A letter to Will

A chap called 'Will' is looking to follow a selection of LEL riders over the course of the event which will include interviews before, after and during the ride itself. Some riders he will follow closely over the five days whereas others he will just catch up with as and when is convenient. His aim is to capture the epic experience of participating in this unique event, so will be there to document the highs, the lows and everything in between. He'll no doubt have the opportunity to film all the beautiful panoramas and vistas he needs, but it's the personal and psychological journey he hopes to capture from participants participation. 

I let Will know that I was interested in his official LEL documentary. At his request, I sent him a letter (email) with a few paragraphs about myself and my riding experience. Hopefully, he'll be arranging a day to meet with interested participants (like myself) before the event, and will be in touch once a date is set. For those unable to make it to London to meet with him, he'll try and arrange a meeting over skype. My letter is presented below:

Hi Will,

My name is Tim and I’m a 30 plus year old cyclist who isn’t a big fan of hills or head winds but is keen to take on many a cycling challenge. I have completed numerous challenges in my time including LEJOG and PBP. This year I am hoping to complete LEL.

I first cycled an audax in 2010 and became hooked. Without really realising what a huge challenge PBP was going to be, I decided that was my goal. Training was fun but hard. My qualifying events were great – I completed the necessary SR series (a series of rides consisting of a 200, 300, 400 and 600k rides). My SR was tough as I also ensured all these individual rides had AAA (Audax Altitude Award) points, essentially ‘hilly’ points to go with them. Further to that, I made sure all these rides were Black Sheep events too – just because the organiser (Mark Rigby) was a nice chap and his routes were awesome.

And then came PBP. My girlfriend, now wife (Sarah Jane), best buddy (Chris Hodge) and his son (Ben) all came to France with me. Sarah Jane was there to support me throughout PBP and Chris and Ben were there to see me off. 77 hours and 14 mins after starting the PBP and I had finished it! What an awesome event this was but how hard it was too.  I vowed I (probably) wouldn’t complete such a strenuous event again but ‘talked the talk’ about completing LEL in 2013.

After PBP, I took on challenges of a different sort. Firstly, I became a married man and not long after became a father (to my beautiful daughter Lunar). Ideas of LEL were quickly dismissed. Then, my best buddy Chris informed me that he had joined audax UK with a view of cycling the LEL with me. Chris so wanted to ride a (ultra) long distance event, especially as he waved me off for the start of PBP but did not participate in the event. My wife granted me permission to enter and as chance would have it, Chris and I both got a place!

Cheers,

Tim T (aka Doo)

Stroud 5 Valleys 50 (permanent audax, March 2013) and other short stories

What an awesome week on the cycling front. Managed to complete 3 rides before the weekend. The first route was a trip around 'The Deer Route' with Ron. Since being equipped with my Garmin 800 it has made it possible for me to add maps to this blog, so a map of said route is presented below. This was a 'clean' version of the route as we did not stray off road at all. During our ride we saw a deer (how appropriate), a badger and possibly a bat. Sweet.

My second trip was a route I named the 'CS Stolen Route 1'. This route was so named because I stole it from a Strava user whose initials were CS, and 1 because it was the 1st route I stole. (My plan is to steal several routes from Strava users that are close to my area as I have few of my own and don't mind being un-original). This was a short route, just under 30k and had an elevation of 450 metres. Gordon (my virtual partner) became a 'dopple' (in fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger is a paranormal double of a living person) of CS and raced against me. Luckily, Gordon cycled at the same speed CS did when they rode the route - on a mountain bike. As I cycled using 'Florence', my single speed road bike, I was able to leave Gordon left for dead!

My third cycle was the 'Stroud 5 Valleys' 50k audax. This was a permanent audax event, that I had cycled 4 times already this season. This event was a relatively short affair (53k) but had plenty of hills - an elevation of 1,183 metres (and scored 1 AAA point). The map presented towards the end of this blog clearly shows the hills encountered. On one occasion that I cycled this event I was stopped by cows in the roadside. No cows stopped me this time around, however, wild horses blocked one summit (hence the long face).

