The last few pre-LEL rides

Training started this week using Florence again (4th week running) because the folk at Dave Hinde (DH) had still not delivered my wheel. It actually took over 3 weeks for my wheel to be delivered despite being assured it would take 7-10 days. Liaison with DH proved very frustrating and despite numerous telephone calls and several emails it was very difficult to receive specific information from them. I had offered to collect said wheel in person and frequently requested a courier tracking number which was not given to me until the day before the wheel finally arrived. Granted, some folk at DH were more friendly than others but likewise, some were down right rude. I will not EVER purchase any goods from DH again and strongly advise no one else does either. When my wheel finally arrived it was pretty awesome (custom built and all) but DH did not even fit or provide rim tape!

(Rant over, advice given). My initial training rides using Florence are presented below. The first ride was with my buddy Ron who I had not cycled with for sometime. Nice.

Waiting for my wheel ride 38k

Celebratory wheel ride (on old wheels) 41k

On Thursday, Speeds Cycles in Bromsgrove had serviced my bike - my road bike! Was so pleased to get 'Slinky' back on the road with new gear including chain, cassette and my new wheels, dynamo hub and light. Awesome! So pleased. The service at Speeds was top-notch, the staff very helpful and friendly. An extra shout out goes to Martin who was super friendly and it was he who built up and tested my bike! I celebrated having Slinky back by cycling a 40k ride. The route GPX track is presented below. Wow, that ride was my final training ride before LEL begins!

Wheely good ride (on new wheels) 40k

Probably wont blog again now until after LEL. On Saturday, I hope to register for LEL purposes and plan to spend the day with SJ, Lunar and Lin. Saturday night I plan to go to Battersea Travelodge where I will hook up with my buddy Chris. Chris would have spent Friday night cycling a 200k night ride 200k audax which would have him finished sometime Saturday morning where he would then have spent time at some cycling festival. The idea is we both flake out early, ready to cycle to Buckingham Palace for the LEL prologue on Sunday. That's right - Chris is going to ride the prologue too, how cool is that! What's not so cool is the weather forecast - SJ informed me that 'wet weekend ahead as MET office issues severe weather warning for the next 3 days with intense rain storms sweeping Britain'.