A Proper Ride.

32.67 miles / Cycling time 2hrs 15min / Average speed 14.4mph / Max speed 30.4mph / 1907 Calories burned.

The above figures are the results of my first 'proper' ride since the accident. By 'proper' I mean that I cycled further than ten miles.

Today I met up with Jason (Team 219) and we went out for a circular route. It was just a leg spinning exercise but vital for me on two fronts. First- it was another important step in helping to build up my fitness and recovery. Second-I needed to get out on a reasonable ride to help with my confidence. Although no vehicle was involved in my accident I have found that I now seem to be very wary of motor vehicles to a point far in excess of the way I felt before the crash. As I don't even remember the accident it seems a very odd way for me to be feeling-on the other hand perhaps it's a normal reaction. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has experienced something similar.

We had a good ride in great weather and I am sure it did me a lot of good.

Well - It made me smile.

When Anne went off to work today she left me behind a small badge to wear.

I don't know where she acquired it from but it gave me a smile when I read it.

I must say that compared to the courtesy shown us by the French drivers on the roads in France I do feel that we have quite a few psychopaths behind the wheel on UK roads.

Where the ACCR ended.

This is the spot on the road near Budleigh Salterton where our ACCR endurance trip came to an abrupt end. We were travelling down hill and had just swept around the slight bend in the road as can be seen in the first picture (looking back up the incline). From what I am given to understand when my front wheel hit the first of the yellow rumble strips as shown in the second picture it caught the small pot hole that you can just see near the cars front wheel. Each of the strips has a small pot hole and then just past the strips on the solid white line of the hatching there is a sunken manhole cover. It seems quite possible that after the pothole threw me off balance the manhole cover finished the job off. I vaguely remember the yellow lines but it is almost like a dream. Looking at these pictures what is very clear to me is how lucky I was. The road is pretty narrow and if I had not fallen to the left -away from the on-coming traffic I could just as easily have slid into the path of a vehicle coming towards me. I was also lucky that the driver of the car following me had given me enough space and himself a large enough gap to allow him to stop before hitting me. As I said I was very lucky. Looking at the readout from the Garmin cyclo computer I was travelling at exactly 27mph when I came off. Unfortunately a lot of the recorded data of the entire ACCR was lost in the accident. According to Jason the accident caused quite a tailback of traffic not helped by the narrow width of the road.

There was a positive outcome from the accident. While I was in hospital I had to have a couple of blood tests. These produced a number of abnormal blood results. This has meant that I have now had to see a number of consultants to set in motion treatment in order to sort these conditions out. As I had not had any symptoms of these health issues prior to the accident I see the accident as a lucky break. Hopefully these other conditions have been caught in time- I will keep you all posted.

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.