The horses were peering over the wall, gazing at other horses. How sweet?! The weather was fine too and way better than last time I cycled (where it was snowing) and I think this is why I had my quickest completion time of 3 hours and 21 minutes.

Cycled 126k thus far this week. Hope to further this total and cycle 'The Dean', a 300k event over the weekend. The weather folk are forecasting snow, so I'll guess I'll just have to let you know if I go or no....

Garmin, Gordon and I

At last I got my Garmin 800 GPS thing. Have played around with it and customised it a little and it has already changed my cycling experience. The Garmin even comes complete with a 'virtual partner' stored within it. My virtual partner is called 'Gordon' (the moron) and I raced against him on my first use of said machine. What better course to follow than my TTT 20 Route?!

Sadly, Gordon beat me on my first test run, reaching home about 45 seconds ahead of me. Grr! Am not sure how to download routes (particularly audax routes) yet but am hoping with a few days of playing it all will become familiar. By adding this sneaky route into my training schedule, I have brought my yearly total distance up to 1,052 miles thus far.

The Poor Student 200k permanent audax (March 2013)

This week saw me complete 'The Poor Student' 200k permanent audax. I had cycled this event at least once before (as a permanent) and possibly as a calendar event too. Despite cycling this event before, it was not how I remembered.

My memory told me that this ride had a nasty section of hills around the middle of the route.  For this reason (plus added convenience of beaing nearer home) I chose to start and finish this audax from the Chipping Camden control – ie cycle section 3 first. At silly o’clock in the morning I set sail from Chipping Camden wanting to take full advantage of daylight. It was a cold and bitter start, about -5C. I expected hills, but none appeared save a little climb after passing through Draycott Village. None of this stage looked familiar until I reached the control at Peartree Services in Oxford. Experienced a few navigation issues before I reached the control because I didn’t study my route sheet beforehand. Where it stated ‘2x mini-rbt, sp Oxford’, I took it to mean ‘cycle over 2 mini roundabouts sign-posted Oxford’ rather than ‘take second exit sign-posted Oxford’. There does not appear to be a universally accepted way to write a route sheet and all organisers use a slightly different language. Am hoping my ordered Garmin 800 will help with said issues. When the control came into sight I had to battle with busy traffic at the Peartree roundabout (despite following cycletrack) to actually reach the control. When I finally reached the control it was about 9 a.m. Sadly there was no Mc Donalds or Burger King for breakfast purposes - instead I settled for a KFC. Chicken and chips didn’t seem quite right at this early hour but fuel and proof of passage (POP) was required. The KFC was washed down with a ‘medium’ cup of tea from Starbucks, this ‘medium’ tea was pint sized!

Leaving the control at Oxford was nice – the sun was shining bright now and this part of the route looked familiar. The route took me right through Oxford Town Centre (I think) and passed through Queen Street – a pedestrian only area. Again, I didn’t study the route sheet beforehand and cycled right through Queen Street until this bloke (dressed like a mayor) shouted ‘don’t be an idiot, get off your bike, this is a pedestrian only area’. Last time I cycled through here I had no such problem – I later found out (was written on bottom of route sheet) that this area is only a pedestrian area from 10 a.m. Following the Queen Street menace I cycled up Cumnor Hill which wasn’t such a hill really. After the hill, I headed for Appleton and the route didn’t look familiar at all until I reached the control in Malmesbury. For whatever reason I didn’t find my bike behaving as well as she usually does (and especially during this section) – I had a creak coming from ‘goodness knows where’, my saddle dropped and the tyres were rubbing against the mud-guards. On a brighter note, my front mech was working fine! Navigating became an issue again too – I got my left and right mixed up at least once, made similar roundabout errors like earlier and could not find a sign post pointing to Garsden. I ended up going off course about 10k and passed through a place called Brinkworth. For once I didn’t mind going off route, as Brinkworth was ‘The Longest Village in England’ and made a good photo stop. 

