before the masses, where Phil Deeker laid out the extra demands that were likely to be made of our minds and bodies – essentially what it takes to ensure you can successfully ride long stages day after day. Most of the talk was centred on the practicalities of the Tour and that getting into a logistical mess was more likely to be a reason for failure than a physical set-back. Although this was the right focus at this stage of the preparations, the more serious nature of the evening meant there was little time given to the romance or majesty of the trip. Jonny Wates was keen to emphasise the need to look out for each other during the event, and to avoid the tendency to go into a shell when things get tough – as he rightly pointed out it’s when, despite best-laid preparation, things don’t go exactly to plan that cracks appear - and everyone reacts differently under stress (anger, humour, despair, denial etc). All sounds a bit gloomy doesn’t it?! Ha, still, that can’t suppress my excitement about the trip, and departure now feels tantalisingly close.

Thursday turned out to be one of those dream ‘toys for the boys’ days – something that I’d never even consider doing privately given the prohibitive cost, but something I’d happily jump to the front of the queue for if it’s laid on for me. RSA, one of the insurance companies I research, arranged a track day at Goodwood for all analysts covering the stock. We had a good dinner the previous evening in Goodwood House and one hour talk from the management team, which appeared to justify the next day’s frivolities. Thursday morning, we drove down to the track and were taken round the circuit in Mercedes AMG saloons by Prodrive instructors, who explained the breaking areas, turn-in points, apex and exit-points of each corner. Next up, we had a go ourselves – having harboured dreams that I’d just step in and be told what I a natural I was, I quickly discovered that track driving is a little more challenging than it looks on TV…I didn’t crash or spin or anything as dramatic, I just wasn’t that good!

After familiarising ourselves in the Mercs, we were then given Aston Martin Vantages or DB9s to drive. I had no idea these road cars had so much poke – awesome fun, but a little disappointing to only get a couple of laps at a time, as every time I was just getting into it and learning new boundaries of what I and the car could do, we were asked to pull in to the pits. But the big highlight of the track part of the day was 2 flying laps with ex-F1 driver Johnny Herbert in a Le Mans Aston GT2 – what a sensational feeling! Having thought I might be a touch scared beforehand, I wasn’t at all frightened and just sped round with an enormous grin on my face. What it did highlight, in no uncertain terms, is the gaping chasm of driving skills between a novice like me and a seasoned pro like JH – where I’d previously thought there were corners, he was flat out through them!

After lunch, we were given control of a Subaru rally car on a course marked out with cones in a field. Great fun as we learnt to back-end the car round corners and power-slide round the bends. Once again, though, the highlight was a 2-lapper through a forest rally stage as a passenger next to a pro-driver. We were hurtling down single lane forest tracks at up to 70 mph, taking all the corners sideways and launching off a huge jump – big wide-eyed wow moments abound. Massively impressive control in a tight environment and truly exhilarating. I also went for a 15 min flight over Bognor Regis in a 1943 Harvard Warbird that had been used to train Spitfire pilots in WW2. All in all, a very spoiling day, with the kind of fun that very few people get the chance to experience. Thank you RSA – now, I must remember to change my recommendation from Hold to BUY. (Compliance, I didn’t really mean that…!)

We spent the bank holiday weekend camping at Mellow Farm in Hampshire, with Jems/Rich and Harry/Lisa, plus kids – so were 13 in all. The campsite was in an idyllic location, conveniently close to London, with a small river running past our pitch, which was in an old ox-bow lake. Importantly, our pitch had a ring for a campfire, which I think is an essential part of the whole camping experience. We took colossal amounts of kit with us – the more we camp, the more gear we seem to take…which seems to negate the point of camping to an extent I suppose, but makes it a whole lot more bearable. The kids had great fun playing in the river with our inflatable dinghy – and the rest of the campers were pretty agreeable on the whole – except for the weirdo (there’s always one) who decided to dry himself post-shower by lying naked outside his tent– until told that wasn’t really appropriate in a family setting!

Weekly totals
Commute – 15 miles
Other rides – zero!

Funds raised to date £5,265

Smokin'

What do we do after months of moaning about the cold? Start complaining about the heat of course! To be fair, there were very few complaints about what was a quite stunning weekend, with temperatures well into the mid-20s centigrade and light winds. Most of us were more than happy to throw off the armwarmers and long-fingered gloves, and instead don the shades and slap on the suncream.

I had two rides planned for this weekend, to continue my process of adapting to back-to-back long days in the saddle. For Saturday I planned a less demanding route out towards Windsor, looping north and round the west side of Reading, before heading home through Ascot. We set off as a group of 4 at a very civilised 8.15am, being Clare, Jake and a friend of their’s called Ross, who is also doing a few stages of the TdF.

The highlights of the day were two-fold, besides the great weather and glorious English countryside. First of these was a fantastic pub where we stopped for an hour, and enjoyed some really good food – thanks to Ross who knew of The King William, tucked away down a lane in a hamlet called Ipsden, about 10 miles north of Reading, with beautiful views of sheep-filled fields across South Oxfordshire. Reminder to self – after all this ridiculous training, future rides should always include a good pub lunch. Second highlight was Jake’s increasing despair about his silly cycling tan. Wearing tight-fitting kit means any tan lines are usually highly pronounced, especially for someone like Jake, who clearly tans easily. Best of all are Jakes lily white hands on the end of his increasing sun-kissed brown arms – looks like he’s wearing a pair of white gloves, and the contrast is only going to get worse as we do more and more cycling on the TdF!

I am seriously impressed with the huge strides that Clare has made as a cyclist in the few months since she started doing this properly. She’s gone from having never ridden as far as 20 miles in January, to being able to ride 125 miles in relative comfort. Huge respect. And with that kind of form I’m convinced she’ll have no trouble completing the 5 stages of the TdF that she’s signed up for. More than I can say for some of the other TdFers, which might sound a bit pretentious of me, but I’m quite shocked at how little training some of the guys have done given the multiple stages that they’re planning to do. It’ll become pretty apparent pretty quickly what condition everyone’s in once we start the TdF proper.

Sunday was even hotter, with a much more challenging test ahead of us for the King of the Downs sportive – 115 miles up and down the North Downs, covering many of the climbs that I’ve been over many times over the last few years in Surrey and the Ashdown Forest. Jake and I (wisely) chose to get an extra hour in bed, so set off from the Gatwick starting point about an hour after the rest of the TdF group at close to 8am. Fuelled by the usual early doors adrenalin rush and the temptation of catching the TdF group up the road, we set off at a ridiculous pace for a couple of guys that had done 120+ miles the day before and had a long hilly day in the saddle ahead. The first half of the course was mainly in the Surrey ‘Alps’, taking in Leith Hill, Pitch Hill, Combe Bottom, Ranmore Common and Box Hill among other favourites. Having loosened the legs on these early hills, we managed to join a fast-moving train of riders on the way back to Gatwick and were moving along at 20-25mph at the half-way point.

Reaching the second major feed station at about 55 miles, we realised we’d caught up with the main group of about 10 TdF riders – they set off again while we waited to fill up water bottles (essential in the heat), but we were soon on our way again, now as a 4, having picked up Doug and John, both of whom are strong riders, so we were able to work well as a group swapping off the front of the line in turn. The terrain was easy and perhaps lulled us into a false sense of security ahead of the hill through Weir Wood in the Ashdown Forest, which was really just a warm-up before the leg-breaker that is aptly named the Wall. Some septuagenarian nutter was running up the Wall, with his hairy gut unclothed and hanging out in its full resplendent glory – happy chap, I said he was a lune to be doing that (takes one to know one) and that there was plenty of good TV nowadays to entertain an old man.

