Is it a sign?

My 30 year old Raleigh Record is permanently strapped into my turbo. Some time ago the front derailleur cable on the bike snapped through age and rust and having had sweat dripped on the cable for many years. I did not bother to do anything about it as I rarely use the big ring whilst turboing.

Last night I was 65 minutes into my turbo in the kitchen when The Wife arrived home from work. No sooner had she entered the kitchen than the rear derailleur cable snapped effectively stopping my turbo session.

I wonder if this is a sign:

• Is The wife a witch and magic'd the cable to break because I was turboing in the kitchen against regulations
• Is the the higher being telling me the bike has had enough and it is time to get a new bike
• Is the higher being telling me it is time to give up cycling
• Is someone reminding me I should clean and maintain the bike regularly including the cables

Off I went at lunchtime to find a bike shop in the city stocking cables for 30 year old bikes. I got the cables at Cycle Surgery behind Middlesex Street. £7 the pair, a bit more than I had expected but City prices I suppose.

This evening I replaced the cables and we are up and running again (ahh, no new bike) and I did another 20 miles on the turbo in the kitchen before The Wife got home from work.

Cote D'Azure - Nice to see you, to see you Nice

A few of us bold Guildford Pelotooners ventured down to Nice over the weekend of November 12th to 14th to catch the last of the sun and tick off a few more Cols. When asking around we were made aware of Claire Scrutton who operates a cycle guiding business from Nice under the name of Cyclecotedazur.com. We were in contact with Claire who agreed to guide us for the long weekend we planned (Friday to Sunday).

The planning went well; we all managed to get flights on BA Miles. We identified (with Claire’s help) a suitable hotel at a good price. All set – not quite. After booking the flights we discovered that BA now counts your bike box as luggage, charging you £37 for each extra bag. Mike and I decided that one extra bag would do between us and it was booked in his name. Also, by the time we got to book the hotel it was fully booked – what was going on? We didn’t realize it was also the weekend of the Nice marathon. Back to the drawing board with the hotel but after much angst we booked an alternative, which in the end proved adequate.

With a week to go my brother Craig discovered he had to be in Belgrade on the Thursday we were meant to travel and Mike discovered he was scheduled to be in Edinburgh. As the flight to Nice was from Heathrow at 20:00 I would have trouble getting from work to home and to the airport on time through the rush hour traffic. Replanning was required.

Mike was booked to get back to Heathrow from Edinburgh in good time but not enough time to get his luggage from home. In the circumstances he brought his bike and the luggage to my house on the Monday night. On the Wednesday morning I drove to my dentist appointment in Teddington then on to Heathrow and left my car in the short stay (great deal from the Heathrow website, Wednesday to Sunday in the short stay for £67 rather than the usual price of £248 and against £48 in the long stay). I then travelled to work on the Heathrow express (only to get to Paddington and the Circle, District and Hammersmith and City lines were down and Oxford Circus was shut for a security alert, so I arrived at work somewhat late that morning).

On the Thursday that we were travelling London was hit by the back end of the recent hurricanes in the Caribbean. There was much wind and rain and flights into and out of Heathrow were delayed. My brother managed to rebook his flights to go directly from Belgrade via Vienna to Nice where he arranged to hire a bike. I got to the airport using the Heathrow Express in good time and unloaded the two bikes and luggage from my car. That only left Mike who was stranded at Edinburgh when he should have already landed at Heathrow. The only good thing was that the flight to Nice was also delayed.

So there I was at Heathrow BA Check-in with two SciCon bike boxes and a roll bag as well as my hand luggage. Mike was somewhere between Edinburgh and London (3 hours late at this point) and the check in for the Nice flight was about to close. BA said once the check in closed if I wasn’t checked in I would lose my flight, and they could not check Mike in without him being there, notwithstanding the fact that he was on a BA flight at the time. I had to make a decision, was I going and what was I going to do about Mike’s bike and the extra bag which was booked and paid for in his name? BA had no sympathy. I would have to check in and pay excess baggage for the bag and second bike. Mike would have to take his chances on a flight the next morning as the flight was closed and full. The only good thing was that BA would book him on the next available flight as it was them that made him miss his flight.

At the BA excess baggage payment desk they had some problem and overcharged me, then refunded me, then decided they could transfer the extra bag from Mike’s booking to mine and in the confusion I am still not sure how much I was charged, however, eventually both bikes and the bag disappeared into the luggage system and I had three baggage receipts for them. I then went through security to departures from where I texted Mike for when he landed and updated his partner at home advising her he would probably be home that night. I also spoke with my brother who was enjoying a lonely dinner in Nice.

