Saturday I went out for a ride over the local heath, still building myself up after the several weeks of no riding. The ride itself was nothing spectacular, made it up a hill which I have targeted as one of the hills I need to beat although I was a gasping wheezing wreck at the top. It was nice to be able to get home and not have to wash the bike as the ground was so frozen although thinking about it I would of been unable to wash the bike as the hose was frozen!! I digress. Anyway the wife had gone shopping so I came home to an empty house. When I put the bike round the back of the house I noticed that the back door step was wet, which seemed strange since everything else was frozen and it was dry when I left. I went back round to the front door and let myself in. I then headed through the house toward the back door so I could go and lock the back gate. When I opened the utility room door I was greeted by a lake of water on the floor, it could of only come from the washing machine or the washing machine plumbing.

I called the wife and informed her of the problem and suggested she curtailed her shopping trip to come and help with the bailing out. Once out of my cycling gear, I realised that the puddle was not getting any bigger so what ever was leaking had stopped (or run out of water). The washing machine had been on but had now finished its cycle. That meant that either a pipe on the washing machine had split or the waste. outlet had sprung a leak. The wife arrived back home as I finished clearing the washing machine so I could move it out and get to the pipework. I started to pour some water down the waste pipe which quickly overflowed onto the floor. I gave it 5 minutes to run a ways and then pour some hot water down the waste pipe, this started to backup but then suddenly cleared. The waste pipes runs round the side of the house and under the back door, sometime ago the bracket holding the waste pipe under the door broke so there was a slight sag in the middle of the pipe. I guess that water was sitting in the pipe and overnight Friday and Saturday morning it froze. A temporary repair has been made the hold the pipe up so that it maintains the run to the drain and does not hold any more water.

While the rest of the country woke up to snow this morning, all we woke up to was wet rain soaked roads and a rise in temperatures. So this morning ride was a mud fest, although there were still some frozen bits hidden in deep puddles which made things interesting. I did a Throop loop but it was only a short loop as my legs were feeling it a long with a another problem\injury I am plagued with, so I decided not to push it and headed for home.

I am hoping for a quiet weeks this coming week, some how I don’t think I will get one.

I left the house for my ride at 9:15 in bright sunshine but a little cool, within a couple of miles I had taken my jumper off as I was hot. Two miles later I stopped again this time with a puncture. Again it was the front wheel and again it was one of those Dr Sludge inner tubes. This time the valve was still fully connected to the inner tube, there was no sign of any seepage of latex sealing any leaks in the inner tube, there was no sign of any foreign object poking through the tyre. I have no idea why it went down, the only thing that is certain is that those Dr Sludge tube are a waste of money and those two tubes from today and yesterday are going in the bin.

After another couple of miles I stopped yet again, this time to put my rain jacket on, it was *issing down. Eventually it stopped raining but I was not going to be fooled so easily and kept my jacket on. By the time I reached Sopley Common (I was riding the Throop loop but in reverse) I was over heating so I stopped to take my jacket off again. Two mile later I stopped again to put my jacket back on again as it was *issing down again and that is the way it stayed all the way home. By the time I got home I looked like a drowned rat. I picked up some new water proof trousers in the week…………..guess who left them at home this morning!!

I don’t know what it was but I was completely wiped out this afternoon, I had several things I wanted to do but in the end I just sat on the sofa with no energy to move off the sofa. Having a early night to night as I have four morning on the trot when I have to be up earlier than normal for work so I want to make sure I get some sleep.

Was considering riding the Dorset Dirt a 30 mile cross country ride on Sunday but had been biding my time to see what the weather was going to be like on Sunday. With all this rain we have had and now with the toothache, I am not sure if I will enjoy riding on Sunday, especially if you check out the weatherforecast (below) from Met Check

Sunday forecast, er a bit windy

Looks like it will be a bit windy Looking at Met Office for Sundays forecast is showing rain so I may not do the ride.

Instead I sat drinking tea and getting my Google Calendar embedded and working in Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client (if you want to know how let me know and I will tell you). By 9 o’clock it was starting to ease off and as predicted by 10 o’clock it had stopped, it looked like it might start again but I got ready for my ride.

When I left it was cold enough to wear my jumper, I managed to keep the jumper on until I got into Ramsdown Woods. Everything looked like a winter ride with puddles and mud everywhere. I tried some new paths when I got into Hurn forest, some better than other. Because of the late start, still impeding rain and thing that needed doing at home I opted not to head out towards the Castleman trail, just carried on with my normal Throop Loop.