Whilst taking said photo an apache helicopter flew overhead too. Awesome! Found my way to Malmesbury and stopped at the Summer Café for POP purposes. I had tomato soup at this control but it was nasty! The soup wasn’t really soup at all, it was (I believe) pulverised chopped tomatoes. Malmesbury itself was pretty and deserving of a photograph.

Again, the final section didn’t look familiar. I cycled along long country lanes that seemed to stretch for miles. Many horses, cows, sheep and birds could be seen along the way. At one point I saw a Mad March Hare running along a deserted field with its big ears standing upright in the air. Once I reached signs for C. Abdale and Salperton the route became tough. It was here that big hills had to be climbed (no AAA points though) and fast descents navigated. In my perceived wisdom, I saved the hardest section till last. Ouch, these hills hurt. I dread to think what the hills in ‘The Dean’ are going to be like in a few days time. I think the pain made me lose concentration as I didn’t pass through Salperton Park because I didn’t find it! I really needed that Garmin! Not sure where I went off route but I was soon back on track. The final few kilometres were great – all the menace ascents had been and gone and a fast descent took me back down to Chipping Camden, the arrivee! This was a great ride despite me feeling more tired than usual. I cycled a total of 214k (12k off route) in 11 hours and 1 minute. Yay, a successfully completed 200k at last!

Completed my desired kilometres for the week (200k). My yearly total now stands at 1,032 miles (just 68 miles under target). Next week I hope to cycle 'The Dean', which should bring my yearly mileage above target!

Frogger / DNS X 3

After too long a break from cycling I started to get withdrawal symptoms! I figured the best thing to do was to plan another adventure and get back on my bike. The adventure was easy - ride Alan Raynor's 'Solent - Hungerford' 200k permanent audax with a few good friends. That was my big event for the week and was saved for the weekend.

Still felt the need to get back on a bike sooner than the weekend, so mid-week took my single speed machine 'Florence' out for a spin along my TTT 20 route. Had been a while since I last cycled this route and it felt quite hard on my legs but enjoyable all the same. I thought it was important to stretch my legs a little before the impending big event.

Even managed to squeeze in a week day ride with Ron. Early Friday morning we took our bikes for a spin around Ron's classic '1 Hour Loop' route. This was a wet day and lots of poor frogs could be seen croaked out on the roadside. A bad day for frogs but a great day for cycling.

Saturday came and all my plans went wonky. First off, my buddy Chris decided he didn't want to cycle the planned permanent with Aid and I because he had bike issues of his own stressing him out. I reckon Chris was hydrophobic myself. Aid's view was that Chris had been troubled by the 'Southern Fairies' - these fairies cause many a Southerner to lose their mojo. Aid and I were all ready to tackle the permanent and then horrors - my daughter became unwell and had to be taken home. I guess I blame the Southern Fairies for that! Sadly this was the third event this season that I did not start (DNS). Some say 'bad luck' comes in three's, let's hope this was the last DNS this season!

Short on miles, I decided to use Sunday as a training day. Just to remind all - I am training for the London-Edingburgh-London (LEL) event - a long distance event of 1,400k. I am following a basic training plan where I cycle between 0 and 600k a week up until the LEL event itself. On top of that, I like to cycle at least a 100 miles per week so that hopefully by the end of the year I would have reached my desired target of 5,200 miles. So, Sunday was a case of out the bed and on the bike! I started to cycle my TTT 20 route but turned off just before 'John's Hill' and went via Bearley to Reach Alcester (just to add a few miles). From Alcester I continued on the TTT 20 route but took a left after Gas Hill and cycled past Ragley Hall (front and back) and finally home via Sambourne. This was a good trek of about 30 miles despite the weather being crazy - it was snowing, and in March too!

Still not happy with my weekly mileage, I cycled again in the afternoon after attending 'fellowship'. This time I started to cycle my figure of 8 loop around Ragley Hall but once in Alcester I headed to Bidford following part of Steve Poultons 'The Vale (Cheltenham)' permanent. I stopped at the church in Bidford (a control in said permanent) and took a photo. The church was called 'The Parish Church of St Laurence'.

