Mow Cop

Here's the latest photo from Mow Cop on the Cheshire Cat - I'm smiling, not grimacing - honest.

132 Miles this Week

Cheshire Cat boosted the total. It took real willpower to get on the bike this morning.

Lots of hills - Cobbles Missing

Cheshire Cat done this weekend. 104 miles, the last 40 of which were torture - as you can see from the profile of the route. Dave and I made it up Mow Cop for which we received the very tasteful medal here:- obviously worn with pride for the next 2 weeks. Martin had to put his foot down when approached by an inconsiderate motorist, once you do that, there's no getting going again!

The hills in that very spiky section of the profile were pretty unrelenting. The language of the participants deteriorated as yet another steep climb appeared around the corner. Pity the poor motorist who dared to peep us near the end - being in an open top car, they must have heard every word! Mow Cop was definitely the worst climb, Dave lay on his back at the top in a semi-conscious state muttering about seeing the light - I thought we'd lost him!

Still we all got to the end and a welcome cuppa. Hopefully London to Paris will be a breeze compared to this.

The missing cobbles in the title do not refer to the state of my anatomy after 7 hours in the saddle, but the cobbled climb in Alderley Edge that we managed to miss. Some unkind souls claimed we must have ignored it deliberately!

Here's the GPS of the whole route - http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7903292

SOLD!!

Sold the Tour of Germany shirts donated by Prendas for a total of £64.53. One of the shirts is on its way back to Germany. Listing a few more items this week. So far I've raised over £120 in this way.

50 miles this week

Bit more low key this week as I was away for the weekend sans bike. Not really got much commuting in either. Still, I'll make up for it in Cheshire this weekend. Here's a link to the loop I did round Tugby - http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7872569

Meow

This weekend it's the Cheshire Cat, which is a bloody long way with a bloody steep hill near the end. The picture is me battling up Mow Cop last year. This year I'll have my team mates (Martin and Dave) to keep me company, along with 1500 other riders. Should be fun (apart from the Mow Cop bit). There's a cobbled hill to climb this year which will be an interesting challenge.

Prendas Ciclismo

Just another mention for Prendas Ciclismo. Not content with supplying me with the Tour of Deutschland shirts, they have also promoted the auction on their own website! Top blokes. Their cycle jersey range is superb and their arm warmers are the best I've used.
Visit their online shop - http://www.prendas.co.uk

New Bike a Bit Disappointing

I think I got the sizing wrong!

Ebay - More Items to Come

Prendas Ciclismo http://www.prendas.co.uk/ who stock a fantastic range of Italian and Retro cycling get up, have very genorously donated two jerseys for me to sell on Ebay. They are the actual podium shirts supplied by Santini to the Tour of Deutschland 2007 and very collectable. They have the zips up the back to allow the podium girls to slip them onto the winners quickly at the end of each stage - see pic of Andy Scleck wearing the one he won! Thanks very much to all at Prendas - I will be listing the shirts very soon.



I will also be listing my small collection of replica Sheffield United shirts very soon. There's some old classics from the last decade or so (not sure if the bright orange one counts as a classic though)
Premiership here we come!

103 Miles This Week

Good week this week - went out on Wednesday morning for a quick ride and rattled off 28ish miles - http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7799965 I've done the ride a few times and race myself on the GPS. Didn't manage to beat my best time though. I blame the wind (as in the weather!)

On Saturday I went out with Martin on a trawl of the best hill climbs we could reasonably manage in a morning, ready for the Cheshire Cat in a fortnight http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7799967. The wind was playing up again - very gusty headwind on the way home. All good practice.

Went out with the kids on a very sedate circuit of Pitsford Water on Sunday - really sunny Spring morning. Add all that to my commuting and over 100 miles this week. After the Cheshire Cat, will be able to ease back again for a while.

Ebay Charity Auctions

I'm selling some items on Ebay to raise money for Christian Aid - click on the pictures on the right to make a bid!

59 Miles This Week

Went out for a 50 miler from Dave's house in Whetstone (route here - http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7747671) Got a bit lost a couple of times and ended up braving the traffic on the old A50. Martin and Dave's mate Paul came along. Paul on a hybrid(!). Took in the really steep hills at Gumley which went down well with Paul! Two more weekends before the Cheshire Cat.

Toupe or not Toupe?

The eagle-eyed will have noticed that the saddle featured at the top of this blog is called a Toupe. My mum bought it for my birthday. I asked her for a Toupe and she got me one. As you can see, it's fairly useless at covering up my rapidly receding hairline.

39 Miles This Week

Went out for a ride with Andy Sharp and Dave Steveley (Martin off skiing). Good ride in good weather. Arrived in Hallaton to find the cafe closed, which was a bit of a blow. The route is here -
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=7723638
Fitted in a couple of sessions on the trainer and commuting to work. Need to get a lot more miles in before the Cheshire Cat.