Another step to recovery.

Having said in my last posting earlier today that I had no real news to share with you- I was wrong. This afternoon I went out on my Revolution Country Traveller-the touring bike that I was riding when I had the accident. I achieved a distance of ten miles and still felt good at the end of the ride. How good? Well as I was heading back a young guy on his racer turned into the same road just behind me-I just knew that he was going to flash past me so that I could see how fast and what a good rider he was..!!!!! Well I couldn't have that could I? I allowed him to get a bit of distance on me -about 20seconds-and then I reeled him in and passed him at speed-about 28mph on the flat. He never did catch me. Silly stuff I know but it did me the world of good-not bad when you think that at about the same time six weeks ago I was falling off my bike and breaking collarbone and ribs etc..etc...

More pictures of the ACCR

While I am recovering from the accident that I had at the end of the ACCR I don't have much in the way of news to share with you all. However what I do have are some more general shots taken during the trip itself. Shown here we have a picture of Dave's tent with the temporary repair he made to it using a sheet of polythene. Dave had tested the waterproof properties of this tent before leaving home. He had climbed inside and got his other half to hose it down with the garden hosepipe. 'No water came in at all' he told us all. Pity then that as soon as this tent came in contact with French rain it all just poured in! In the end Dave was forced to buy another tent. You can see from the next picture how nice and uncrowded French camp sites can be in June. Everyone obviously knew that it was going to rain except us. Then we have a picture of John and Jason having a very 'rare' coffee stop-usually these guys would be hammering along eating up the miles-- or should that be kilometeres? The final picture here was taken from the Britanny Ferry at the very start of the trip. It shows the Studland chain ferry that we use when we head out on a training ride-not an angle that we normally would see it from.

Mountains....!

It was brilliant today to see Bradley Wiggins of Team Garmin-Slipstream hold on to his 4th place position in the general classification of The Tour de France as he climbed Mont Ventoux. On that mountain the race can be won or lost in one bad moment. After three weeks of racing with all the pressures and stress that the riders will have been under it was a cruel decision by the organisers to put that climb in at the last but one day-but what great cycling it made.
I climbed a mountain of my own today-I managed to get on my town bike and ride for ten minutes around the local streets. This was the first time since my accident 5 weeks ago that I have been on a bike-not perfect or pain free yet but it is a start. Not quite Mont Ventoux I know but just as tough for me right now.

Wet Weather.....!

Looking out of the window over the past couple of days and seeing some of the heavy rain we have had reminded me of some of the weather that we had on the ACCR. After last years LEJOG we expected that cycling south through France in June would almost guarantee us good weather. How wrong can you be?!! If any person from foreign shores ever makes comment to me about the bad weather that we have here in good old blighty I will let them know in no uncertain terms that in my experience it does in fact rain almost everywhere and at any time. Rumours of good weather in France during the summer are just that-Rumours. The last time I was camping in France was about ten years ago-again in June- and it rained heavily for most of the trip on that occasion.

The pictures today show one of our wet evening picnics and a wet scene in the local village.

More from the ACCR.

Just a couple more pictures from our recent ACCR both of these taken in the French section of the trip. Back on 1st July I posted a photo of Dave asleep in his hoody - Dave had told me the purpose of the hoody was to keep the light out of his eyes. Just to show how questionable that explanation really was, here we have another picture of Dave and his hoody-truth is that Dave has been working at the station here in Bournemouth for too long- he always thinks that he is working undercover trying to blend in with the passengers- you should see his Nike trainers to help complete the look. Another member of SWT staff from the infamous Revenue Protection Department is Inspector John Donoghue even in France he could not resist boarding a train / checking tickets and issuing penalty fares to passengers without tickets. The picture here shows John trying to entice passengers on to the train before serving them all with a penalty for not having a valid ticket-good old SWT training- it even comes in useful to make a few euros in the middle of an endurance cycle ride-mind you I think I am better out of it -I have now managed to go for ten weeks without a confrontation..........!!!

Incentive....!

My new bike has now been built up. I managed to get over to my Felt dealer for sizing/fitting and to take over my Fulcrum Racing Zero wheels which I intend to use with the bike. This bike is seriously lightweight-with a full carbon frame and the super lightweight wheelset. Even the bottle holders are made in super light carbon. All the components are Dura Ace 7900 series.The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that one of the pictures shows the bike indoors. Yes that's right I have brought the bike indoors so I can sit here and watch the Tour de France on TV and also look at my new bike. What greater incentive do I need to recover from my recent accident? Anne tells me she thinks that I am mad!!!

Making me happy.

Well the Tour de France is proving to be the exciting sporting occasion that it always is. Each year it manages to be unpredictable and delivers what is always a great sporting event. Team Astana is showing that it is a real force to reckon with and has ridden well each day. My favourite team Garmin has featured on the podium in 3 of the first 4 stages. Bradley Wiggins managed a 3rd place on stage 1-Tyler Farrar took 2nd on stage 2 and the team itself came 2nd in todays team time trial which was the 4th stage. Lance Armstrong (Astana) is cycling with a style and power that is truly amazing when you consider that he has been retired for the past four years and Mark Cavendish (Columbia) is showing us yet again that he is the fastest sprinter in the world right now. At the present time Garmin riders are in the overall placings at 6th(Bradley Wiggins) and 10th(David Miller). All of this makes me happy.--

Something else that has made me happy over the past couple of weeks is all the messages and calls I have received offering me support and best wishes following my accident. These have come from members of the Backpackers club and other areas of the outdoors scene as well as people that I have got to know in the cycling world. It makes me happy to realise how lucky I am to know such nice and thoughtful people. A big thank you to each and every one of you.