I figured no trip to Bidford would really be complete without taking a picture of the river (below). I returned home via Wixford and Sambourne and completed a further 34 miles in all. This basically meant that I had completed my desired LEL training for the week (150k) and had cycled over a 100 miles in the week. All my cycling was this week was ridden on 'Florence', my trusty single speed machine. My total distance this year now stands at exactly 900 miles (just 100 miles under my target).

Disappointed I DNS the 'Solant - Hungerford' 200k permanent but have plans of cycling this event on 28 March 2013 now and hopefully 'The Vale (Cheltenham)' 100k permanent shortly after (?1 or 2 April 2013). Next week I would like to complete the 'Poor Student' 200k permanent. Watch this space! 

The Squits

This week saw me cycle zero miles. Gutted! I had planned to cycle Mr Pickwick's March Madness 200k audax but a tummy bug put pay to that - that was the second Black Sheep event I did not start in a row. Grr!

Below is a list of rides I hope to complete in the near future and are posted here in an attempt to cheer me up.

• 9 March - Solant-Hungerford 200k PERM (plan to cycle this reverse way around with Aid and Chris)
• 23 March - The Dean 300k (4 AAA) (a hilly affair with Chris - his first 300!)
• 6 April - Sam Weller's April Foolery 200k (1.75 AAA) or A Rough Diamond 300k PERM (if Ron is free, as he had to abandon plans of cycling The Dean)
• 20 April - Heart of England 300k (with Chris, Jamie M is booked onto this one too)
• 25 May - Llanfairpwllgwyngyll gogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch 400k (just because I want to pass this place name)
• 29 June - To Holl and Back 600k

My cycling this year has formed a ridiculous pattern whereby I cycle for 2 weeks then have a weeks break. This has been the pattern for the past 9 weeks. This is a circle I hope to break. My yearly distance remains at 798 miles (112 miles under my desired goal).

The Black Cat Lunar Lark Cycle (200k DIY Permanent Audax)

This weeks big event was 'The Black Cat Lunar Lark Cycle', an audax that I had created myself. To be fair, I could have been punished for plagiarism as I stole a whole bunch of controls from the 'Lechlade-on-Thames 200' perm created by Steve Gloster. My route differed in that it started and finished in Studley and added a control in Henley-in-Arden too.

Before I cycled 'The Black Cat Lunar Lark Cycle', I participated in a couple of shorter trips. The first trip was with Ron where we cycled the well known Reed route (the Deer route in reverse). This was a cold night and ice could be seen just starting to form. At one juncture we noticed a white line chalked across the road which looked like a start line and parallel to this was a red and silver chequered post - I wonder if this was illegal car racing or something?!

The second trip was with Aid. I cycled from my abode across country lanes trying to find a lanesy route to Henley. I managed to get 2 miles away from Henley before hitting a main road. The directions to the Henley control on my DIY audax were not yet confirmed. From this main road I cycled to a point on the TROAD route and made my way to Bromsgrove climbing some menace hills (such as Cobley Hill) on the way. Once in Bromsgrove I collected Aid and we cycled to Stratford. We followed parts of the Lechlade-on-Thames perm, as I was trying to memorise the route, but we took an alternate route to Stratford in the end. A stop at Mc Donalds ensued before we decided to return home. A great amount of time was spent trying to find a lanesy way to the Greenway in preparation for my DIY audax but this didn't really materialise. After much randomness we decided to pass Bidford on our return home. The road down to Bidford was great and allowed a smooth quick passage. Again the route home from Bidford (via Wixford and Arrow) was quick and smooth too. A good days ride, despite being very cold and the fact that my front mech went wonky! My front mech ceased to shift properly and even by adjusting the 'adjuster thing' the chain still didn't shift. I figured I would be able to get by without my larger chain ring and I did just that and cycled over a 100k on this adventure.

My bike had been playing up over recent days and Chris said my front mech was bent - he kinda bashed it back into shape and I just hoped it would perform okay for my big event. Aside from the mech issue all else was okay with bike and I even fitted my Lezyne light to the front bars alongside my Ay-Ups.