From this point on, Jake & I rode with the main TdF bunch – good to meet a few more new faces. I finished the ride well exercised, but not overly tired, having set a good pace over the final 15-20 miles back to Gatwick. I’ve got virtually no riding at all next week as we’re off camping for the weekend – a really tough decision to rest up, but I definitely I owe it to the family and my body could probably do with some respite – apparently recovery time is good for you, I just feel uncomfortable looking at a big fat zero in my training diary.

Weekly totals
Commute – 75 miles
Other rides – 235 miles

Funds raised to date £3,925.

The final countdown

As Joey Tempest once said in one of the finer moments of mid-80s glam rock, “it’s the final countdown”. Although he was singing about lift-off into a new space odyssey (very Cold War) I’m sure most of us on the TdF are now increasingly feeling the same trepidation and excitement from the impending step into the unknown with only one month to go – minus that ludicrous hair of course.

This week my eldest daughter Ella, aged 11, made it absolutely and painfully clear how old Cress and I are in her eyes. Flicking through the TV channels absent-mindedly on Tuesday evening, we stopped on BBC2 which was showing a collection of Top of the Pops performances through the 1980s, starting with the New Romantics style(?!) of Duran Duran and ending with the birth of House/Dance like Ride on Time by Black Box. As we meandered along this nostalgic journey through our adolescence, Ella walked in to watch/listen – she managed a couple of minutes of tortured tolerance before expressing her absolute disgust at what she was hearing and seeing – looking like she’d just swallowed a t-spoon of salt, it was all “what is this awful music?”, “you didn’t actually listen to this, did you?”, “they can’t even sing” and “surely people didn’t wear clothes like that did they?”, followed by “pleeeaase can we turn over, it’s making me feel ill…” Having subjected ourselves to the likes of Fergal Sharkey, Bros, Wham, Dead or Alive, Europe, T’Pau, Mel & Kim, Tiffany, The Communards and the manufactured pop of Stock Aitken and Waterman (yes, Kylie & Jason), together with all-white jeans and white woolly jumpers, we had to admit she had a point. It all looked very very dated, which I suppose it is. I had always thought that dancing to 1980s music was impossible, until the House scene emerged at the end of the decade, but was reassured to see that everyone danced with that awful sway in those days. The 1980s really was a dark decade for the dancefloor, sandwiched inbetween the awesome 60s rock’n’roll, 70s disco and 90s dance/club music. Had to laugh when Chris de Burgh sang Lady in Red, typically the last song played at all those ‘balls’ we went to in our teens, which represented the evening’s last chance to get up close to the girl you’d been dying to snog all night. Happy days!

Sunday was the last organised TdF ride before the off, and there was a decent turn-out of 22 riders at the meeting point outside Dorking. I cycled down there and totally mistimed it, arriving about an hour early – an hour of sleep wasted, but it was nice to see the sun rising over Box Hill in the early hours – and it was warmish when the sun was out. We had a good ride from there down to Brighton and back, the only unpleasant part coming on the climb up to the top of South Downs – not because of the gradient in itself, but because as we hit the lower slopes a long procession of about 50 2-stroke mopeds streamed past us, put-putting filthy smoke directly into our path. This was made worse by Steve shouting “don’t let them get away” – red rag to a bull, so I chased them uphill at over 20mph – obviously I was gasping for air after several hundred metres, but only succeeded in inhaling blue oily fumes instead. Not pleasant. We had a very cold lunch on Brighton seafront before heading back to Dorking. Amazing the improvement there’s been in most people’s riding since the start of the year – obviously everyone’s training has paid off. My ride, including to the start and back to London totalled over 120 miles - and while not at an electric pace it felt reassuringly comfortable.

Just a quick word for the pros doing the Giro – if you ever thought they were a bunch of mollycoddled prima-donnas, think again. Saturday’s stage was incredible: the French/Belgians have the ‘Pave’ to test bike handling skills – unbelievably uncomfortable at best, treacherous in the wet. Lesser known, but just as challenging, the Italians have ‘Strada Bianchi’, which are white gravel roads. And it was raining on Saturday, so the white gravel roads quickly turned to slippery rivers of brown mud – and the riders quickly turned to brown mud too, so much so you couldn’t even see the team strips. Unsurprisingly the former mountain-bike riders and cyclo-cross riders faired the best with their better bike-handling. Tough, cold day in the saddle. Chapeau (or whatever they say in Italian!)

Weekly totals
Commute – 102 miles
Other rides – 123 miles

Funds raised to date £2093.

Is it May or March?

Seems like last weekend's cold snap wasn't a blip after all - a few mildly tepid weeks in April, and now it's ridiculously cold again - please tell me that April wasn't our summer . I was out riding on Saturday for 7 hours and the temperature never got any better than 6 or 7 degrees centigrade. And it's supposed to be May FFS! So reluctantly, I had to dig deep into the bottom of the clothes chest and pull out the long-finger gloves, winter socks, overshoes, legwarmers and armwarmers again.

For once, I couldn't be bothered to plan a route for my weekend ride, so rather unimaginatively I cycled out to Box Hill along a well-trodden route, with a plan to do multiple 8 mile circuits taking in the famous climb. Box Hill is a village on top of the North Downs near Dorking. It's neither very long (2.5km), nor very steep (average about 4-5%), and the road surface isn't great either. But for London-based cyclists the climb's got a scarcely deserved reputation as a mecca for any serious roadie. I'm pretty sure that's because it has 3 switchback corners on it, which gives the false impression that it must be quite steep, and somehow manages to give it an air of an Alpine road climb - in leafy Surrey. Somewhat farcical. But, in the absence of anything better, it's a very useful place to go for hill training and can be a proper challenge, depending on how fast and how often you choose to ride it. And I was choosing to ride up it lots and lots...but not very fast.

I seem to be developing a pattern on my long rides. I start off pretty well and after 25 miles feel strong and confident that the rest of the trip is going to continue in the same vein. But come 30-35 miles in, I suddenly begin to flag and the next 10-15 miles are a real struggle. Usually accompanied by a strong ache in the lower back, my legs begin to feel increasingly devoid of energy. Then, after that episode, I start to get better again and almost feel like I'm getting stronger with every mile. Brief rests seem to help a lot, so that makes me confident that I'll have less of a problem on the TdF as I expect we'll be stopping or slowing down quite frequently in a big group. I'm pretty sure the problem's not nutrition-related as I eat and drink fairly continously throughout my ride.

Of course, the other reason that Box Hill is so popular with cyclists is the fantastic National Trust cafe at the top of it. Apparently, it's illegal for cyclists to continue past the cafe without stopping. Yes, apparently. More like it's a complete necessity by then. I was going through one of my weak legs, achy back episodes on Saturday, and knew that a stop at the cafe would sort me out. But, each time I ground past the cafe at what felt like glacial pace in the unrelenting drizzle, and looked across at the cafe windows I could see that it was still firmly closed - the unfair penalty for starting out too early. It was only on my 4th pass that I saw that it had eventually opened. And what a treat that was after all those 'failed' passes. As you can see from the photo, the choice is overwhelming - a complete carb-fest - but what to have? First off a coffee to warm up. After what must've seem like an eternity for the long-suffering lady behind the window, I settled on a piece of homemade treacle tart. I say piece, but this doesn't quite do it justice, as it was a huge bed of pastry and treacle, all sugary sweet, and quite delicious. Said lady asked if I had any change, rather than my £5 note, but I assured her that any change she gave me would most probably be returned to her pretty soon. Sure enough, I was back in the queue for my second square foot of treacle tart about 2 minutes later. Now that made the rest of the ride go a bit better for sure. Note to Popeye - treacle tart tastes a whole lot better than spinach. Note to self - don't ever try to carry treacle tart in back pocket, however good it is.