Coming back across the fields from Merritown to the weir at Throop I past the spot where the Red Arrow Crashed a couple of weeks ago. The area was decorated with red, white and blue bunting and balloons and several bunches of flowers, I thought about taking a picture but that felt a bit morbid.

I am glad to report that the creaking that has been plaguing the Cannondale for the past couple of months has been cured with the fitting of a new Hope BB. I opted for a Hope BB as you can get replacement bearing (unlike Shimano’s) and they have a very good reputation. Next on the shopping list is a new Headset which should be fitted in the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately with all the running about yesterday I forgot to pick up some degreaser and I used the last of mine yesterday so the bike is looking a bit grubby at the moment.

Finally I am a bit concerned about the weather on Wednesday night, think that maybe the end of the world is nigh!

Bit windy Wednesday night

Hardly sunbathing weather

So I grabbed my phone (well what would use your phone for??) gently opened the back door and just stuck my arm out the door and grabbed a couple of snaps before he (might have been a she) decided I had disturbed their rest and trotted off to find a quieter (and probably drier) spot. It is not the first time we have seen foxes in the garden, we have had mum and two pups in the garden before, but it was one of the few times I have managed to get a picture.

Bank holiday weekend and it is raining, no it is going to be sunny, no it is going to be windy, er, it really depends on what weather forecast web site you look at and believe. To be honest the only thing you can say about tomorrows weather is there will be some, what type? well look out the window at 9am and find out.

Hopefully going out for a ride tomorrow morning, not sure where but I think it might be a tad muddy with all the rain we have had these past few days

Superstar Nano Tech pedals

As can be seen they come in a variety of colours, I opted for black to go with the bike, had a chosen another colour for the bling factor I would of ended up having to replace more parts on the bike to further enhance the bling factor which I can’t afford to do at present.

After bike service it was out for a bit of shopping and visiting the lbs for some info on the headset fitted to the Cannondale. I have been looking for a replacement since I found the damaged seal earlier in the year but I had not been able to find any info. Thankfully the shop were able to tell me I needed a Crane Creek Zero Stack 1.5″ to 11/8″ which in turns is a ZS49/28.6 49/30 Part Number ba0077k. It now added to the shopping list.

By mid afternoon the sun had broken through but I was happy watching the Tour De France so that where I stayed.

I was awake early this morning eventually surfacing at 7am. After breakfast I saddled up and set off on my normal Sunday Throop Loop with an added section going around Ashley Heath this should of give me around 30 mile round trip. I was going to take the gps to record the route, but as I was leaving I realised the bracket for the gps was still on the Whyte, so left the gps at home. Outward journey was OK but when I got back to Hurn forest on the return journey the heavens opened so I stopped and put on my water proof jacket. I normally refer to this as my “boil in the bar jacket”. That is not to say that it is a poor jacket but the fact that I perspire and putting any jacket on even in the middle of winter will have me sweating buckets. Today was no different, when I got home I dropped my arms down to my side a water (my sweat) ran out of the sleeve’s and my t-shirt was absolutely soaking but because it was a decent cycling t-shirt it wicked the sweat from my body and held it in the material.

The eating over the weekend has gone fairly well, weekends are always the hardest time for me. Tomorrow night weigh-in will let me know how I have done.

After a late breakfast I wheeled the Cannondale out the shed and fitted the new chain and completed the other couple of jobs I had to do. There were still dark heavy clouds in the sky but no rain was falling. Looking around it seemed as though we had had a lot of rain over night.

I left the house at 11:30 having decided to do a short loop around Canford Heath. My earlier speculation that we had had a lot of rain was soon proved right, the path from the golf club was a very muddy. I other thing that struck me was how warm it was, by the time I rode up the short slope to the second gate I was sweating and I was only wearing a long sleeved base layer, cycling jumper and my padded cycling shorts….yes shorts! The trails were either very muddy or a running stream. After a short loop of the heath I headed for home, I wanted to save some energy for tomorrows long ride.

Looking over on Bike Radar and I came across a link to this site Bicycle Design Blog. The basic of the site is that budding bicycle designers submit drawings plans for complete bikes or bike components. These budding designers can be anything from a professional designer to a kid sat in his bedroom. I am still working my way through the blog, but the three wheeled cycle buggy for the disabled looks great.