On Saturday at a little after 9 o'clock, I set off on my DIY audax 'The Black Cat Lunar Lark cycle'. My friends Chris and Ron had joined me on this adventure. Three mouseketeers always ready for adventure! The event started from my abode 'Doo Little', where we all gave Lunar (my daughter) a kiss, hug or stroke before we headed out the door. Outside was very cold (?freezing) but I had taken precautions and was suitably layered up. My head was covered in my lost-but-recently-found Baa Baa hat and buff. My chest was covered with a base layer, short sleeve jersey, long sleeve jersey, shell and my PBP gilet - toasty warm.  Leggings and bib-shorts covered my legs. Feet were kept warm by wearing toe covers on my shoes and 3 pairs of socks - 1 silk, 1 wool and 1 waterproof Sealskinz. My layering might sound excessive but it was in actual fact just enough. We all stopped at the HSBC for first  proof of passage (POP) purposes and then cycled to Henley-in-Arden by following the start of the Deer Route and leaving it for the main road. This was a short, relatively fast section.

A local store provided POP for the Henley control (I purchased chewing gum), though I noticed I had forgotten to take my advice slip from the Studley control. Chris and Ron were using GPS tracking for their POP, so luckily I was able to take (beg) Ron's advice slip for POP from start. Phew! As chance would have it, the road to Stratford (from Henley) was closed to motorised traffic - this allowed us to speed along another main road with little traffic fear. In short time we reached Stratford. A local Shell garage was used for POP purposes.

The next leg took us to our first 'sit down and eat' control in Chipping Camden. We cycled the same roads that Aid and I cycled when we covered the Lechalde perm, (despite Aid and I researching alternatives in the week). Chris and Ron appeared a little concerned that I was in charge of navigating and Chris had even made a back-up GPS track showing shortest distance between all controls. I found their lack of faith quite disturbing. I think Ron became more mis-trusting of myself as the route went by - I told him there were no hills and during this section we climbed a few ascents. I didn't really remember any menace hills when Aid and I cycled here - which backs up a philosophy of mine - that, we as humans tend to remember pleasurable events over painful ones. Pleasure or pain, we reached the control all the same. We stopped at The Bantam Tea rooms (I think) and had the usual audax diet - beans and egg on toast washed down with much tea.

It felt real cold as we left control and it was snowing at times. In fact, it snowed for the majority of the route - sometimes heavy and sometimes wet. It wasn't far into this section until I punctured. Grrr! Why did it have to be me who punctured? I only punctured a week ago! Chris blamed the puncture on what he calls 'gay' tyres - Michelin Pro Race 3's. I replaced tube and replaced the tyre with my Continental Gatorskin (the tyre that I had only taken off last week). Chris and Ron were getting the chills and rather inpatient whilst I fixed my issues. With all fixed we sped along a relatively long section to our mid-way point - The Black Cat! The roads to the control were mostly traffic free, lanesy and offered great views of the country side. A number of properties within the Cotswolds were very pretty indeed and Bourton-on-the-Water was as stunning as ever. Lechlade disappointed me a little as it was not as pretty as I hoped, but at least it was as pretty as I remembered!

The Black Cat Cafe was a great place to stop and get further food. The witch was on vacation it appeared as we we served by polite, friendly staff. My choice of food was a jacket potato with tuna and salad. Delicious! Over our meal we discussed our cold feet. Ron's feet were doing fine. Chris and I weren't fairing so well. My feet were cold but not painfully so. Chris had these hand warmer packets and decided to try them on his feet. Open to research and development myself, I was keen to try these hand feet warmers too. The warmers looked like tea bags and had to be shaken to activate them and then (allegedly) they would stay warm for about 10 hours. Chris stated they had to be placed on top of the toes inside a shoe. These warmers obviously added a little bulk and I found my shoes too tight a fit. I decided to remove my Sealskinz pair of socks and lodge the warmer between my other pairs - this worked well, my toes could feel warmth straight away and I could wriggle my pinkies inside my shoe! Suitably warmed and fed, we left the Black Cat Cafe and headed for Tewkesbury.

