Blogs

No-one who follows cycling will forget where they were when they heard of Wouter Weylandt’s death after that crash on the descent of the Passo del Becco, some 17 kilometres from the finish of Stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia.

In my case, the worst fears were confirmed when I phoned the office as I sat on a plane about to taxi away from the departure gate at Milan’s Malpensa airport, on my way home after spending a few days at the race.

Martin Blain at the CTC forum writes:

I'm being offered a tatty Brompton for £250. Is it worth it?

It's been donated to a bike fixing charity and has been checked over by volunteer mechanics, new cables, brake blocks, chain, lubricated front hub and it's now in good mechanical condition however the paint work is fairly tatty...

Lies.

As humans, we get ill from time to time.  It's not uncommon to play up a cold to justify the corresponding sick day from work.  Cyclists are a bit different.  We'll play it down so that we can get out on our bikes quicker, say we feel better when we know that we're not ready to go out and hammer the pedals.  We'll kid ourselves and others about our condition... Christ, this sounds like I'm talking about an addiction.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Well, that was pretty epic. I rode further than ever have I done before, and learnt new and deeper meanings of the term 'bonk'. Many hills were climbed, and one farmer's gate decorated.

I'll do a full write up soon but in the meantime here's a video I made of the day to give you a taste of the fun. Enjoy!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/308631008

"Can you honk the horn please?" asks the man with the clipboard after enquiring of me how to check tyre pressure. Yes Sir. Show and tell over, he settles in to ride shotgun. "Go left." Mirror Signal Manoeuvre, Sir Yes Sir. Roads may have not been built for cars, but Tunbridge Wells is full of them today. Even if it wasn't, I must be observed to be observing. Schrödinger would approve.

SOAP at Singletrack writes:

Are there so many different types of Rockshox Revelation forks?
 You almost need a degree on them.

So May has arrived and that can only mean one thing, the Giro is just a couple of days away. Since the last blog it has been a busy period of racing, with classics specialists looking for glory in the Flemish and Ardennes races, whilst many others have used the stage races of Spain and just last week Switzerland to fine tune their form going into the Giro. My current World Tour and Fantasy point’s totals can be seen below.

World Tour Points: 806 (719 from top 5 riders)

As the saying goes 'time flies when you're having fun' and the last two months have been nothing if not enjoyable with some great racing spread across Europe (and beyond) but it all pales in comparison to the race looming large on the horizon.

This is a great light. It has clean lines. It's plenty bright. I recommend it highly.

Bike hitched to turbo. This is cycling in its purest form. Just pedalling. It makes no sense to freewheel here. No sense at all.

I start the clock. A half hour of this. Enough time to sweat up a storm; enough to get my fix.

There is no computer. That would be a distraction. Numbers without meaning. The only competition here is me against my heartbeat, seeing which can go faster.