Michael and I went over to Llandegla on Saturday morning. The place was packed! Mike hadn’t ridden for a bit so he was chomping at the bit…er..a bit. So I was surprised to see that he didn’t really struggle with the climbs at all, and his extra height and weight (he’s grown a bit recently) really shows now on the technical and fast downhill stuff.

When he asked to go in front, I’d expected to be riding behind him on the brakes all the time. But I had to use actual technique and everything just to keep up! He was flying in fact. He can jump too, cheeky beggar. He’s just able to use his weight to plant the bike just where he wants it to go instead of just hanging on. Soon he’ll be tall enough to fit my bikes. That’ll be interesting.  We really must make it a regular thing though. At half term I’ll take him on his first night ride, but it might be a bit early for the hip flask. So it’s started. He’s starting to show signs of the inevitable…he’s going to be more skilful, faster, stronger and just a better cyclist than me one day. And that’s brilliant in my book!

He did have a pedal/shin interface incident (blood and everything), then sat down on some hawthorns. Chuckle!

 On Sunday I’d planned to ride with Budge. He had a 25-30 miler planned so I was going to ride from the door, giving me a good 5 hour 50 miler. Unfortunately Rachael had other ideas and kept me and Deb awake all night. So I texted Budge at 6am and jibbed. I hate that, but I was shagged. I got out for a 2 hour ride late in the afternoon, just before the rain came down.

I’ve just done half a session on the turbo. It was going well until the HR monitor’s battery ran out. Bastard thing rips through lithium quicker than a mental patient. Anyway, this week’s a tough one with one eye on the Fred Whitton…only a couple of weeks to go after that. Plenty of running, riding and a century on Sunday. Grrrr!!!!