July 2011

Monday: Website down over the weekend so time for a fresh start.
Time again to go on the wagon and take alcohol out of the equation again and start afresh. Booked some spinning classes and pressed on with all those little bits of jobs that need sorting.
Tuesday: Tex,s morning spinning class which unlike the others are likened to a 45 minute climbing session. If your spinning at 200rpm instead of 60 you will get your tension increased.

Of out to look at curtains which involved calling in at Eureka Cycle Sports. No curtains but it did allow me to put a coat of paint on the front door.

Becky’s evening spin class at the Oval, notable for the entire back row filling up with me on the front. You could almost feel them wishing for a row of corner bikes. Filled up a bit more before the start so it didn’t look so obvious.

Becky has a new class at West Kirby on Monday at 7.15 pm after the 6.00 one.
Sweated buckets, weights, shower and then home. Incidently the showers downstairs must be the worst around. Mould in the grout, dirty, next to non existent suspended ceiling. A hygiene hazard at best.

Started to read “Eats Shoots and Leaves” a 2004 best seller so hopefully the punctuation should improve. That is if I find the bit that actually says what the rules are.

Wednesday: Up early to clean and fettle the bike. New Dura-Ace brake blocks in the rear as the old ones were beginning to pick up, had them a while as they have an old price on. Lost a kilogram to boot.
Headed out to the Eureka with an eerie quietness to the roads, there was no school run as the schools have broken up for the holidays.
Not too many there when I arrived apart from a couple of Northenders. It soon filled up later on with the Northend out in force. Opted to go out with the CTC as it is exactly 5 years since I started going out with them.
Saw Ray who is on his 52nd 100 miler this year.

Todays ride was to Handley and should be here.

‘http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/102160746’

Met up with Colin Bell who is the brother of Dave Bell who I served my apprenticeship with at Associated Octel.(now Innospec)

The route was through the lanes including a few I hadn’t been on before, finally ending up at the Calverley Arms, avoiding the A41.

Good service, my baguette was nice and so was the pint, it would have been rude not to have one.

The pace had slowed a bit so much so that at the cottage with a pond in the garden on a bend at Huxley, I went off the front.
Route back was Waverton, Christleton, cycle path through Chester coming off it at Blacon, Upton and across the A5771 and back up Woodbank.
Plenty to talk about at the Eureka, Garmins as usual and the Ventoux popped up once or twice during the day without my prompting.
74.6 miles, couldn’t go that extra half mile so to say.

Kev Charlie and Bob at Chester

Seen a request for pictures of Charlie Dipple on Facebook but can’t get in touch due to a blocked facebook profile. Here is one of them. Comes out bigger than the original when I paste it here at least when I edit it.

Thursday: Barbara,s Morning Spin class at West Kirby . Delayed 15 minutes because another class was using the amplifier. Hot class sweated buckets, called in at Vita on the way home to pick up some Nuun salt tablets as I want to replenish the salts lost but not the calories. Shop full of new Bianchi,s to look at and start at a resonable price in a shop that has a £12,000 bike on display.
Tesco,s for the comic and a sandwich and a trip to see my mum.
Booked a pm class at West Kirby, tried the Nuun tablet which guess what? tasted of salt.

Friday: Lost 2 kg since Monday mainly by knocking the alcohol on on the head. The scales say my body composition Water % has gone up from 43.9% to 44.7 in 4 days. Time to finally put it all in a spreadsheet.
There have been complications mainly insomnia which was probably why I hit the bottle again. Will have to see how it pans out as I don’t really want to see the quack at this stage.
More later, off out to the Eureka for lunch.
Headed out to a cash machine and then down Town Lane practicing bunny hops on the sleeping policemen. Works quite well once you’ve done a few. Called in at Aldi for a punnet of plums and headed out to Eastham Ferry calling in at CycleSurgery for a Sky waterbottle.
BLT toastie at the Eureka where there was another one having Garmin problems.
Vision is one of them, if you can’t see the screen of a normal computer you are going to be in real trouble with 705 or 800 on the move.
I’ve just switched to prescription glasses so a ride is now like seeing HD for the first time.
The FourSquare app on the Iphone has locked up for the last week.
Called in at Vita on the way home then back via Landican lane to practice more bunny hops. That was until the bottle toolbox forced it’s way past the tang on the carbon fiber bottle cage. Forced the pump out of it’s mount, hitting the crank every revolution.
I don’t know how many vans Gunform have but got buzzed by another at the Woodchurch flyover making a beeline for the motorway. That’s the second time it’s happened to me. Someone there is riding their luck.