With 10 minutes to the delayed boarding time (an hour and a half late) I was in the Nokia shop at Terminal 5 dribbling over the new Nokia N8 and C7 and trying to justify to myself that £350 on a new phone would be acceptable to the Finance Committee back home (unlikely and I knew that really, but what harm can window shopping do?) when my phone rang. Mike had landed, finally and this safely distracted me from he phones. He had already been to the transit desk and they had given him a boarding pass for the flight, the only problem was that he had to go out, check his extra bag in (that was supposed to be left in my car in the car park after repacking), then come back through security, would he have time?

A few minutes later I was wandering the wrong direction towards the gate when I bumped into Mike going the correct way. He shepherded me to the gate and we boarded finally.

The in flight food was a packet of biscuits and a drink. Lots of carbs (not) ready for the ride in the morning which I had texted Claire to defer from the 8:30 am start until 10:00.

After an uneventful flight we arrived at Nice just after midnight. Believe it or not all the luggage also arrived. We went for a bus to Nice town centre and after an anxious wait (were the buses still running at that time?) we caught a bus to town (euro 7.50 total for both of us and our luggage).

The bus dropped us at 1:30 am on the Nice seafront. We dragged the two bike boxes and two luggage bags as well as two rucksacks through the street, the wheels on my bike box making a terrible racket. We arrived at the hotel to find a fire engine with flashing lights outside, the foyer was full of firemen and the hotel had no power! After a few minutes the firemen managed to restore the power and drifted off. There was no English speaking receptionist so we telephoned my brother’s mobile hoping he was in the room and would wake up, guide us to the correct room and let us in. No answer. Ring again, no answer. Then he managed to wake up and telephone us to tell us back to tell us which room we were in. Finally we got to bed at 2:00am.

Friday Morning

We woke tired in the morning (Friday) and whilst my brother disappeared to collect his hire bike, Mike and I go ours out of the SciCon boxes and built the bikes before all going to breakfast. Then it was off to the Nice promenade to meeting Claire. The weather was sunny and bright. After leading us the wrong way initially we found Claire. Off came the leggings and jackets. Shirt sleeves were the order of the day.

We did 85 km in the sun stopping for lunch at a café where Café du Cycliste (www.cafeducycliste.com) are based. They organise weekend rides from the café and are bringing out a clothing range next year. I am not sure whether they came down to talk to us or to chat up Claire (the latter I suspect).

It was a short ride and not that challenging with 800 metres of climb. Even so, that evening we had dinner at a local restaurant recommended by Claire and we were in bed and asleep by 8:00 pm – shattered we were.

Saturday

Saturday was planned as the big day. 2500 metres of climb over 120 km. Again a nice day and we were joined by another guy, Peter, an ex Cat 1 racer who lives in London but has his weekend flat in Nice – the benefit of bankers’ bonuses I think. After cycling out of Nice and on going up the first hill my chain began to jump and at the top we examined it to discover that one of the links had broken. This is the second Shimano Durace chain this year that this has happened to me. The last time the chain caught the derailleur, pulled it into the wheel and wrecked the derailleur and the wheel at great expense. This time I was luckier. Peter had a chain tool with him (he had a saddle bag as big as mine and I am often accused of bringing the kitchen sink) and removed the link and the chain lasted the rest of the weekend.

[Since getting back to blighty I have had my bike into Corridori who discovered I have a bent tooth on my middle front ring which may have contributed to the chain problems.]

We warmed up on the Col de Braus (10.3 km Avg 6.4% 662 metres) stopping in Sospel for lunch outside in the sun at a café / patisserie. We then attempted the Col de Turini. Boy was that tough, with 24 Km uphill at average 5.2% 1244 metres. Other than letting me stop for a gel at the village half way up Claire was surreptitiously easing me up the hill not letting me use my Ramblers association membership. We arrived some 25 minutes after the others and rolled down the other side to the village. When we arrived we were greeted in the Café by the others with their war stories including the fact that Mike and Peter had come off on the descent on gravel and were displaying sore looking tarmac tattoos through their torn Assos shorts. I was also greeted by the remark that my thighs were bulging as if I had been weight lifting, and that is what they felt like.

That night Claire recommended another restaurant but we were tired and could not be bothered to walk that far so we found a restaurant near the hotel. Half way through dinner in walks Claire with Peter and his girlfriend. What a coincidence.