Brrr! It was very cold leaving Lechlade. The snow was beating a little harder and I resulted to making strange noises with my mouth (kinda like farting noises) which surprisingly did warm up my cheeks - much to Chris's amusement. My feet however were toasty warm. A few miles into this section soon suitably warmed me up. Nice quiet country lanes took us through pretty Bibury (I felt Lechlade should look more like this) and Withington. Local signs for a long stretch pointed toward a Roman Villa but sadly this villa was not able to be viewed from the roadside. Once past the villa we hit main roads that took us speedily down towards the Bishop's Cleeve (always makes me chuckle) vicinity. By this time it had gotten dark but my Lezyne, Ay-Up and Bone Head combination of lights provided the necessary illuminations to take us swiftly to the Tewkesbury control. Gathered evidence at the Tewkesbury control that perhaps Ron was not suitably layered - he had a hot chocolate, whereas I had a cold chocolate milkshake!

The penultimate control took us to Bromsgrove. Much menace occurred on this stretch of our adventure. Initially things went well and I safely navigated us though Pershore and located the 'easy to miss' road, sign-posted Alcester. Problems occurred when searching for Bradley Green. First off, Ron fell off at the Stock Green junction. Ron seems to fall off quite regularly when out on these adventures but he never injures very seriously. Then my navigation went wonky and I had us all turn left instead of right - this is what happens when friends don't trust one's navigational prowess! My faulty navigation meant we never found Bradley Green or 'Flying Horse Lane', the self same lane I could not find when cycling with Aid but successfully followed on the Snowdrop audax. Grr. I gave up navigating at this juncture and handed said duty over to Ron who used to live around this area. Ron took us through a ford straight away and then led us to Bromsgrove via a route which missed out the menace Hanbury Hill. The Bromsgrove control turned out to be a local store where I purchased junk food (creme eggs and pork pies) for my POP. Ron was eager to leave here ASAP (because he had the chills) so our stop was brief.

The final leg back to Studley was again navigated by Ron. He initially took us cross country along some single-track (I had no idea where we were), followed by some country lanes into Webheath. I was again on familiar ground. We passed Redditch Ecclesial Hall, where I married my dear wife SJ less than a year ago. When SJ and I got married it was a bright sunny day, at this point in time a thin layer of snow was covering most things. After passing the Hall it was pretty much down hill all the way to Studley. To complete our cycling lark, we (aptly) stopped at The Lark in Studley, using this as our arrivee and final control! We had a great days cycling and completed 220k in about 12 and half hours. Chris's ride report can be read by following this link: http://bikingbulletinboard.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/week-83-amigos-go-on-hearty-ride.html

I managed to cycle 225 miles in the week which brought my yearly total up to 798 miles. 

Snowdrop Express 120k audax (Feb 2013)

The weekend saw me complete the Snowdrop Express 120k audax. This was an amazing audax and was the first audax event I ever entered and completed back in 2010. Since 2010 I have attempted to cycle this event each year. Over the years this ride has become somewhat of a tradition and my good friend Ron has always cycled it with me plus Clive (Doc), Andy (Tractor) and Simon (Si) - 3 guys who completed LEJOG with me back in 2009. Numerous others have joined us on this jaunt but they have not been as consistent as the aforementioned folk.

This time around I hooked up with Ron (as usual) plus Aid, Andy Genders and Phil Brown (my cousin, and members of my religious group). The start had been moved this year because the cafe that normally hosts this event had gone bust. Instead we started at Whitlenge Gardens which was a nice cosy cafe equally as good as the previous start control. With minutes to spare before the official start, the 'boys' - Doc (plus his friend Michiel), Tractor and Si rocked up. Perfect! 

