Wordless Wednesday

All I want for Christmas ............

As the winter weather continues to keep us locked in its frozen jaws, I have finally conceded defeat in my attempt to cycle 6,000 miles this year.
Even if the snow and ice were to miraculously disappear, I would still need to seek further divine intervention to rid me of my current 'medical affliction', before I could remount my two wheeled steed. Fortunately I have gratefully avoided winter bugs and colds for some years now.
I find it frustrating when work colleagues feel they need to stay at home every time they are forced to buy some tissues.
You would not get that from me !!!!!!
I would literally have to be at deaths door with the old 'grim reaper' the other side pretending to be delivering some late Christmas post.

......... when I have had to take time off my ailments have been far more serious.
For the past two years I have obviously had pneumonia but still went in. Alas this year I am sure that I must have swine flu which I cant beat off.
It has probably lay dormant in me since my visit to Texas where it had blown over from Mexico and lodged itself in my cycle helmet. There is no other rationale explanation.

Thankfully tomorrow sees the arrival of the winter Solstice or the shortest day of the year.
After that the days get longer, each one after the another and boy will I be counting.

The actual celebration of the winter Solstice is seen as more important than the Summer one as if if effectively the start of natures 'cycle' - I knew Id get the word cycle in somewhere.

The Saami, indigenous people of Finland, Sweden and Norway, worship Beiwe, the sun-goddess of fertility and sanity. She travels through the sky in a structure made of reindeer bones with her daughter, Beiwe-Neia, to herald back the greenery on which the reindeer feed.

On the winter solstice, her worshipers sacrifice white female animals, and thread the meat onto sticks which they bend into rings and tie with bright ribbons. They also cover their doorposts with butter so Beiwe can eat it and begin her journey once again.

All I can say is that its a good job Beiwe and Santa travel on separate nights as things could get a bit messy.

Anyway on to the more serious stuff . If I cant cycle at the very least I can think about cycling and more importantly next years events.



This year will see some new events I and The Mules will be completing.



June 6-8th 2011 Inclusive.
Morecombe to Bridlington following the Roses Way from the west to the East Coast of England.

26th June 2011
Flat out in the Fens -112 mile Sportive across eastern England.

9pm 9pm Friday/Sat 8th/9th July 2011
Charity 24 hr challenge for 'Help for Heros' cycling for 24 hrs with a prise for the sponsor who selects the correct mileage for the event.
We have decided to organise this ourselves around East Yorkshire.



27th August 2011
Anglo Mules trip to USA where Karen and Simon will be joining Joanne and I in competing in the 30th Anniversary of Hotter than Hell 100 miles Sportive.



4th September 2011
Manchester 100 mile sportive.



Now all I want for Christmas is lots of Cycling gear, a tape worm to lodge in my digestive system for a couple of months and the temperature to get above freezing on Christmas morning !!!!!!


I dont ask for much...........................



Merry Christmas to all readers , see you on the Road.

Bah Humbug - not me

As the early winter grips with its icicle teeth, cycling is now forced from my attention.

Even the prospect of 'spinning' has now been taken away from me.

The snow piled up so high on my local leisure centre that it brought down part of the roof - forcing it to close along with its classes.

Initially this was a big blow

Cycling for me is a bit of an obsession, but to be fair it is also much more than that.
I love commuting by bike and the feeling that it gives me. To know that with each mile I save 'x' amount of pence in petrol and also provide society with a moving billboard.
Showing that travelling by car does not have to be the conventional way to travel.

I love exploring my beautiful countryside at a pace that is quick enough to keep my interest yet slow enough to absorb what is visually on offer.


I love being a 'Mule' as part of the Travels with my Mule cycling team. I love the camaraderie of team work, competing and riding amongst large groups of other like minded people.

Today I ventured into town by foot.
As a cyclist I have always been able to relate to the expression 'Its just like riding a bike' but now I was ironically applying this to the prosess of walking.
A bit like Bambi in that early Disney production, I could have been mistaken for somebody that had already tucked into to the Sloe gin.
I was dressed in multiple layers of warm clothing and wearing boots with grips like tractor treads.
The pavements were thick with ice from old grey snow.
Snow that had tried in vain to thaw only to be crystallised during the night offering a morning 'slip up'.
My lack of cycling was making me heavy, both in mind and body and my progress was laboured.

My hometown Beverley is a pretty place, with traffic excluded from its main thoroughfare which leads between two market areas. Wednesday Market and Saturday Market.
As I followed this course I was entertained by brass bands playing Christmas Carols.


I have always associated brass bands with my native Yorkshire and when they play Carols it gives me goose bumps. Through emotion rather than the wind that is blown into the assorted instruments.

The street was filled with Christmas shoppers creating a sea of assorted bobbing winters hats and joyous faces. Children delirious with expectation, mothers anxious with anticipation and fathers weary with frustration and of getting their wallets out.