A slightly later night that night, we finally turned the lights out just after ten pm. Party animals we are not.

Sunday

Our flights home was scheduled for Sunday night and we had arranged a late check out from the hotel so we could get a full days riding.

The main concern on Sunday was that it was the conclusion of the F1 season and it was not obvious who would win. How could we ride and get value out of the day, as well as see the race which was scheduled for lunchtime?

Claire was meeting us at our hotel as the sea front promenade was closed because the Nice marathon was taking place. She turned up slightly late accompanied by a guy and a girl. Unfortunately the girl had had a puncture on the way which had caused the delay. She decided that she had had enough already and said her farewells. The guy, Rob, was an Australian living and working for an IT company in Nice. He was a good rider.

We left Nice and cycled along the coast. We missed out the Col D’Eze (not sure why?) and went along to Monaco where we cycled across the F1 grid and up the start straight and hill to the casino. We then went on beyond Monte Carlo to the base of the Madone. We are told that Lance Armstrong did the Madone (which is 13.3 km 920 metres Avg 7%) in close to 33min and his record has only been beaten once in 2007 or 2008 by Dean Martin of the Garmin Team who did 31 minutes. I didn’t think we would be able to touch that but Craig was ready to give it a go.

The base of the Madone is very steep going up to about 17% then leveling then going steep again. As you get higher it flattens out to a steady 8%. Craig, rob and Mike shot off and left me on my own. I knew Claire was behind me (?) but I had my own demons. It is amazing climbing from sea level up 920 metres looking back down (yes, I did look up from the tarmac onece or twice).

Half way up there is a village called St Agnes where you need to take a turning to the summit. I stopped here for five minutes to have a gel and wait for Claire (as I wasn’t sure I had the right turning). After five minutes she hadn’t appeared so I went on alone just hoping I had got it right.

At the summit Rob was waiting for me. The other two had already gone on to La Turbie. Rob had had a text from Claire saying she was unwell and would be going a different route and would meet us on our way down the other side.

Mike and Craig had made the top in 1 hour 9 minutes, however, whilst Craig had stopped at St Agnes for 4 minutes, as Mike arrived at St Agnes, Craig and Rob remounted and pushed on not giving Mike any time to stop. He followed them to the top and arrived more or less at the same time as the other two. My time was nearer 1 hour 19 minutes.

Rob and I rolled down the other side and we met Craig amd Mike in La Turbie. We found a pizzeria with a television and we were just in time to watch the start of the F1 Grand Prix. Believe it or not the pizzeria had run out of pizza dough – disaster. Fortunately they had an extensive menu and we ordered lunch.

We left the restaurant before the race had finished and proceeded down the mountain. We met Claire a bit further down and cycled back to Nice.

After saying our farewells to Claire and Rob we got back to our hotel room just in time to watch the last few laps of the race. Well done Sebastian Vettel. We then packed our bikes, showered and checked out.

It was then a case of dragging our luggage the 500 metres to the train station (my wheels making the terrible racket again) to catch the bus to the airport. This time we took a local bus rather than the express and it cost us Euro 1 each. Bargain.

We arrived at the airport really early. We planned this as we knew the flight would be full of marathoners and we didn’t want to be bounced off. We checked in, had the mandatory Quality Q burger and brownie and caught our flight.

We arrived at Heathrow on time, the luggage all arrived (never ceases to amaze because when you really need it the luggage is always delayed / lost) and we found the car without a problem. I was home in bed at 11:00 pm after dropping Mike and his bike at home.

Good weekend to be thoroughly recommended. I can see us going back next year to tick off a few more Cols. Thanks Claire


End.

Squash - a prodigy?

My ten year old son has been nagging me to take him to play squash for some weeks but I didn't have a second racket. A couple of weekends ago I managed to buy a titanium squash racket at a car boot sale (for £2.00, hardly used).

On Friday night last I took him to Cheam Baths to play squash for the first time. To start with he was trying to play tennis (using his shoulder rather than using his wrist) and couldn't hit the ball. By the end of an hour he was not only rallying but trying to bounce the ball around the corners with some success. He keeps telling everyone he nearly beat me, it is embarrassing because in a couple of weeks he may well be in that position.

At the end of one and a half hours playing we left but he is keen to play again.

