…the “Winter Sprinter Bicycle Assault Course”. It’s pencilled in for February. It’s going to be much smaller-scale than the “regular” HtN but seeing as we’re not doing a big one next year we’re going to do this sprint race instead.

5 laps or so, open to all types of bikes (although our expectation is that that people will race on either mountain bikes or cyclocross bikes), no camping, no showers, no beer tent, cheap entry fees, pie and peas for dinner and a big vat of mulled wine. Perhaps.

Andrew and I rode a lap yesterday. We’re going to use some footpaths that haven’t seen the feet or wheels of mankind for years and there are a couple of flights of steps to run up. We’ll also have a couple of cyclocross style obstacles that will force a dismount for those that can’t do really big bunny hops…

After the recce ride I took Rachael out in the trailer and finally taught Michael how to ride with clipless pedals. He got it in about 10 minutes! Ace.

We also went to Manchester yesterday to sort out Deb’s birthday present and to drop off my knackered mobile at the shop. We stopped off at Costa Coffee and Eleanor, who was sat on my lap, pulled a whole Grande Latte all over me, making it look like I’d wet myself. She got splashed a bit too so screamed the place down. She was ok, thankfully. The staff were great, gave me another brew on the house but I still had to walk around the busy city centre looking like I’d lost control of my bladder sometime earlier.