We all cycled the first 20k together as a big group which was nice. The weather was quite chilly initially with a mist/fog in the air. Was great to catch up with the boys - the last time I had seen them was last year on this very same event. Our interactions were brief but nice all the same. After 20k I stopped for a leak and suggested the group carry on. Not long after getting back on my bike my rear tyre punctured. Menace. I had forgotten to take a pump with me, but no bother I had gas. I replaced tube and tyre and started to chase the group. My bike looked like it had a new face lift as the new fitted tyre was blue.

The chase was pretty much a solo affair. I would count cyclists as I caught them and flew past and then with less than 1k to go I hunted down my group and rolled into the first control with them. The group that is, minus Doc, Tractor and Si. As tradition has it, Doc always takes a short cut before first control and Tractor and Si like to speed on. These boys weren't seen again - I hope they all made it safely back.

The first control was at Stables Tea Rooms in Upton. Nice toast and jam was devoured here and washed down with a cup of tea. A female cyclist had found Ron's cash and credit card in the middle of the road and kindly returned it to him.

It had really warmed up when we left the control in Upton and even the sun was shining. This section was relatively short at about 40k. My headspace was occupied with my wife and daughter and I pointed out to Aid where I proposed to my dear wife, as we passed very close to this point on route. We reached the control, Raphaels Cafe in Evesham, in time for lunch. Talking of time, check out my latest gadget - a StemCaptain, just perfect for keeping time!

At this control I ate my audax staple diet - beans on toast plus egg. This was washed down with a can of Pepsi. Aid got me a Snickers bar for good measure too!

I cycled most of the final stage whilst chatting with Aid and it felt a bit 'de-ja vu' like, then I realised why - we were cycling the same roads we did on our last audax together. Better yet, we passed Flying Horse Lane - the road we missed on our last trip. Hopefully if we cycle the Lechlade-on-Thames audax again we'll have it nailed! About 15k from the finish, a cyclist called out 'Tim'. This cyclist was Trevor - the son-in-law of my retired work chum Trevor (same name, I know it gets confusing) and brother-in-law of my friend Sam. How awesomely bizarre. Spoke and cycled alongside Trevor for sometime and it was only then that I realised he was a keen cyclist! Trevor also informed that he had been following my blog for the past 18 months! Crazy, but how cool is that?! Trevor was cycling with his friend Jamie who proved to be an interesting guy. Jamie and Trevor both like to cycle audax events and it would be great if our paths were to cross sometime in the future - Jamie even has a place on LEL. With all these mad happenings I nearly forgot to record that Aid and I cycled up Pig Hill with relative ease and swiftly reached the arrivee with Jamie and Trevor (pictured below). 

The Snowdrop Express was a really good ride and I hope to complete it again next year. Hopefully all the guys mentioned today will be cycling it again too. Maybe next year will be better yet, especially if Finbar and Chris Hodge (who had hoped to take part) rock up too! Poor Finbar was suffering with bust ribs and Chris, well, you'll just have to change your daughters birthday! You guys were missed and you both missed a great ride!

Completed my desired distance for the week and now my yearly total stands at 573 miles.

Stroud 5 valleys (50k perm) Feb 2013

Just over a week after Lunar's birth, I took my bike out again. This 'post Lunar' ride was a quick blast of the Deer route with Ron. As expected the roads were wet and quite muddy in parts. Ron and I discussed how awful the roads had been over the past 12 months and both hope for brighter days. Like myself, Ron had been off his bike for nearly 2 weeks and believes his mental health suffers when he doesn't cycle. Ron always appears to be a bit of a nut to me! Amongst our many and varied discussions we both think we have cycled more miles with each other in our cycling careers than with any other person. Ron also got me a funky new pair of glasses just before we set out on this trip, which was nice. These were essentially work glasses that Ron was 'testing' and they sure did the job and had anti-fog lenses too. Had only just returned a pair of (broken) glasses to Planet X so these were most welcome. Planet X are not great with their returns service but that's another story.

With new glasses on my face it only seemed proper to complete another audax. I decided to ride Steve Poulton's 'Stroud 5 Valleys 50k perm' as I desperately needed a AAA point for February. Aside from the weather, this ride was rather pleasant though largely uneventful. I started out on dry roads but by the time I had reached Minchinhampton the snow was flying thick and fast. During the last 5k or so, the snow turned to rain and the roads were obviously wet and slippy. Completed this perm in under 4 hours and was subsequently awarded with my AAA point. Happy days!