Firstly they would not log off from the failing server, then when they had been asked not to log back on to the server they did log back on and got upset when I kicked them off the server. Then when they could not log back on they complained that they were unable to log back on. Fortunately by lunch time the message had gotten through to most of them.

I am hoping to get a couple of rides in this weekend, we have rain over night which should be finished early morning so maybe lunch time I can pop out for a ride. Might even try and get the Cannondale out on Saturday, just the new chain and a couple of little jobs to do. Sunday looks like the better day, so hopefully I will get a nice long ride out on Sunday.

To try and get a balanced view I normally use three or four weather web sites, they will all give a slightly different view on coming weather and the art is to try and draw a balance between all of them. Here is a list of my 4 favourite weather web sites

• Net Weather
• Metcheck
• Weather online
• Met Office

I have several other local sites that I also use, one is a local sailing club which is useful for local wind speed. I have another one the whole family enjoy watching as it is a thunderstorm radar. Regardless of what any of them say it is still a case of getting up and stepping outside the back door and deciding on what to do from there.

With winds around 30mph and gust to 49mph I decided today was not a good day to go for a cycle, locally or Swindon (as I had planned). So instead I went for a walk and quick sand blast along the beach at Sandbanks. Got back in time to watch the rugby this afternoon 6 Nations matches. I think the poorest display from the 3 matches was the Irish, they only just beat the Italian who I think were unlucky to lose. England got off to a great start last night, it was not brilliant as there were to many mistakes. France put in a solid display this afternoon which won them the support of there fans after the fans boo-ed them of the pitch late last year after a large defeat. Scotland showed they had fight and the spirit to win so I would have to put Scotland above Wales, so my totally “Unofficial arm chair supporter don’t know what I am talking about league table of who had the best match” for the first round of the 6 nations look like this

1 France
2 England
3 Scotland
4 Italy
5 Wales
6 Ireland

Like I said, what do I know……………

Hopefully the wind will have dropped enough tomorrow for me to go for a ride, not sure where I am going to ride yet as I don’t know what the river level is like so will have to see what the morning brings

After registration I met my mate Jon who was also going to do the ride as well, we got kitted up fitted the timing chip to our legs and prepared for the off. We were soon trundling along the roads through the village and then out onto dirt tracks. Having crossed the M4 motorway (to the west of Chiveley) we stopped so I could take my jacket off as I was warming up. We headed on through various wooded areas which were as muddy as I had expected and crossed the A34 to the south of Chiveley. The wooded areas were interspersed with section of roads to link the entire loop together, which was handy as it gave the wheels time to shed a lot of the mud it had collected. Both of us were slipping and sliding around with grip at a premium. We stopped regularly to top up the liquids and to ensure we did not blow ourselves out. We had considered doing the short loop (15 miles) if it was too muddy but we bit the bullet and headed onto the 24 mile long medium route. As we crossed the A34 again we were both looking forward to the drinks point at the 19 miles mark, this is where it all went wrong for me.

The drink station was half way up a concreted farm track, I decided to get up out the saddle and push to the drink station, it was only 50yds away. As soon as I stood up the tops of my thighs cramped up and I ground to a sudden halt, as I got off the bike the pain was even worse walking up the slope. I had been sipping water and energy drink all the way round, I had felt my calf’s tightening up but this is the first time my thighs have ever done this. We refuelled at the drink station, I had a slice of flap-jack and refilled my energy drink bottle as it was empty. Suitably refuelled and rested we set off up the hill where we turned left at the top only to see the hill rise further upwards over the bridge crossing the M4 again (further to the west of Chiveley). We then proceeded across fields until we came to the cabbage patch. The cabbage patch was basically a very large ploughed field with a path through the middle of it, it was un-ridable by about 95% of riders , the thick clay soil just clung onto any part of your bike it touched, soon bike tyres were the size of motorcycle tyres. Then there was the wind, we were on the top of the hill and the wind had gained in strength and was whistling across the field. We found one poor rider in the middle of the field with a snapped a chain and had no spare links with him (they were at home!) to repair the chain, so we stopped and I gave him a link so he could repair his chain and get going again. Reaching the other side of the field we re-mounted thinking the worst was over. Unfortunately for me it was only going to get worse. I realised that my camelbak was empty, I had drunk over 2.5ltr of water. Had I known how low it was I would of topped it up at the drinks station. Even in the summer on long rides I have never emptied my camelbak while riding. The only liquids I had left was the 1ltr of energy drink I got from the drinks station.