Highlight of the weekend - other than the treacle tart - was my final Chelsea game in my season-ticket seat - which I'm giving up after 13 years (just too many other calls on my time / money now). But what a way to go out - winning the Premiership on the final day of the season, by beating Wigan 8-0, Chelsea's biggest ever League win in 105 years of history. Most goals (103) scored by a top-flight team since 196?, golden boot for Drogba, (share of) golden gloves for Cech. And a great cuzza with Dave and Ben afterwards too! Ok, so not great for my training but WTH.

Weekly totals
Commute - 103 miles
Other rides - 100 miles

Funds raised to date £2093

Getting into the routine

So, I know I can cover the distance of any one stage of Le Tour, having completed several rides of over 100 miles this year alone. My challenge is to be able to wake up and repeat it day after day for 3 weeks. That means I need to get my body accustomed to doing just that. Phil Deeker, our Tour organiser and rider of 300 Cols inside 30 days, has suggested I do as many back-to-back 100 milers as I can before the start of the TdF. So that's just what I did this weekend.

First ton was riding up to stay with Tommy and Polly near Silverstone. The weather turned out to be much better than forecast, and while not warm was thankfully dry. Having fretted and fretted about wind speed and direction recently, my new mental approach is to just take it as it comes - frankly, I can't do anything to change the wind and I won't be able to change my route to avoid the wind on the TdF, so I've just decided to take it as it comes and deal with it the same way I'd deal with a hill or a day of rain - come what may. This doesn't mean I won't notice the wind, just that I won't get so worked up about it. As a result, I didn't mind the slight headwind the whole way to Tommy and Poll's, and actually had a nice time. I had to ride past their house and cover another 30 miles to make up the distance to 100 miles, but that meant I got to take in a part of Northants that I'd never really been through. And I'm glad I did, beacuse I went through some stunning English villages, with lots of St George's flags flying, tempting-looking pubs and classic English churches. And don't let anyone tell you that Northants is flat - because it ain't. It doesn't have the steep pitch of the North or South Downs, but the rolling countryside can sure sap the legs of energy.

Tommy and I got an early night ahead of the Squires and Spires sportive the following day. Tommy is doing 4 stages of the TdF and the S&S sportive was going to be his longest ride to date, while I wasn't entirely sure what the route was going to be like, how my legs would feel with 100 miles in them already, or how much we were going to be blown around by forecast high winds and heavy rain (but remember I don't worry about that anymore...right?). We arrived at the HQ in Naseby - site of Cromwell's crushing defeat of the Royalist forces (ok I looked it up on wikipedia) - and it was freezing cold, in May for goodness sake. So cold that I couldn't actually hold my cup of coffee my hands were shaking so much. Praising my foresight for bringing a bag full of winter cycling clothes, I quickly donned full length leg warmers, neoprene overshoes and a long-sleeved top. We hooked up with fellow TdFer James 'Balders' Hartigan, and Tommy's local ride mates Al, Guy and Henry/Chappers. Balders is yet to embrace the lycra religion and unfailingly turns up to rides in the same gear - red and white striped rugby top, knee-length summer shorts (no padding) and this time embellished his outfit with a pair of knitted woollen shooting mitts - a quite magnificent, unintentional, two fingers to the lycra-ed masses lining up beside him.

By the time we set off, we'd been sitting in a queue for over 10 mins waiting our turn to ride out in groups of 20, a few minutes apart. I was shaking with the cold, and had little chance to warm up on the first couple of miles, which were predominantly downhill. Al, I'm pretty sure because of the cold/shivering, got an early frightener with a dose of the speed wobbles on a fast descent - I've been there, it's not nice, and there's a terrible sense of impending disaster when it happens, and braking only seems to make it worse. Luckily, he managed to scrub off enough speed to cruise to a halt. Shaken, but ok. Convinced I'd met Chappers before, I went through the usual checklist in my head: school, kids' school, uni, work etc, before I correctly narrowed it down to Reading Uni. Different years, but plenty of friends in common - small world, we'd probably last seen each other through the bottom of a pint glass of snakebite 'n' black in the Aths Pav. The first 35 miles went very quickly, with easy terrain and a friendly tailwind - I was loving the company of our group of 6 after so many recent miles riding alone, and my legs felt pretty good despite the previous day's effort.

After about 40 miles, I started to get seriously uncomfortable lower back pain, and worried that 300 miles in the prior 7 days was starting to tell. Another bonus of riding in a group though, is the chance to sit in behind someone else's wheel and take a breather - so I did just that for the next 5 miles and used the chance to stretch out and recuperate. Thanks team. After that little blip I felt completely fine for the rest of the ride. As we turned for home at the foot of the loop, we all knew that the wind was about to turn from friend to foe and the return leg was going to be a lot harder, particularly as the second part of the ride is also a lot more hilly. Our tidy group of 6 now started to split on the climbs and most wind-exposed sections, but for the most part we managed to stick together. Henry, Guy and Al had ridden the route before, so had prepped the rest of us for the stiff final ascent - but as Al and I rode through the parkland leading up to the final climb, a number of riders passed us, with comments like 'don't worry this is the last hill' implying that we were really struggling. That hurt my pride. I'm competitive. I was feeling charged. So, when I got to the bottom of said climb, I thought f*ck 'em, and blitzed past them all...showing off? So what, I felt better for it! Trouble was, the S&S course was only 72 miles long, and I needed to do 100 miles. That meant riding back to Tommy & Pol's house, back the way I'd just come to make up the distance - but at least the wind was behind me all the way back, and the miles clicked through quite quickly.

A fun weekend, and getting into the routine of consecutive century rides.

ps, sorry Balders, you finished too late for the group photo

Weekly totals:

Commute: 101 miles

Other rides: 204 miles

Funds raised to date: £2092

Farnham century

Feeling no ill-effects from last week’s epic down to Devon, I upped the commute mileage this week with a lap of Richmond Park each evening on the way home – now in full light at last. Amazing how the hills in Richmond Park seemed so insubstantial after what I’d experienced in Somerset / Devon. The monotony of riding laps of Richmond Park is as much a mental challenge now as a physical one, but I figure training in either aspect is going to be useful come June. It’s amazing how many cyclists are out and about now – in fact the huge increase in the number of commuters on the roads is actually becoming a complete pain the a***. The front of the queue at traffic lights is complete mayhem in the evenings, and there are plenty of people doing very silly things. The drivers should be praised for their patience, as many of the cyclists are showing none whatsoever.

After a late and boozy Saturday dinner with the Gilbey’s, I was slightly dreading my Sunday ride, and would have preferred to have lazed around the house, or taken the dog for a stroll. But, I dragged myself onto my bike having drunk several pints of water and a couple of paracetamol. I actually felt pretty good for the first 25 miles, out past Kingston and along the banks of the Thames to Chertsey. Stupidly, I told myself that 100 miles isn’t really very far and that I could polish off the miles quite quickly with a minimum of fuss. 35 miles in and I was feeling fairly pooped and the miles seemed to tick by incredibly slowly for the next 20 miles. Took a wrong turn south of Farnham and inevitably that directed me onto the longest hill on the route so far – but in a weird kind of way, that served to energise me. My speed picked up again at around 65 miles as I turned East near the charmingly-named Titty Hill near Midhurst and took advantage of the wind in my back. A long climb out of Easebourne pushed my heart rate higher, but offered exquisite views North East across the route home. Although feeling tired, and crawling up any incline, especially back over the double ascent of the North Downs, the tailwind meant that I was riding at 20-25mph on the flat the whole way back - helpful as the ride ended up at 114 miles instead of the planned 100. I probably pushed too hard in fact, and have been feeling sore since I got home – a lesson that I need to ride within myself on the TdF itself.

