Moved the old bike section over from my previous and now nearly defunct webspace. Find it here. Alternately I now have another little website dedicated to that sort of thing, find it here

There are fewer happier events in our household* than when I finish building a new bicycle. This one is a Specialized S-Works E5 Road. It’s light (at a shade over 18 lbs), fast and as a bonus doesn’t try to throw me off like the old Trek OCLV used to.

* I speak only for myself

Yesterday (Sunday 10th April) saw Geoffrey and I take part in the 21st edition of the “Hell Of the North Cotswolds”. For the uninitiated the HONC is a 100 km reliability ride around the road and trails of the Cotswolds, starting from the town of Winchcombe (about 10 miles from ‘nam). This was (about) the tenth time I’ve ridden this event and was the first time all 1000 places were filled ahead of time.

We managed to set a record of our own this year by only starting 20 minutes late. This unfortunately meant the first 10 or so miles were spent riding (and waiting) behind slower riders. Once the trails cleared a bit we made fairly steady progress round, the only problems being my lack of fitness and one puncture. After almost six hours riding we arrived back in Winchcombe tired (me especially) but glad to have made it round. This years statistics are as follows

Total distance covered : 65.90 miles
Total time : 5 hours 52 minutes
Average speed : 11.2 mph (how weak is that?)
Number of wrong turns : Four
Number of wrong turns which involved riding up steep hills needlessly : Two
Amount of food grubbed : 20 fig rolls, 3 chocolate bars, 2 cakes, 2 bananas, 2 cereal bars and one jam sandwich.

This year’s route was billed as being one of the hardest ever with lots of new trails being included. It was definitely a good route but much of it seemed to be tracks included in previous years ridden in reverse. Still, the last 10 miles was good, the descent of Waterhatch being a much better finish than the energy sapping grassy trails on Cleeve Hill.
Bring on next year.

Just returned from France having taken a trip with Geoffrey to see a couple of stages of ‘La Grande Boucle’. We took in the 3rd stage – Waterloo to Wasquehal 06 Jul 2004 and the 4th – Cambrai to Arras (team time trial) 07 Jul 2004.

Saeco riding the team time trial

On the first day we managed to catch the stage on one of Northern France’s infamous sections of pavé at Gruson. Following a night in the delightful town of Lievin, the highlight of which was watching some sort of chariot racing in a French bar, we took in the team time trial. Drove out to a small village on the route called Haplincourt from where we watched the riders in the pouring rain. A short video clip of the Brioche La Boulangiere team (sadly without Beloki)during the team time trial can be downloaded here. The rest of our pictures can be viewed here.