We made it to the next field where we were first hit by the strengthening gale force winds that were now hitting us from the our right and more of the thick clay like mud. The path was deeply rutted and looking at the criss cross of cycle tracks you could see earlier riders had been struggling to find a clear path and by the amount of those riders who were now walking, it was by no means going to be easy. By now my thighs and calf’s were screaming. With the winds trying to push you up a bank and into a ditch while you tried to pick the least muddy section to ride was nigh on impossible (well for me at least) and I ended up walking and riding across the field. All praise to my mate Jon you rode I think all of it with a couple of rest stops.

At one stage walking across the field I had to stop and clear the mud from the wheels as they were jammed solid, it was just horrible sticky clay mud, eventually half a dozen riders made it to the entry of the woods on the other side of the field where a mass mud clearing exercise took place, I did take some pictures on my phone but being buffeted by the wind they came out quite blurry. I ate the last of my energy bar had a few more sips of energy drink before continuing into the woods.

My legs were alright where it was flat and not to much mud but as soon as there was a hill or deep heavy mud then my thighs and calf’s were screaming, so I would end up off the bike walking.

We eventually hit the road back to the village and I was able to peddle quite well with just a dull ache in my calf’s and thighs. In all it had taken us just under 4 hours to complete the 24.9 mile ride. Fortunately it had not rained but the wind had increased strength from the start but for the most part had not been noticeable until the final 5 miles as that part of the ride seemed for the most part in open fields.

Last night I was struggling to keep my eyes open and I admit to nodding off a couple of times, this morning my calfs and thighs have a dull ache in them. I really need to work on my energy levels, I don’t know if it was because I was riding with somebody which meant I was riding a bit faster than I normally do, or if it was the mud or both. While I did better in this ride than I did on the Liphook ride last year, I really need to get it sorted.

Now I was going to write about my bike problems but I will hold that over to another blog, this blog has waffled on for long enough………….

I got a Muvi micro digital camera and yes it is really that small. Currently doing some secret recording of the wife doing Wii fit while I type this (she won’t be happy), just to testing purpose’s honest

Hopefully the new chain for my bike will arrive tomorrow and I can then finish prepping the bike ready for the weekend rides. Decided to put the mud tyres on the Whyte, with the amount of rain we have had the last two days and the amount they are forecasting till Friday, maybe a rubber dingy and life belt would be a better option.

I am intending to go out for a ride tomorrow at some stage, probably late afternoon, did a Christmas eve ride last year and fell off on black ice. With all the ice that is a round I am hoping not to repeat last years fall. My next ride after that should be on Boxing day, probably early morning like a normal Sunday ride. Then on Tuesday I am hoping to go up to the Croft Trail at Swindon but the forecast is rain, not my idea of fun. Somewhere along the way I need to give the bike a damm good clean, it has not been washed for a couple of weeks due to the freezing conditions. I have been riding the hard tail for the past few weeks, I’m keeping the Whyte tucked away indoor away from all the snow and ice, although I may take it to Swindon next week.

I had already planned to work form home today but the down side to working from home is, you can’t get a way with having a snow day (the latest buzz word apparently). I must admit to having a couple of snowball fight with the son during the day. His school and the daughters college were both shut so they were home for the day. As usual with this country, it came to grinding halt as soon as the white stuff arrives, all those country that get meters of the stuff for several month of the year and carry on a normal every day life must shake their head in disbelief at this country when we get snow.

As a consequence of the snow I did not go for a ride tonight, instead I took a walk along the river where I normally ride, the path was well trodden and there were signs of bike tracks in the snow so it looked as though it had been a little busy along the river path today. The wife decided she wanted to feel what the snow was like on her bum, so having been told not to walk down the centre of the slope which was very slippery and that she should walk down the edge, she knew better and walked down the centre until she did the comedy sketch bit of running on the spot on ice and then fell to earth. Unfortunately in my attempt to offer assistance, I had to cross said slippery slope and ended up kissing the snow with my butt as well.

When we went out for the walk I never thought to take the camera with me, so here a couple of picture from first thing this morning.

Looking left down our road

Looking right down our road

It may not look a lot of snow, but that is the most snow we have had in 10 years down here.