Called in to McGarvey,s Opticians to see how the custom Split Jackets were coming on. Well they were in but awaiting the case and the rest of the bits you get with the real thing. They are a better fit than the Radars on the Kask Vertigo.

Probably worth doing a post on prescription sports eyewear at a later date.

Had a drive around looking to pick up bits for the kitchen installation to no avail. What was noticeable was riders in team kit, so here goes Discovery Channel, Astana(brave), Team Altura(plain kit) and US Postal.
Saturday: Stayed steady, Alcohol units 0, disrupted sleep. Time for a ride as the suns out and it’s the last day of the holiday.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/102829216#.TjRLKsE8bAc.wordpress

40 mile ride around Wirral with a few bikes shops and motorbike shops thrown in. Still looking for a new pair of shoes. Met up with Dave at the Eureka who ordered a bacon sandwich with a brown crust and a white top with the crusts cut off tongue in cheek. Low and behold that’s what he got apart from the crusts being cut off.
Lot’s of the big hitters were doing short rides as it is race day on Sunday

Sunday: Work so no ride, weekly total 141 miles. Alcohol units 2.

Decided to consolidate 3 weeks posts in to one for the month.
Not a lot going on ride wise other than a couple of trips around the Wirral.
The only other thing of note is a need to wear glasses for driving and riding for that matter. Not done anything about a trip to the Tour but offset this by watching it on Eurosport in HD. With the new specs it is truly stunning, just like being there.
Ordered a replacement prescription lens for the Radars at the heady price of £165. Other than that I’ve been doing spinning classes at the Oval, West Kirby and Leasowe subject to availability.
New helmet is a Kask Vertigo in Sky colours, far better than the old Giro Atmos. Much better protection for the temples as well as being better finished for what at the end of the day is injection moulded foam and plastic which costs buttons.

Protection wise there is nothing different between the £6-7 budget helmets to the eye watering price I paid, they all have to pass the same tests. No VAT so some one is making a killing.

Met Dave at the Eureka on Friday and chatted about the recent Twitter wars, rode back to Vita and had a look at the Lightweight Wheels, lightweight is an understatement. They are feather weight and come with a 120KG weight limit.

Called in at Prenton to check out the Oakley SplitJacket glasses, they are on order.

Saturday: Got a call from Vision Express that the Radar lens was in so out on the bike to pick them up and put another lap around the coast. Sunny but a bit breezy. Back home to watch the Tour time trial.
Sunday: Day out at Llandudno doing a spot of trainspotting.
Got caught up in the traffic jam following an accident at Two Mills, had to use a bit of local knowledge to get around it. Had a radio blackout as I didn’t want to know the result of the final Tour stage as I’d video plussed it for watching later.

Weekending 03 July 2011

Liverpool Chester Liverpool 2011
Nice day for a nice ride.

Should have rode the 87 mile event as I was back by 11.45

Bumped in to Paul from work, still waiting for his bike on the cycle to work scheme.

Nearly everyone freewheeled down to the midpoint where the speed differences started to show on the climb out.
Quite a few stop at the tollbooths to rest/regroup.
It’s always great to ride through to tollbooths for free.

Big ring after this and I’m flying. Met up with Team Wallace and Grommit who bummed a free ride from KFC. At least they didn’t have the cheek to do the tunnel unlike the usual suspect Liverpool clubs.

Marshalling was a bit hit or miss with riders getting waved through red lights even though the ride organisers stressed not to do it.
Likewise riding 3 abreast on the Chester High Road before theThorton Hough turn off is not sensible.
The traffic calming islands just exacerbate the situation.

Nice section of the ride going through Thorton Hough, pity the oak tree outside the Smithy had to be cut down.

Pretty much on my own at this point but grabbed a wheel from a handy chap on a Pinarello who was on the 87 mile ride. Looked to be behind schedule if I had caught him up.

The gated lane with 5 gates, could have done with marshals on these but it went ok. CTC have this down to a fine art.

The stop at Chester had me meeting up with Team Wallace and Grommit and heading to the Claire House Gazeebo for some sun tan lotion. Saw one of the Vita Cycles Team heading out on the Delamere loop.

Had a bit of fun in the tunnel on the return leg, tucking in behind a guy using tri bars doing 30+. Surprised to see bottles being discarded in the tunnel with about a 1/4 mile to go, it’s not that steep a climb and it’s not the Tour.