As a result I took him down to the New Malden Tennis and Squash club on Saturday morning. They have county and national juniors there and do coaching for the youngsters on Saturday and Sunday mornings. If I coach him he will be as bad as me. If he has got any talent then at least there they will draw it out of him and he will learn to play properly.

He is desperate to play Big G and my other mates because he is sure he can beat them. All I can say is if he does decide to accept coaching they had better watch out.

Speedplay Vs Look Keo

The winter months and the various falls I have had from my bicycle over the years has obviously had a negative effect on my three year old Look Carbon Ti pedals.

On Saturday Big G and I were heading to Box Hill for afternoon tea, as you do on a Saturday afternoon. As we passed through Leatherhead my Look Carbon Ti pedals decided this was the time to give up the ghost and promptly the carbon of the left pedal disintegrated (at least it happened then rather than two weeks previously on the Tourmalet).

Subsequent examination shows the pedals were probably damaged hitting the ground and that damage got worse with use (they had been clicking for a few weeks and I assumed it was the bearings).

As fortune would have it "Cycle Works" in Leatherhead High Street re-opened Saturday after their ram raiding incident and subsequent fire and was only a short walk from where my pedals gave up the ghost. We made our way there. It is an impressive shop of two shop units newly refurbished and with the very latest shiny gear in stock. Well worth a visit if you are passing.

I had been thinking about Speedplay pedals for some time and there they were on display next to the Look pedals in the shop. I had used them in Australia a couple of years ago. They have the advantage of having less height that the Look pedals, you can buy "Coffee Shop Covers" for them (Look have discontinued the covers after someone took out litigation against them after slipping whilst wearing the covers), and they have a metal plate that means it is difficult to wear them out. The mechanism is in the cleat rather than in the pedal which is unusual. They have not been that popular in the UK having limited distribution outlets but that is changing.

Cycle Works had none of the cheaper Look pedals, only the more expensive ones, but they did have Speedplay Zeros in stock. The owner had good things to say about them and said he used them himself (what else would he say when I showed an interest in the Speedplays, what a salesman, silver tongued and I fell for it). I decided now was the time to change so I bought the Speedplays which he promptly fitted to the bike and my shoes explaining as he did it what he was doing and how the adjustments work, even making sure the centre of force was in the same place as on my Look pedals.

No charge for the fitting even thought it took him fifteen minutes whilst his wife and 3 month old baby waited to go to coffee. Very nice man.

We then proceeded, me £110 poorer, up Box Hill for coffee and cake (G had the bread pudding whilst I had the Victoria Sponge).

Difficult to explain the expenditure to The Wife when I got home but even she could appreciate the situation (but not the cost or the timing) when I showed her the broken pedal.

Chapeau

Etape Number 3 Completed

Last Sunday (July 18th) I finished the 2010 Etape. My third attempt and my third finish.

The course was 112.5 miles over three mountains. It took me 11 hours 13 minutes. The course was that done by the professionals last Thursday where Schleck just beat Contador by half a bike length and they both were way ahead of the peloton.

This is a link to the pictures of me suffering.

www.cstewart.net/Duncan2010etape.html

I had the pleasure of crossing the line with the elimination van driving directly behind me (I was one minute inside the elimination time), I also had the pleasure at the 95 mile mark in the race of a 30 minute sleep in one of the tunnels in a gorge, then going on and stopping at a cafe for a milkshake at the bottom of the Tourmalet (the last mountain 10 miles from the finish) whilst I watched other competitors ride by and another ten minutes kip on the side of the Tourmalet before finishing the race one minute before the elimination time.

There were three mountains this year and as usual I walked on all three climbs and my cleats (on the bottom of the cycling shoes) were so worn that they didn't fit into my pedals once I got to the top of the last mountain. That is the third year the Etape has cost me a set of cleats.

I have worked out that it took me one hour 45 minutes to go the 19 kilometres from Argeles Gazost (the 90 mile mark, I was there at 2:10 pm) to the Cafe at the base of the Tourmalet (at the 100 mile mark, I left there just before 4:00 PM). This did include a 30 minute sleep by the side of the road in a road tunnel and a milkshake and rest in the cafe. Almost as long as it took me to get from there to the top of the Tourmalet (16 KM uphill at average 8% gradient).

And this year (unlike last year) they did publish pictures of me walking (note in one of the pictures I am walking in my socks up the Tourmalet carrying my shoes acquiring blisters on the bottom of my feet and still my cleats were ruined!).