Am getting a bit bored riding by myself all the time – the difficulty is finding someone of the right standard – not too quick and not too slow – who is around at the right time of the weekend and is happy to ride the distances I want to cover. I console myself with the thought that riding alone, taking the brunt of the wind full on, will mean that it will be relatively easy once I come to ride with a group, and take shelter when I need to. Next Sunday I’m entered in the Squires and Spires sportive with Tommy, so the company will make a welcome change.


Weekly totals
Commute – 134 miles
Other rides – 114 miles

Funds raised to date £2018.

The long road to Devon

So, the week of the back-to-back long rides was here, the first real test of whether I could string together more than one long-distance ride. It started fairly innocuously with a perfectly normal return to work after 10 days away from the office, although I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the 5.15am alarm call. But by Tuesday lunchtime I was beginning to feel distinctly average – cold, achy joints, headache and an upset stomach. Not the best preparation for two mega days in the saddle, or perhaps worse still, I could be forced to cancel the whole weekend’s trip.

I had a ticket to the Chelsea v Bolton game on Tuesday night, but the thought of sitting in a cold draughty stadium did not sit well with my condition. And I know the part of the stand that my seat is in has only 2 proper loos – and those are usually occupied by smokers trying to get a nicotine fix before ejection by the security staff. Too risky. So I went home and went to bed early instead, hoping to wake up in a better state next morning. After a torrid night, I didn’t feel any better, so stayed at home in bed for the rest of the day. More out of hope than expectation, I got all my cycling clothing and gear ready on Wednesday evening for Thursday’s ride to my parents’ home near Swindon.

Thursday morning I woke to a pleasant day and feeling a lot better. Thankfully, it seemed like my illness had been nothing more than a 24-hour bug. Still, I hadn’t eaten much over the past 2 days and that inevitably meant I would be short of energy. It was also a cold day, due to a NE wind, especially when the sun disappeared behind a cloud. I rode very conservatively, with Friday’s tougher and longer ride ahead of me, but did worry that perhaps I’d got back on the bike too soon.

Having reached my parents’ home after an 85 mile ride I felt relatively okay, and certainly less tired than I’d done two weeks ago after battling a headwind the entire way. Didn’t sleep particularly well though – legs still seemed to be turning! Departed at 8am the following day to begin the long slog to Exeter, with my spirits lifted by another sunny day and a very welcome tailwind. The first 40 miles or so were pretty flat, or could even have been a bit downhill overall, and it was a constant battle not to get carried too away and blast along. All the same, I made good progress to Bradford on Avon, through some very pretty Cotswold villages – amazing how many villages win ‘Village of the Year’, but a new designation I spotted along the way was ‘Longest Village in England’ (distinctly unimpressive, but Brinkworth at 6 miles, if you’re interested!). Thereafter, the riding became steadily more challenging as I passed through Frome and Castle Cary on the edge of the Mendips, before stopping for a much-needed lunch in the rather plain town of Somerton after 80 miles. Refuelled and slightly rested I continued on, knowing that the really hilly stuff was still to come in the latter part of the ride.

The road started to get much more challenging around Ilminster, with some proper climbs over the Blackdown Hills, but by then I knew that I was only about 40 miles from the end – and could look forward to stunning views at the top of every climb. Strangely, and encouragingly, I almost started to feel a bit stronger in this part of the ride – maybe the tailwind was getting stronger! It was only in the last 25 miles that I started to cover the same ground as my ride down to Cornwall 5 years ago – and I was pleased to recognise a farm shop on top of a ridge near Smeatharpe that I’d stopped at on that trip – for an ice-cream. So I did the same this time – the nice old dear in the shop even offered to give me a cup of tea, but I didn’t think that would go too well with my Solero. She also repeated her advice of 5 years ago that it was all downhill to Poltimore from here – a cheering thought, but not exactly true! I eventually reached my destination some 130 miles and 10 hours after setting off – a pretty sedate pace on that basis, but about 8.5 hours of cycling and mission accomplished.

What’s really started to encourage me is the fact that I seem to be recovering from long rides much more quickly than I did before – this may be because I’m not trying to go at breakneck speeds, but hopefully it shows that my body is starting to adapt to the increased demands I’m asking of it. Given I’d feared the mid-week illness would scupper the ride completely, I very pleased to have ridden over 230 miles, which is my largest weekly mileage in 5 years.


Weekly totals
Commute – 15 miles
Other rides – 216 miles

Funds raised to date £1928.

Fun week

Combining Easter weekend with a few days off, I managed to get a full 10 days away from the office at the expense of only 4 days of holiday. Bargain. We’d considered flying off to somewhere warm and sunny for a week, but in the end decided to stay in London and spend the money saved on flights /accommodation doing fun stuff with the kids. Turned out to be a great decision, as we had a great time and the weather was actually pretty good too. The girls had two riding lessons each, which they loved – what have I let myself in for there? Although I’ve yet to hear any pleading to have their own ponies…

Highlight of the week’s action (for me anyway) has to be the trip to Woburn Safari Park. We’d intended to go to Longleat initially, but luckily checked the website beforehand, which revealed that the monkey enclosure was closed. Travelling all the way to Longleat to find the main attraction closed would not have gone down well. We arrived in time for the Park opening at 10am and were one of the first cars through the gates. This is a good thing. First, the queues are shorter; second the carnivores are fed at 10am and so they're all near their food which is strategically placed close to the road for optimal viewing. So we had awesome views of the black bears, a wolf stealing food from a bear – it was just like a wildlife TV programme – the wolf using cunning and speed against the ferocious size of the bear. But, of course, the bears, rhinos, giraffes and lions were all just the pre-amble for the main event – the monkeys. Initial disappoint at an apparent lack of monkeys soon turned to hysteria inside the car as our patience finally paid off when a troupe of Patas and Barbary monkeys launched a sustained assault on our motor. Cress very nearly found out the hard way why the Park suggests you keep your windows closed…in the end I think we got away quite lightly, with part of the rear wiper and a bit of a wingmirror missing after their attack. Highlight of the trip, kids and parents loved it.

Had a decent ride out in Surrey on Friday, covering off 100 miles as planned. It was a beautiful day with a light wind, clear skies and temperatures nudging into the high teens. What a difference it makes, everyone seems to smile a little more and are a little more accommodating: no, please, after you, I insist. My average speed also improved along with my demeanour, although I never felt like I was really pushing it – perhaps I am starting to see some progress after all. The views from the top of Leith Hill and Box Hill were awesome again. I was speaking to a fellow cyclist at a dinner party on Saturday evening, who’d been up to Box Hill that morning – he estimated that there were about 100 riders at the Box Hill café, and counted over 150 coming up the hill as he rode back down afterwards. Perhaps we’re no longer a minority sport.

Poor old Clare had a rough ride on Sunday. I got a call from her at about midday to say that just outside Staines one of her front wheel spokes had snapped, punctured her tyre and ripped a hole in the sidewall, leaving her unable to carry on. Her ride mates continued on their ride, while she waited for a taxi. I got another call from her about an hour later, just a touch animated. The taxi had turned up, but the driver didn’t know how to get to London, how to speak English or how to operate his sat nav. Result? They’d travelled 3 miles in 30 minutes. Frustrating end to a ride, to say the least. Worrying failure of the wheel too – I could imagine that happening on a rear wheel perhaps, but this had gone on the front wheel, and after only about 400 miles from purchase. We’ll see what wiggle.com have to say about it.