In the end I went to the weigh in and thing were not as bad as they could of been, over the two week I lost half a pound, last week not being one of my better week I was happy with that. It means I am still in the 17 and though a little closer still trying to get into the 16 and so I have to try even harder this week to stay on the straight and narrow.

I am not going for a ride tonight and I am off on my travels to head office tomorrow so I won’t be riding tomorrow night, if the weather has improved I will possibly ride Thursday night.

On the snow front, it is still a case of what snow, we had two small snow shower today, had the snow flakes been much smaller I would of needed a microscope to see them, oh well maybe next year……………

Went out for my ride at Badbury Rings yesterday. There was a stiff northerly breeze, heavy snow laden clouds filled the sky, it was very cold and very bleak. The first 100yds is a gentle downhill slope into the freezing northerly wind, half way down I had an ice-cream headache from hell. I felt like going back to the car and calling it a day but I stuck with it. I found the ride so hard for some reason, I had put several layers of cloths on (base layer, long sleeve t shirt, cycling jumper, fleece jacket) and I felt too bulky and was on the border of getting to hot. I had planned to do a new section down to the old airfield at Tarrant but knowing it is a wide open space and with the wind I decided to leave that for another day. Ended up doing just under 10 miles before seeking the warmth of the car, When I drove into the car park at Badbury Rings I was the only car there, by the time I started the ride another car had a arrived and the driver has set off on a walk\hike (I thought I was mad), by the time I got back (just over an hour) my car was the only car in the car park again.

Went out for my normal Sunday morning ride around Throop and Hurn, I did not find it so cold this morning plus I left off one of the layers from yesterday (tee shirt) and was a lot more comfortable. It was still cold enough to freeze the front gear change, had to stop a couple of times and clear the frozen mud around the gear change mechanism to allow it to change the front gears.

This cold weather has presented one interesting problem, how do you clean your bike?? My hose pipe is frozen as is my outside tap (despite being protected), I did not want to pour water over the bike for fear of it freezing. My HT is still covered in the crud from Tuesday nights ride, I took a screwdriver to the Whyte to clear the crud out from around the front gear change mechanism, then gave the mechanism and the chain a spray of GT85 to keep the moisture at bay. Now wait and see what next weeks weather brings.

Tomorrow is weigh in night and we find out if the scales were busted last week, on the one hand my jeans are now baggy on me but on the other hand I know I have not kept with the diet this week, not looking forward to it.

The week had started fairly well I was feeling every so slightly optimistic, Mondays night weighh in was a positive as I lost 1.5lbs which was the 1.5lbs I put on the previous week (and lost the week before that and gained the week before that and……………..). Today had not been to bad, was that a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel or my eye deceiving me??

Driving up to head office early Monday morning was not much fun in the wind and rain, neither was driving to Southampton this morning in the damm rain. This past couple of mornings have been horrendous drives. At least tomorrow mornings drive up to Tewkesbury should be OK if a little cold, although Thursday drive looks like strong winds and heavy rain again. The weather is looking OK for the weekend although I may have to work Saturday which includes a drive to head office again (for those that don’t know head office is a 260 mile round trip).

I soon decided that I better get myself on site (had planned to work from home). Once on site and after much cable unplugging, router rebooting and scratching of heads I decided to wait for the IT comms engineer to arrive. He duly arrived at 11:30 and we were back up and running by midday. With half my day lost I headed for home, got home just in time for lunch……………………only to find the cupboard empty!!

The latest episode of the death wish cyclist happened to night, daughter had gone out for the bus to go to work, 20 minutes later she calls me and asks me to give her a lift to work as the bus had failed to turn up (nothing unusual for Yellow Buses??). On my return drive along Columbia Road as I approached Glenvile Road I caught up with a cyclist going along Columbia Road. Just as I drew level with his back wheel we reached the road junction, suddenly he turn right and then stick his arm out to indicate he intends to turn right (bit damm late for that) and he looks over his shoulder only to see that he is about to become a bonnet ornament on my car, he then swerves to the inside of the road, looks back over his shoulder, see I have braked to a stop to save myself from driving over him, so he just swings out right across the road and off down Glenville Road, no acknowledgement that he was in the wrong or a thanks to me for avoiding him.

