Fast and sweaty ride on the road bike last night, Darwen and back to see Simon and Cath for a Best Cuppa In Lancashire. They’ve got chickens and they wander around the garden, letting you pet them. I always thought chickens ran away when people got too close to them. In fact, I thought the only way you could get close to a chicken was to drive a vintage car through a barn. Anyway, the ride was pretty good, the best bit was the twisty descent between Affetside and Walshaw. I’m looking good for a 200 mile week this week for the first time in yonks, on top of a couple of runs and a bit of gym.

Early training ride yesterday morning. Up the road, 14 ish miles uphill to Holcombe Village then run straight up the front of Holcombe Hill to the tower, bike on shoulder. I’ve found a really tough, almost vertical footpath that fits the bill nicely. It’s much nicer than the weed-infested grassy slope I’ve been training on near my house anyway. I adjusted the position of the bike on my shoulder slightly this morning and that was much more comfortable. In the next few weeks I’ll be working on bringing down the time of the whole loop to less than this morning’s 1:44, although that was into a headwind and I had a minor mechanical….

The picture below shows the ever-so-complex and twisty route I took to the top 😉

Before I started my return journey I noticed that my headset was loose. On closer inspection, the top cap bolt has stripped somehow so I had to just press down on the stem and tighten it to the steerer, then take it easy on the descent down the hill. Tonight I think I’ll bin the Hope Head Doctor and fit a good old SFN.

Here’s my mate Simon’s lad’s video of the race. It’s really rather good and captures the vibe nicely.

The embedded video thing doesn’t seem to be working though – so click here instead of getting mad with it.

Deb and I had some bad news over the weekend. I’m not going to go into detail on here but let’s just say that last night’s ride did me good in more ways than normal. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden a CX bike so fast off-road. In fact I wrung it’s bleedin’ neck good and proper.

I’m loving this bike more and more. Everyone should own one.

My now-regular morning ‘cross ride that involves almost castrating myself attempting high-speed mounts and dismounts and running up “Jon White Hill” repeatedly with the bike on my shoulder needs the aid of padding. The sticky-up bit of bone on my right shoulder that grew when my broken clavicle healed (a result of a pretty spectacular wheels-smashed-off, sliding sideways across a field followed by rolling 3 times down an embankment car crash some years ago) is really giving me gyp now when the top tube is resting on it.

I can just about make it bearable by taking most of the weight on my right forearm, but that kind of gets me all unbalanced and more wobbly on very steep stuff.

Maybe one of those early-90’s triangular frame bags will do the trick. I can put my butties in it too.