Spent Sunday afternoon mapping my route for Friday’s ride from Swindon to Exeter. Nothing like getting the big Ordnance Survey maps spread out on the floor to feed the anticipation of a big trip. Looks like being a ride of about 120 miles and 2,500 metres of ascent, a day after 85 miles and 1,650 metres of climbing. Should be a tough ride – the 2008 Etape was only 2,440 metres of vertical and 105 miles by comparison. Still, fingers crossed the wind’s in the right direction – current forecast suggests a decent tailwind, hope it stays that way.

Weekly totals
Commute – zero
Other – 126 miles

Funds raised to date - £1,928

Wind, wind, wind

Just a three day commute on the cycle this week, but I have now started to add in more distance to my ride home, with a lap of Richmond Park tagged on the end. My timing was not great, as on each night I got battered by strong winds and drenched by persistent rain. All good character-building stuff I suppose. Nah, just unpleasant.

For the Easter weekend I’d planned to do my first back-to-back of serious distance, riding to my parents on Easter Sunday (85 miles) and then to some friends near Silverstone on Easter Monday (75 miles). Riding long distances on consecutive days is something I’m going to need to get used to for the TdF, so I was really looking forward to seeing how I would get on. As it turned out, our trip to Silverstone was cancelled, so I never did the second ride as planned.

I set off for my parents on Easter Sunday at 6.30am in slight drizzle, but feeling confident about the ride – my aim was to cycle at a gentle pace to save energy for the following day’s action. But it became clear pretty early on that the trip was likely to cost me a bit more energy than I’d originally bargained for. The reason? Wind. I was cycling 85 miles into a strong headwind. Initially this has little noticeable effect other than a slightly slower speed, but after a couple of hours it really started to sap the energy in my legs, and then the mind games began. Long before the end, I was desperate to stop and seek some respite from the unrelenting buffeting. I had a tremendous sense of relief when I saw a sign to Highworth 4 miles, meaning I was only 6 miles from the end of this self-imposed torture – and comfortably in time for lunch. At least on the TdF I should be able to shelter behind some other riders if it’s windy, so things shouldn’t be as bad as this (famous last words). Encouragingly, I recovered relatively quickly and actually felt pretty good for the rest of the day – no doubt helped by a delicious Easter Sunday lunch of roast lamb and all the trimmings. Positives were brief stops by the side of the River Thames in Windsor and Henley early in the morning, just as the sun was breaking through – and some strange, but very happy bloke trying to feed bananas to the ducks.

I was buoyed by the thought of a tailwind on the planned ride to Silverstone – how good was that going to feel in contrast with Sunday’s torment! But on Sunday evening we cancelled the trip to see our friends, so instead I decided to ride round Richmond Park – partly because I couldn’t be bothered to plan another route. But after 3 laps, heavy legs, boredom and more wind meant I just couldn’t face going on any further, and I bailed after 25 miles. More work to be done, clearly!


Weekly totals
Commute – 80 miles
Other rides – 87 miles

Funds raised to date £1778

Taking it easy (well, easier anyway)

After last week’s heavier load, my plans for this week included a lower mileage, especially at the weekend, which conveniently coincided with my parents coming to stay. Knowing this, I’d planned to extend my commute home to take in some longer rides in the evening. But trying this out on Monday evening, I quickly realised that this wasn’t going to be a particularly clever thing to do. Large potholes left by the winter weather and lack of light does not make a happy marriage for a cyclist on thin road tyres. My light strategy is to be seen, rather than to see, so my flashing lights don’t give a great view of the road in the dark – ok when most of my commute is lit by street lights, not so good when elsewhere. Next week may be better for evening rides, given the change to British Summer Time which means it’s lighter later. But until then it wasn’t worth the risk. The potholes, unless really deep, aren’t really the main problem – what I think is more dangerous are the large, long cracks that have appeared, running in the direction of the traffic – get your front wheel stuck in one of those and it’s almost guaranteed to throw you off your bike and onto the hard black stuff. And the other major hazard I’ve found is the increased amount of gravel on the road that’s come out of the potholes, particularly hazardous when cornering. I might be coming across as a bit soft here, but I’m determined to make the start line of the Tour if nothing else.

Psychologically, I find it incredibly hard to have a lighter training week. My inclination is to keep building the miles, in the belief that more is best. But all the training manuals state that you need to build in recovery time to let your body adjust to the increased workload asked of it in previous weeks. So, I have to accept that a recovery week is a physically necessity every once in a while, however frustrating it is to hold back when your legs are feeling good. It doesn’t feel natural, whatever the experts say! Although most of my illness or injury usually follows periods of increased training, so there must be some truth in it I suppose.

In the end, I managed to squeeze in a quick ride out to Box Hill and back on Sunday afternoon, getting home just before the rain arrived luckily. I was joined by Jake, a friend of Clare’s, for the ride. Jake has been seriously bitten by the cycling bug, has become ridiculously keen in a very short space of time and is now signing up to ride the entire Tour de Force, having previously planned to ride only a few stages between the Alps and Pyrenees. As such, he issues a constant stream of questions on kit, preparation, training, technique, etc in the mistaken belief that I possess sufficient expertise to answer them – although I’m more than happy to give my tuppence-worth. However, I am in the unfortunate position to have experienced the discomfort needed to fully answer his question about whether he needs chamois cream…nasty business, details best kept between cyclists. The ride home from Box Hill was fun – mostly downhill, mostly downwind, mostly good roads, and therefore mostly high speed. And the views from the top of Box Hill were amazing, looking South over Surrey, crystal clear at around 4.30pm, unlike the shroud of mist or haze that usually greets me on my typical early morning rides out there.

This week in the year is one of those tantalising glimpses of what might be, just before the prize is ripped from your grasp, forcing another month’s wait. I’m talking about my morning commute, which I have been doing in the dark since the end of August, through the misery of winter’s grip. In the last week of March, with a cloudless sky, I can ride to work without any lights – I can’t explain what joy that brings and what a difference that makes to the start of the day. But just when I get to that watershed moment, it gets taken away by the change to British Summer Time and I am once again plunged into darkness for another month (daylight creeps forward by 2 minutes every day – I know, I look at this too closely).

A tougher week of training awaits me next week…


Weekly totals
Commute – 100 miles
Other rides – 48 miles

Funds raised to date £1528.

That’s a bit more like it

Just back from a great ride out with the Tour de Force. A beautiful day for cycling, with little wind, (mainly) dry roads, and sunshine – hooray! After the winter we’ve had, this extra warmth was really appreciated by everyone, and spirits were noticeably high from the off. Although temperatures were only around 14C, compared to recent months where temperatures have struggled to get to 5C, it felt like a summer’s day.

The riders met up at Godalming station and the plan was to head out south and loop back east and north to take in some of the North Downs. I was a bit late arriving, having mistimed my cycle down there, but luckily spotted the TdF peloton turning out of Godalming onto a minor road just in time. The first half of the ride was fairly easy-paced, with a couple of longish stops for punctures, but no-one was complaining about hanging around in the unfamiliar warmth of the sun. Following a brief refill of hot chocolate and toasted panini in a picturesque café by a fishing / camping site - picturesque that is if you purged the unsightly caravans from your view of the lakes – the pace quickened a bit and there was some tidy group riding, with proper paired-up drafting (well done Steve, your coaching is starting to pay off…).