It was a long drive back from the Pyrenees (900 miles) last Monday with long traffic jams at Poitiers and in Paris. We missed our 19:50 ferry and just managed to catch the 21:30 ferry after paying a 13 euro supplement. We left at 7:00 AM and got home at midnight. I was in work on the Tuesday as normal but it all caught up with me over this weekend and I was in bed early and up late.

Still tired now

July 8th JP Morgan Corporate Challenge

Not that I am competitive but in the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge last night I came:

• 2000th out of 11494 finishers,
• 22nd out of 63 Grant Thornton runners
• 4:26 minutes / seconds behind the fastest GT runner
• 8:41 minutes / seconds behind the fastest overall runner

This on the back of not having taken a step in my running shoes since last October. I think the last time I did the event was some 10 years ago and in those days I could do sub 20 mins.

My brain was telling my body it still expected a sub 20mins performance but my body rebelled and I got around in 25:12 (5.6kilometres). I have stiff legs today (and a bit of a sore head; not sure if that was the running, the heat (it was in the high 20's), or the trip tothe pub afterwards)

Still respectable for a 50 year old bloke who is not running regularly Ithink.

Now for the Etape!!!

June 22nd 2010 Who gravelled the road in Richmond Park?

Saturday I did 48 miles in the Surrey Hills with Big G. He hasn't been training much recently and has dropped out of the Etape even though he has the best number of any of the Guildford Peloton this year. We stopped at the tea shop at box hill to catch up on life, the universe and everything.

I cycled to St Albans on Sunday. I don't know why but the 33 miles was like cycling in treacle. I used my granny cog on numerous occasions and there was only 300 metres of climbing. It took me 2 hours 20 minutes even though I was on the A41 dual carriageway (it was like riding on the M1) some of the way

I don't know if it was the 20 miles turbo spinning Thursday followed by three reps of 5 X 1.5 minutes flat out in a heavy gear total 20 miles turbo Friday, followed by 47 miles and 1100 metres climbing Saturday afternoon in the Surrey Hills (surely all that would not make my legs tired?); or just that there was a raging headwind from the North against me the whole way.

Monday I had a well deserved rest day.

Tuesday I was back in the garage on the threshing machine doing reps again which meant this evening when I managed to get home early enough from work to get to Richmond Park my legs were tired and the four laps were done at a steady pace.

Who has gravelled the road in Richmond Park? It is appalling. Loose gravel all over the road meaning that the surface isn't good to ride, you need to be careful not to slip, and the dust as cars go by is like riding in a dust storm. I hope this is only temporary. I bet a few cars are getting damaged with the stones being thrown up.

With all these short rides I am going to be really good for the first 25 miles of the Etape, the the rest will be a horrible mess.

Weekend June 13th 2010 Turbo, Scouts Fair and Surrey Hills

My brother is out in Pau training over the Etape course with Pyrenean Mountainsports. He has trained with them before and really likes their friendly atmosphere. They are planning to ride the whole course in one day.

My mate M has just had a new baby (well, his wife has) and so he has been a bit tied up recently, others of the Guildford Peloton are on various training camps, races / sportives or looking after their own new offspring (I thought cycling was supposed to reduce male fertility, however, four of the Guildford Peloton have had new babies recently, obviously whilst the cyclist has been out training the milkman has been busy).

This weekend was going to be difficult for me to train as I had the 1st Old Malden Scouts Summer Fair on Saturday. With this in mind I settled myself in the garage Fiday night for a two hour turbo.

Having decided at last that I ought to start my training for the 2010 Etape I have recently been spending quality time in the garage with my 1990 threshing machine (turbo trainer). During those dark hours alone (when even the mice are leaving the area from the noise) the mind goes to strange places (seeing as I don't have a DVD player and numerous series of Jail Break like some Guildford Peloton members to keep me amused).

By the time I had finished my session at 10:00 pm The Wife was off to bed leaving me alone to get my dinner and cool down before getting some sleep.

Saturday morning I was on the village green from 7:15 am and got home at 6:15 pm shattered after loading and unloading vans, setting up running and taking down stalls and then loading and unloading vans again. The weather was good and the fair was well attended. Initial indications are that we did ok.

Sunday morning I was still shattered, a bit of a zombie. I did jobs around the house until lunchtime. Then my wife and son were off to the farm with his cousins and I was released to go cycling. After a slow start I managed 58 miles and 1100 metres of climbing in the Surrey Hills.