Lunar (aka the arrival)

Didn't cycle an awful lot this week, in fact I didn't cycle at all! Something even bigger and better than cycling took up my time! This 'something' was the arrival of my beautiful daughter Lunar. Just like cycling though, she was hard work, made one sleepy and was definitely worth it!

Single speedin' without the snow

Started this weeks training with a blast on Ron's turbo trainer. I didn't cycle with Ron last week or use his trainer, so was pleased with this weeks improvement already. To be fair, Ron was suffering with a case of man flu last week. Sometimes life is unfair and you guessed it, Ron had man flu this week too!

All my 'real miles' this week were completed using my single speed steed 'Florence', my track road bike. For a cheap bike, she's great. We completed 2 adventures together.

'The average person in the UK cycles less than 50 miles a year' (Cycle, The magazine of the CTC, Feb/March 2013)

My one adventure clocked just over 50 miles. This was an almost random ride where I would ride no further than an hour away from my village just following my nose. The plan was to clock up miles but be ready to return home should my wife call. At time of writing, my wife was 39 weeks pregnant and baby Taylor could make an appearance at any time! For this reason, I stopped using my mobile phone for GPS purposes and invested in another Cateye computer to record distance. Don't you think it looks lovely next to the Trek clock?! Originally had plans to complete Sam Weller's day trip to Wochma 200k audax but was not allowed thought better of it!

On my other adventure, I cycled the figure of 8 loop around Ragley Hall that I cycled last week. The difference this time around was that I used a different steed. As expected, I flew around this loop much quicker than last week (was on a road bike, not my mtb). Ragley Hall is a pretty stately home near to where I live. For those that may be interested, take a look at the photo below:

This week I was kitted out in a bunch of new stuff too. I totally rate Helly Hansen (HH) base layers and in fact consider them the best. I wore my funky blue and red HH base layer for a first time and it performed perfectly well.

The new leg warmers I purchased were a pair Santini's. These leggings looked great and were waterproof, which was a good touch. It was a cold day when I wore them and they warmed me up a little. Despite claims that Santini products were tough, the stitching had come loose the first time I tried them on - no worries, my dear wife fixed them with a little thread.

Talking of SJ, she kindly got me my last new tried and tested item. She purchased me some all weather SealSkinz cycling gloves. These gloves were great - warm, waterproof and most importantly not too bulky like other waterproof gloves I have. Have to give it to her, SJ knows best!

Had a great week on the whole. I had some new stuff which is always a bonus and completed my desired distance for the week (120k). I cycled a total of 127k which brought my yearly distance up to 451 miles thus far!

My buddy in crime, Chris Hodge, didn't complete his desired mileage though, oh no. Chris is hoping to complete LEL with me this year and is following a (not-so) strict training plan. A little project got into Chris's way... Chris built his own bike!  Yep, you read that right, built his own bike. How cool?! At the start of the week, Chris sent a photo of his bikes tubing and commented 'my labour pains have begun'. 

Further on in the week he commented 'intense at times but all good' and sent me another photo.

By the end of the week, he had a near completed bike. Chris plans to ride this very same bike during our LEL endeavour. Well done Chris - awesome job! The following pic is one I stole from Chris's blog site.

I guess a lick of paint and a bike build and she'll be ready to go?! What would I know? Check out Chris's blog here: http://bikingbulletinboard.blogspot.co.uk 

Not wanting to out do Chris too much, my dear wife SJ and I embarked on a slightly bigger project about 39 weeks plus 2 days ago. SJ really did experience labour pains. And the end product of her labour - we were blessed with a little 'Lunar'! Indeed, our beautiful little daughter was born weighing in at 6 lbs and 6 oz's. Thanks and praise be to God!

Our friend Nick Stephens commented 'Fantastic! When she gets her first bike, it will be her own lunar cycle'.