The real test of the ride was to come after 40 miles – especially tough for those who hadn’t ridden that kind of distance before. Turning north from the outskirts of Cranleigh there is a particularly menacing stretch of steep stuff that reaches a gradient of over 20% towards the top (double chevron on the OS map!). At this stage most of us have already misjudged it, believing the peak would come a lot sooner, so just when your body is really starting to hurt, the road steepens further and requires a final all-out lung-busting effort up the wall to the summit. The last time I’d ridden that climb I’d already had over 100 miles on the speedo, and was desperate to stop, but was forced to carry on climbing given the two cars behind me and no space to pass. This time, although I’d already completed about 75 miles, it was a whole lot easier, but still a hard grind. Of course, the reward for such energy-sapping graft is a stunning descent off the top, down into Shere through dappled sunlight cast by the beech and fir woods (which is even more amazing in autumn).

The loop was a little shorter than originally planned at 50 miles, but with the ride there already in my legs and the return to Putney still to come, I wasn’t complaining. Clare did really well on her first half-century, keeping up with the pack and showing a lot of improvement already. She also managed to tick off another first – falling off her bike, while stationary with her feet clipped in. To be fair to her, it was on the difficult 20%+ climb, and having run out of puff, unclipped one foot to put it down, only to fall over in the other direction. I didn’t see it (damn!), but now she’s broken her ‘clip-in fall over’ duck, just like every cyclist has to as a rite of passage. Rick Wates continued a long Wates tradition by falling over at standstill at a junction (again).

Although alone for the return to Putney, it was quick and enjoyable, with a slight tailwind to help me along at over 20mph most of the way. Slightly slower than that (!) over the punishing climb out of Shere onto the North Downs, but overall felt much better than any ride I’ve done over 50 miles so far this year. Finally home after 120 miles. Finished with a cold bath – Paula Radcliffe says it helps recovery – I say it was unbearably cold and is still unproven!

Good news is that my knee pain (see last week’s entry) has shown no signs of reappearing. I went to see a physio anyway during the week – she was as mystified as me – but said there appeared to be no damage to cartilage, tendons or ligaments, although control of my knee was poor due to weak glutes (new exercises to perform on a daily basis) and my ITB was very tight (back to the excruciating, self-induced pain of the foam roller). Very relieved to get a clean bill of health though.

I finally got a call from Holdsworth Cycles to say that my commute bike was ready for collection after a full service and a long wait for delivery of a new rim. The bike is now in excellent condition, with a new chain, cassette, front ring, gear/brake cables, brakes and a rebuilt rear wheel! Almost like new. What I love about Holdsworth Cycles is that they clearly take a lot of care over the service – granted they had my bike for over two weeks, but returned it in concours condition. I’m sure the mechanic had waxed the frame as I hadn’t seen it look that good since I bought it, and he’d also filed down and rounded off the broken edges of my mudguards which I’d snapped trying to bend them beyond their natural elastic limits! Nice change to be able to ring them later and compliment them rather than having to complain about the level of service as I've had to with lots of other companies.

And bmycharity, the fundraising website that the TdF (and I) are using, having previously sent notice that it was to close for lack of funding, has been saved by Help for Heroes, and is therefore to continue trading. Phew!

So a good week overall. Feeling positive.


Weekly totals
Commute – 89 miles
Other rides – 120 miles

Funds raised to date £1403.

New wheels :-) but new knee pain :-(

A big thank you to all who have donated to date – I have now passed the minimum fundraising commitment of £1200, but hope to secure many £1000s more for the William Wates Memorial Trust over the next few months. Especially as I’ve only sent emails to about 25% of my target list and only about 25% of those have responded at this early stage.

So this week I spent many enjoyable hours looking at the myriad of available wheel deals on the internet and cross-referencing to the huge number of very helpful reviews written by both cycling experts and mere mortals like me. However, in reality I was only going to consider either Campagnolo, which I know and like, or Mavic Kysrium, which I know several other people have and like. Clearly if money was not a limiting factor, I’d also be looking at Zipp wheels, which are generally thought to be pretty special – but being carbon are less resilient to potholes (and dogs – ask Marcus Burghardt, Tour de France 2007!) and are ridiculously expensive. In the end I decided on some Campaganolo Shamal Ultras after finding a very good price from an ebay merchant that was over £150 cheaper than the next best – they are 2 steps up in the product range from the ones I am replacing, so should deliver a better ride. Visually there is little difference other than being titanium coloured instead of the black on my current Zondas.

Very excited to receive the new wheels inside two days – thank you High On Bikes for an excellent service. They look and feel amazing. But I had a brief moment of panic when I saw the wheel size was 622x15c instead of the 700x23c that I’d been expecting – was that the reason they’d been such a good price? Feeling like a prize idiot I looked online to discover, to my great relief, that the former measurement is the newer international coding and the latter the older French version. Phew!

As the bike shop is still waiting for my new rim to be delivered for my commute bike, I had to ride into work on my new wheels. I thought initially that I was imagining that the Shamals are more smooth than the Zondas. But after a few rides on them, that is exactly what feels different about them – they are super smooth. Must be higher quality bearings used in the hub I suppose. Very pleased with them.

Took the afternoon off on Thursday to watch Molly in a school hockey tournament. They played 7 games in a round-robin format and did brilliantly, with a couple of crushing wins and some very tight games elsewhere that could have gone either way. I was really proud and impressed by Molly’s play and their team ended up with the bronze medal, very close to silver – a thoroughly enjoyable and exciting afternoon. I never really played hockey, but it’s a good spectator sport, although it looks quite vicious to play with sticks flying around the ankles, hands and head - almost makes road cycling look safe!

So all was going really well, and I was desperately looking forward to trying the new wheels out on a long ride on Sunday. But then, disaster! Sitting at my desk at work on Friday I could feel my left knee starting to get painful. Which was all very strange as I could not remember twisting it awkwardly or banging it on anything – I had moved my saddle forward by about 3 or 4 mm, but surely that couldn’t be the cause. By the time I got changed to go home at the end of the day, it was feeling exceedingly sore around the top of the knee, just where the quads join the knee above the patella - especially when flexing the leg at the knee. I had an uncomfortable and increasingly concerned ride home, and then the pain got worse over the rest of the evening to the point at which I could barely flex it. Now I was really worried – could this be the start of a really long lay-off the training, or worse jeopardise my entire participation in the event itself? How was my knee going to cope with repeated daily 110+ mileage over mountainous terrain if it broke down on a 15 mile commute?

As is the way these days, I attempted to undertake some self-diagnosis online. But there’s so much unqualified information and recommendation that it’s difficult to know I’d be following the right advice and not making it worse. However, the most likely causes looked like poor inner quad strength, pushing too-big gears, or just overtraining - but to me most of these would have involved a more gradual increase in pain compared to the sudden escalation I had experienced, apparently without specific trauma. I felt hugely frustrated and deflated, worrying about the worst-case scenario of how to break it to all those generous donors that I was no longer able to complete the TdF. But more out of desperation than expectation, I emptied the freezer of ice and sat with an ice pack over my knee for about 2 hours. Then went to bed.

Saturday morning I woke at around 7am and tentatively moved my leg – to my delight, although a bit sceptical initially, there appeared to have been a rapid improvement. I repeated the ice treatment on Saturday evening and by Sunday morning I was feeling no pain. Hugely tempted to go for long ride, I resisted in case I aggravated the injury and settled for a single lap of Richmond Park with Clare, at a fairly sedate pace, having reset my saddle to the previous position. No pain or other issues at all – all a bit mystifying and have booked in to see a physio next week to discuss /diagnose/treat. Talk about highs and lows!