My wife got me a new Garmin 705 for my birthday last week. Very nice it is too and I have heard so much about what they can do. This was the first time I have used it. It is not quite as user friendly as the Polar CS600 I usually use. I think I shall be asking some mates for help as I can't work out how to get the data off so it can be viewed.

Weekend June 6th 2010

I rode to Bognor from Home on Saturday and stayed in Bognor with the family Saturday night. The trip down wasn't too bad and I covered the 58 miles in just under 4 hours without the shattered feeling I had the previous week.

I rode back from Bognor Sunday.

As I wasn't leaving until 4:15 pm Sunday afternoon and it takes 4 hours I didn't have time to ride all the way home. I knew my wife and son were leaving at 5:00 pm so I said to her that I would go ahead and when she caught me I would get into the car the rest of the way home.

There was a great tailwind which really helped me to spin the pedals and she didn't catch me for 28.8 miles (a couple of miles short of Ockley). I had averaged over 18 mph for that 28.8 miles (including climbing up the hill at Arundel).

It was nice knowing that she was behind me and really gave me confidence to push on to try to get as far as possible and knowing that I woud only be doing 20 to 30 miles. As I got nearer to Ockley I was getting worried that I would get to Ockley before she caught me then I would have to go up to Coldhabour and at that point I might as well ride all the way home.

When she caught me she said "How did you get so far, I have been looking out for you for the last 15 miles and I thought I had missed you".

May 31st Bank Holiday Weekend

The Etape training isn't getting priority

Saturday I was busy with football trials at WSLL in the morning (we have 200 boys aged 10 and 11 who we have to fit into teams) and the 1st Old Malden 60th aniversary Scout camp in the afternoon and evening, along with a child who was very contrary. He is feeling the pressure of upcoming exams.

Sunday morning I cycled to Bognor (I am definitely not as fit as I have been in previous years and it took more out of me than it should have). I arrived just after lunch in time to collapse in front of the TV for the start of the Grand Prix. In the evening we went out to dinner at local pub where I had a big mixed grill with steak, gammon, fried egg etc (part of my specially controlled diet).

Bank Holiday Monday we went walking on the South Downs in the morning then we drove home to Worcester Park drop my wife off. I then drove up to MK to drop my son off at my parents (he is doing a football course at the MK Dons this week), had dinner there then stopped at my brothers in St Albans on the way home getting home at 11:00 pm.

Etape Caledonia May 16th 2010

Etape Caledonia - Really good. I had been looking forward to itand after the disappointment of a mechanical in the Hampshire Hilly Hundred last week I really wanted it to be good.

We (myself, my brother, and four other Guildford Pelotoners) stayed in an activity cente in Aberfeldy which was about 15 miles from Pitlochry at the end of the Etape route.

We flew up Saturday morning toEdinburgh, hiring a car then driving up arriving at Aberfeldy at lunchtime. We checked in then assembled the bikes and rode the 15 miles to Pitlochry to register. We had lunch there then cycled the 15 miles back to Aberfeldy for cream teas.

In the evening we had dinner at the accomodation (Lasagne or Pasta Carbonara), went for a walk and turned in at 9:00 pm. The accomodation was one small room with three sets of bunk beds and a small en-suite. There were six of us in the room. Despite that, we all had a good nights sleep. Amazing

The following morning we were all up at 5:00 am, breakfasted and headed off in the cars with the bikes to the start line. The weather was supposed to be bad with heavy showers at lunchtime but it was cold but bright at that time.

The start was chaos but we got away at 7:30 am. The weather just got better as we went on. The sun came out and it warmed up (not a lot but a bit). It was a very scenic route with good roads (roads were closed to traffic during the race). The race was advertised as 81 miles with 2000 metres of climbing. It was wrong, there was only 1000 metres of climbing. My brother and three of my mates all managed between 4:01 hours and 4:05. I came in at 4:31 which isn't too bad considering my fitness. Another Pelotoner was nursing his brother, brother in law and mate around (not cyclists) and finished in 5:23 (he was capable of a faster time than me).

It was a really nice ride. Anyone could have finished it in those conditions.

Lunchtime we were back at the accomodation early afternoon packing away the bikes and listening to the Grand Prix when we heard on the news about the problems with the flights. We managed to talk to the car hire companies and change the drop off from Edinburgh Airport to Luton Airport (at extortionarte cost) and proceeded to drive back south past Hadrians Wall and to civilisation.

We got to Luton just after 10:00 pm and I got home to Surreyat 11:30 pm.

Good weekend. I will probably tempt fate and do it again next year