It looks likes we are in-line for some glorious weather this weekend and I can’t decide where to ride, I have never been this undecided before. Where ever I go I will have to ride the Whyte tomorrow morning as the Cannondale needs a bit of attention to the rear gears

I have done the drive down that way several times to one of the companies site just outside Plymouth and it takes me about two and half hours, so leaving at 9am I had expected to arrive about 11-ish, it soon became apparent that the caravanner’s of the UK were going to put an end to that idea. With rain falling from the start and progressively getting worse as we headed west, our lovely winding “A” road do not lend themselves to overtaking caravans, so we joined the que behind each caravan till the opportunity to pass presented itself. I had hoped thing would improve from Honiton where we picked up the A30 dual carriageway, but the rain got heavier and the traffic got slower.

By now I was fighting a battle in the car to keep the windscreen clear from fogging up, the only way was to run with the air conditioning on but I was getting to cold, so we opted for switching it on and off to keep the screen clear and the occupants just of frozen. Around 2hrs 40 minutes later we pull into one of Trago Mills large car parks and is by now absolutely *issing down.

The first purchase in the store was an umbrella, not having one with us and knowing the kids will want to go around the leisure park it was a wise investment. We spent a couple of hours (and a few pounds) browsing the aisles. I am pretty sure it has shrunk in size since our last trip (they had a major fire there about 12 months ago and there is a lot of building working taking place at the rear of the store) as we soon found ourself out in the rain again and looking at the food outlets. After feeding time and kids being kids it was of to the leisure park. The rain did not seem to detract them from them wanting to wander around the park. To be perfectly honest many of the rides were closed due to the weather, the daughter wanted to go on the mega slide (a 15ft vertical drop down) but this was closed as it was under repair so the kids opted for the smaller slide (both indoors). Finally we opted for a ride on the train around the park, at least the carriage has a roof even if it did leak.

If we thought is was *issing down when we arrived it was definitely lashing it down now, the sky had that dark foreboding storm colour to it. Once again the battle of the steamy windows started not helped by the fact that we were all wet but this time I decided on raising the temperature in the car so now we would be slowly cooked on the way home. Once the heat was in the car I turned the temperature down and manage to keep the screen clear. The drive home was easier than the drive down despite a diversion due to a road closure (accident). The rain rather than relenting got worse as we got closer to home, standing water was now a major issue.

Not far from home the daughter got a phone call asking her why she was not at work, turns out the manager had asked her if she wanted overtime for Thursday night and forgot to ask her about Wednesday night but put her down for both nights, so now we had to race home, change out of our now drying cloths, drop the daughter of at work and then go shopping.

I eventually got to sit down at about 8:30 last night, I slept well last night!!

Not sure what we are doing today, I want to get my bike finished and lubed up from the weekend and maybe a test ride to see if I am up for the ride tomorrow. My back is feeling a lot better but there is still a twinge every now and again to remind me.

Currently sat here trying to work out where to go tomorrow as a family where I don’t have to forfeit two arms and a leg as payment. I have 6 days off including the weekend & bank holiday Monday and tomorrow is the only day we can all go out as a family for the whole day, Thursday the daughter has to start work late afternoon, Friday the wife getting her hair done, Saturday and Sunday the daughter is working during the day, Monday you just don’t want to travel anywhere on a bank holiday. Now add in the rain factor, the wife can’t walk to far my bad back and the fun really starts. The kids have been to all the local attractions so were now looking further a field and drawing a blank, one suggestion was Legoland, £127.80 for 4 (3 adults and 1 child) for a day pass, they must be having a giraffe!! Beginning to think it is cheaper to go back to work…………………

Last night was a good night for weight loss as such, I lost the weight I put on last week, so I am not dis-pleased but then I am not over the moon either. I just do not seem to be able to get a handle on this weight loss thing at the moment, well to be honest for the past two years. I am losing, I have a good week then I put on what I lost, then I lose what I put on, then I put on again then lose that………………………….and on and on it goes.

At least I am staying positive and still going to Slimming World, to be honest it the only thing that keeps me motivated.

Never made it to the Air Show on Sunday as the weather was lousy, heavy rain showers, low cloud and strong gusty winds. We live a couple of miles from the local airport which is used as a staging post for the air show, I heard half a dozen planes take off, never saw one of them fly over head, the cloud was down to about 200ft. I did start cleaning the bike in the gazebo but the rain started to seep through the gazebo so had to pack up and head indoors.

My back is not to bad at the moment, feeling a bit better, still hoping to throw my leg over my bike on Friday (back and weather permitting).

Finally a message to Clive , STOP LAUGHING IT HURTS! and hello to Keiron at Welsh Cyclist