Weekly totals
Commute – 83 miles
Other rides – 17 miles
Turbo – 1 hour

Funds raised to date £1403

First signs of Spring

This was the week the sun came back from wherever it’s been hiding for the last few months. Not exactly warm, as there’s been a cold Easterly wind all week as well, but standing in the sun and out of the wind you could definitely feel some Spring warmth (through the still multiple layers of winter clothing). And it didn’t rain – hoorah!

With my commute bike still being mended, I used the mountain bike to get into work this week. Shod with nobbly tyres, it’s not great for use on the road, and I had to get used to the humiliation of slow speeds and being overtaken all the time by faster roadies on the very competitive Embankment commute home. Looking for the positive, maybe harder riding is good training time…

Had a very tough mid-week turbo session, where I used a pyramid style programme to gradually build up to a peak of effort and then slowly wind it down again. Not sure whether it’s more tortuous on the way up or way down, but it hurt like hell on both sides! My heart rate was up in the 160-180bpm range throughout versus average of around 140bpm when out on long rides. I watched the second episode of Michael Palin’s trip along the Himalayas during the session (conveniently 1 hour long), which was of particular interest to me this time as he travelled through Northern India, visiting some of the places where I’d spent 6 months in 1990 as an 18 year old, trying to lose my public school persona through the very unoriginal (and almost definitely ineffective) route of long hair and earrings. Fond memories of Simla, Dharamsala/Mcleodganj – especially when Palin had a private audience with the Dalai Lama, as I had done with my fellow teachers in 1990. Not sure I really fully appreciated then that I was meeting a World leader, a Noble Peace Prize winner and an icon of our times.

I’d intended to get 90 miles done this weekend, but in the end managed only 77 miles. But I was totally spent by the end of it, having ridden the second half into a stiff cold breeze, and I took in several hard climbs in the North Downs, so feel it was a good training session overall despite the lower than planned mileage. But I realise that I’ve got to get a lot more hill-work into my weekly rides from now on. It was also my first ride of the year on my ‘summer’ bike, which was kinda special – it is very light and incredibly stiff, so great for climbing and handles superbly (it’s the one in the photo at the top of the page). Good to be reacquainted after about 4 months apart. However, on inspection I noticed (like my commute bike last week) that the rear wheel rim is now quite well worn and probably needs replacing relatively soon – Mr Fun says the opportunity to spend more money on kit is always appealing and the perfect chance to upgrade. Mr Sensible says keep the cost down and make do or at worst replace with like. So I know that next week I’ll be checking lots of wheel deals and working hard to justify any upgrade potential to myself…(starting now) it will of course be sensible to replace them (see I’ve already convinced myself that both front and rear wheels should be replaced) before they are completely spent, as I’d then have a spare pair to take on the TdF with me incase anything breaks on the new set.


Weekly totals
Commute – 75 miles
Other rides – 77 miles
Turbo – 1 hour
Christenings – 4 brothers, all in one go!

Funds raised to date £975

Mud, glorious mud

Given the downpour on last weekend’s Tour de Force ride in Richmond Park, I suppose it was no surprise that I have been commuting under a rain cloud all week. By some miracle, my proper soakings have come mainly on the homebound leg, giving me time to dry out my clothing, helmet, gloves and shoes before the ride in the following morning. Getting drenched on the way into work at 5.30am is no real hardship in itself, but with nowhere to dry clothes in the office, putting cold soggy clothes back on for the ride home that evening is seriously unpleasant. I have full waterproof clothing – trousers, jacket and overshoes – but when it’s raining really hard and there’s lots of water on the road too, it’s almost impossible to keep everything dry.

Perhaps then, not the best week to extend my home commute by 2.5 miles to take in the ride up the hill to Putney Heath. Not exactly the longest or most demanding col I know, but it adds a new dimension to the daily route and hopefully will bring some modest benefit to my climbing fitness given the rest of my commute is essentially flat.

During the week I’d started to notice that my commuting / winter bike was making a strange noise on every revolution of the wheels – like a rubbing noise, suggesting a tyre or wheel rim was catching the brakes or the mudguards. But there was no sign of the noise when I was spinning the wheels while off the bike, so nothing was rubbing, and the noise continued if I was on the bike, but not pedalling, so nothing to do with the bottom bracket or pedals. However, a quick inspection of the wheel spokes revealed several loose ones (front and rear!), which is very likely to be the cause of the mystery noise. I tightened a few up, but in the end decided that the bike shop was best placed to sort this out - my efforts were likely to leave the wheel distinctly out of shape and looking like it had been run over by a lorry. So the bike is now in hospital (the fantastic Holdsworth Cycles on Lower Richmond Road), getting a full service at the same time – and the mechanic has rightly pointed out that my rear wheel rim is severely worn out and needs replacing…so yet more expense (but still cheaper than commuting by train/bus and a whole lot more convenient and enjoyable).

To try to balance home, cycling and work life, I try to start my long weekend rides early in the morning to get home in time for the rest of the day. This typically means getting up before 7am – which doesn’t sound too bad, but hits the sleep bank after getting up at 5.15am all week for work and often coming after a late night out on Friday or Saturday. So you can imagine my utter delight when Cress suggested I do my weekend ride on Sunday afternoon while she hooked up with friends who have kids the same age as ours. Complete bliss – 2 consecutive lie-ins in one weekend, and we didn’t go out on either Friday or Saturday night, so a big win for shuteye hours.

Continuing the week’s wet weather theme, the forecast for the weekend was dire. The BBC website was expecting ‘heavy rain’ and high winds for the whole of Sunday – conveniently now presented in 3 hour chunks. And Saturday’s forecast also predicted consistent heavy showers. Not particularly inviting for bike riding. And since my winter road bike was now holed up somewhere dry and warm awaiting some tender R&R, and there was no way I was taking my ‘pride and joy summer bike’ out in this weather, I stayed in…well not exactly as it turned out. My third bike (extravagant I know, but my collection is still not complete – topic for another day!) is a beaten up old Scott mountain bike which I put together from some old parts I had lying around after buying the frame secondhand off ebay. The idea being, that I can ride it around town and it won’t get nicked (ha ha), and also use it to ride on tracks and towpaths with the kids. It’s not a particularly good fit, nor particularly advanced compared to some the amazing full suspension mountain bikes now commonplace. But it seemed like a great alternative to sitting on the turbo trainer – so I dressed for the poor weather and went out to Richmond Park for a couple of fun laps round the perimeter track, and a couple of circuits of a very muddy Wimbledon Common – 2.5 hours of seriously entertaining splashing around, and an excellent work-out. Got to ask myself why I hadn’t spent more of the winter doing this. Returned home with bike and self caked in mud, but with exercise needs thoroughly sated and still warm and toasty from the effort – Garmin suggested over 2500 calories burned, with an average heart rate over 140bpm.

To finish the end of the week on topic – I rode home from mates’ house on Sunday evening in jeans…in a biblical downpour.


Weekly totals
Commute – 85 miles
Other rides – 32 miles (offroad)
Turbo – 1 hour

Funds raised to date £569

On the road to recovery

I've avoided the turbo and swimming pool all week, and thankfully felt sufficiently better to get out for a longer ride at the weekend - but not that long as the monthly Tour de Force was almost a complete washout. On what was actually quite a nice weekend weatherwise, the three hours of riding round Richmond Park were filthy - wet, windy and cold - while the rest of Saturday and Sunday was relatively bright, dry and warmer. Great turnout though and enough riders to need to split into three separate groups. Some rather amusing attempts by Steve to organise some bunch riding with 'through and off' technique, but I think everyone was having trouble enough seeing anything in front of them with the amount of spray coming off the road, and the general cold-induced numbness in feet and fingers. I noticed that sitting behind my wheel was quite popular as I was one of the only riders with mudguards. Richmond Park still seems to be taking its toll on tyres, with at least 6 punctures in the group, and a few turning for home prematurely, understandably fed up with the wind and rain. A few brave souls stuck it out for a bit longer, but everyone was done well before the planned stop-time of midday - thoroughly soaked, cold and mostly pretty miserable. My 5 laps were a long way short of what I'd originally planned, but I thought it better to call it a day before risking a return of my headcold or worse. Clare did superbly well on her first group outing, keeping up with most of the riders, and going 50% further than she'd ever been before too - and she was trying out clip-in shoes for the first time ever, successfully avoiding any comedy moments by remembering to clip-out when stopping. Hoping for a longer ride next weekend.

Had an interesting email from Tour de Force organiser and my room-mate on the Tour, Rick Wates this week. On the suggestion/recommendation of one of the other TdForcers, he is thinking of adding a physiotherapist to the Tour, with the idea that she would be available to ease the aches and pains at the end of each stage and return us to a fit state where we can get back in the saddle the following morning. Obviously it's not going to be free for those that want it, but even a half-hour massage every other day is going to be a massive help, especially given how tight my hamstrings seem to get.

As part of my regular checks on equipment, I noticed a crack almost an inch long on the inside of my helmet. Not quite sure how it got there as I haven't had an off for a while and don't remember dropping it recently. But anyway, there it was, and a crack in a lid is not good news - pretty terminal actually, so I had to buy a new one this week. Yet more expense, but I'd had it for about 4 years, so it had covered a few thousand miles and seen a few spills. The model to replace my old lid is now called the Specialized S-Works and is one of the lightest available. Frustratingly I'd seen it online at a discount of 20% a couple of weeks ago, but that retailer had now sold out. So I paid full price £130...but the lid is so much improved on the old one, with a much better fitting mechanism, and the padding is now attached without velcro - which previously could be uncomfortable on your forehead if the padding slipped.

I also bought a beanie to sit under my helmet and keep my head warm - the new helmet seemed to have much better airflow too - good on a hot summer's day, but a bit chilly in the middle of this cold winter. It's made by Altura, and being relatively thin but tightly woven, it's good at keeping the windchill out, without causing too much of a fug-up like my thicker headband.

Bike shops are dangerous places for my wallet. But seeing that Putney Cycles had a good selection of the energy bars / gels that I like, I took the opportunity to stock up. Having tried most of the ones on the market over the last 3/4 years, I find I can stomach (almost actually like) the Powerbar gels - strawberry/banana and vanilla flavours only, and the bars by Clif and Mule. Most of the others either taste revolting or are so hard to chew that you get jaw ache. However, I did also see a Cookies and Cream bar by Powerbar that sounded so good I couldn't resist getting one to try, although it does feel like a piece of concrete in the packet, so not sure if it's going to be that easy to eat on the road.

Weekly totals
Commute - 75 miles
Other rides - 38 miles
Snooker - 2 poor quality frames!

Funds raised to date £404

Bit of a set-back - laid low with the lurg

Rather stupidly, I'd been congratulating myself on avoiding even a common cold over the last two years - what a healthy chap. Wrong! Not sure of the exact reason, but I have a nasty head cold, streaming nose and am feeling pretty rough. Probably a combination of the step-up in training, too many late nights at work and out with friends, booze and a couple of days standing in the cold watching football. But as a result, I haven't done any time on the turbo, and didn't go out for a ride this weekend either. Managed to get a swim in before the onset of the cold. But now just trying to be sensible and speed the recovery process along, so I can get back into training as soon as possible.

On Tuesday evening I went to see Fulham beat Burnley 3-0, with a couple of guys from the office. One of them, Paul, has 4 season tickets there, and took us along as kick-off was past his sons' bedtime! His seats have a great view of the pitch, but the wind doesn't half rip round that stadium coming off the river. Burnley were completely outplayed, but their support didn't stop singing for the whole of the second half - impressive!

Weekly totals
Commute - 60 miles
Other rides - zero
Swim - 1500m

Much better weather at long last

Wow, what a difference a few degrees makes! I went out for a ride on both Saturday and Sunday, and the weather was so much more comfortable than anything I've experienced over the last couple of months. It may sound incredibly dull to keep harping on about the weather, we are in winter after all, but it's a relief to be able to ride for a few hours without having to worry about my fingers and toes going numb, or whether I'm going to make it round the next bend without hitting ice.

On Saturday I was out on my old stomping ground in Surrey's North Downs, aka The Surrey Alps, taking in Leith Hill and a couple of ascents of Box Hill - covered 75 miles. Although I of course notice the poor state of the roads on my daily commute in London, there are always holes appearing throughout the year, especially near junctions and bus stops. But going out on a route like Saturday's, where I haven't been for several weeks, really shows how much the roads have deteriorated this winter. In many places there are quite dangerous potholes and fissures, ready to catch out the unwary. I set out on my own, but after exiting Richmond Park started chatting to another rider at a set of lights - yes we had both stopped on red - great to have some company and we rode together for the next 10 miles or so, until we parted company shortly after Cobham. I rode fairly conservatively, aiming to maintain a heart rate under 160bpm, including uphill, to see if that meant I had more in reserve at the end of the ride having not gone into the red zone like on the last TdF outing. Seemed to work a touch, although I remain a bit doubtful.

I wasn't originally planning a ride on Sunday, but was tempted to round up to 100 miles over the weekend after hearing that my mate Gilbs was going out to Richmond Park for a few laps with his friend Ben - hard to resist. But had to be back by 9.10am, so Cress (Mrs G) and Mrs Gilbs could leave in time for their spin class. After starting out from the Roehampton Gate cafe a touch late, we reached the end of two fairly quick laps (HR well over 160bpm!) at 8.40am. Having ummed for a couple of seconds about whether we had time for a final lap, we set off at an uncomfortably fast pace up Sawyers Hill, led by a crazed Gilbs, who had discovered a new 'Contador' gear in his legs. This is the same Gilbs who'd told me that he was so unfit and that me and Ben were going to destroy him on the ride. Anyway I tucked in behind him and clung on for a sub-20 minute lap. Got home bang on 9.10am to spare myself a hiding for being late.

Joined up with Ben and Dave for a very enjoyable Sunday afternoon at the Bridge watching Chelsea humiliate Arsenal 2-0. I've not been to many games this season as I thought it would be asking too much of the family, with the additional cycle training I'm now doing at weekends, so nice to have a good game to see. Wenger had the nerve to suggest Arsenal were the better side - have a look at the table old boy, it suggests otherwise.

On my mid-week turbo session I decided to watch a DVD that had come with this month's Cycling Plus magazine. It was essentially a recce of stage 17 of the 2010 Tour de France and the stage chosen for the Etape. So I thought quite apt, seeing as I am going to be riding it myself in July. It was quite picturesque, but was really just a long advertisement for Science in Sport, a sports nutrition company, that had filmed the ride. It did make me laugh - at the end of the ride it gave a summary of what each person had eaten/drunk over the day, suggesting that is what's needed to complete a ride like that. If I was to buy that amount of their product on the high street, I'd be spending about £20 on every ride just on food/drink! Totally unrealistic...

Weekly totals
Commute - 60 miles
Other rides - 101 miles
Turbo - 1 hour
Swim - 1500m