The air was filled with the smell of roasted chestnuts and Cinnamon and shimmering with festive cheer.
As I tapped my foot to the deep sound of the Tuba player and mouthed the words to the carol, I smiled and my mood instantly lifted.
You see there are some days in the year for cycling, some days for resting from cycling, but there should also be days when you should just take it all in.

Advent seems to fit this bill

Rainy Days and Mondays

It seems an age since I last wrote my blog..... and in fact it is
I went away on a course for three weeks and when I returned last weekend winter had finally arrived as well as a few extra (Unwanted) pounds due to my lack of activity.

Last Monday I set off to work with great expectations all be it in completer darkness.
My shorts had been replaced by long johns, my fingerless gloves by gauntlets and my bandanna by a woolly hat. The overnight temperature had caused an icy sheen on the road and my chest to hurt as I breathed in the cold air.
On the first corner I was lucky to keep my bike upright and the enjoyment was frozen out by the need for total concentration.

Starting in the dark and cold and returning in the dark and cold ........ well it is just grim and I am not really enjoying it.

Thankfully my work came to my rescue......with late nights and vehicular requirements I only had to complete 3 one way trips and 1 return commute completing a paltry 68 miles.
I know I need to do more but this sobering realisation will need to be phased in.
There is one big positive though my new bike
My new winter tourer does make this process less painful, its stable and comfortable yet still retains some integrity as a road bike.

There are also other positives.......I can now start looking at my Christmas wish list.
With the increase in the popularity of cycling there is so much out there.
Ventoux http://www.ventoux-wear.com/ have a great site with so real cool shirts I particularly like this one.
With the Travels with my Mule Team expecting to grow bigger and stronger next year I need a helmet to go with the red,white and blue livery

I found this helmet on the Sustrans web site

http://www.sustrans.org.uk/

They also have some funky lights that just clip on to your bars and have a full range of colours to match your bike Finally cafepress do hundreds......yes hundreds of cycling T Shits
Cafepress

http://t-shirts.cafepress.co.uk/bicycle

Hopefully this week will see an improvement in my cycling mileage and to keep me motivated I will start identifying rides for next year.

Mule or Mamil

Fantastic article by Dominic Casciani of the BBC

He could easily have been writing about me and in fact everybody I cycle with!!!!

Flashy sports cars are out, now no mid-life crisis is complete without a souped-up road bike. Why?

Every weekend, across the nation's rolling countryside, watch out for the Mamils: middle-aged men in lycra.

And ladies, if you have a man at home taking an unusual interest in how you shave your legs, you may have a Mamil in the making too.

Research conducted by the retail analyst Mintel suggests there has been a surge in the number of middle-aged men choosing to get on two wheels.

Given the number of men aged 35-44 who are buying fancy-pants road racing machines, is this a 21st Century mid-life crisis? Has the silence of skinny tyres and carbon fibre framesets replaced the thunderous noise of motorbikes?

Back in the day, when some men with a bit of disposable income reached a certain age, they did some strange things. The grind of the office and home life convinced some that the answer to an expanding midriff lay in a pair of designer jeans and a flashy but cheap Japanese sports car. Teenage daughters ran away screaming. Sons were deprived of the role models seen in adverts for shaving products.

Gents, our womenfolk were right all along. It wasn't a good look. And did it do anything for the beer belly?

But then came a confluence of coincidences that gave a man an option other than looking like a gigolo cruising Italy's glitzy Lake Como.

The past three years have seen the rise of the uber-techno, super-flashy, full-carbon fibre, bobby-dazzler road bike. The market for these bikes has expanded faster than a 45-year-old's waistline, partly thanks to the success of the British cycling stars at the Beijing Olympics. Marketing departments have produced smart advertising messages that encourage a bit of freedom, elite performance and memories of teenage derring-do.

And the result can be seen on Saturday and Sunday mornings as middle-aged blokes polish the rear derailleur, lower the mirrored shades and pedal into the hills. Every couple of weeks, you'll see a girth of Mamils gathering to race a "Sportive", a form of amateur competing that has taken the British cycling world by storm.

While the serious, younger riders are busy getting into the zone of elite competition, we're comparing the latest GPS route-finding cycle computer and pretending that we know how to stretch.

No Mamils life is complete without the Spiritual Journey to the Mountains

'We hit the first hill and suddenly we're a puffing, panting, heaving mass of sweaty humanity that's well past it's sell-by-date. Sounds humiliating? I've never had so much fun in my life - and there are also some unintended benefits of being the older rider'

'First, there's the no-questions-asked fan club. My kids, on the promise of an ice cream, will cheer me over the top of any climb. They're still young enough to think I'm Superman - and you don't get that kind of pick-me-up on the golf course.'

Even better is the Mamil's solution to saddle sores. A teenage shop assistant in a too-posh-to-pedal London shop tried to sell me some balm for £30. What's the point of that, I asked. I've got loads of unused nappy rash cream at home. He thought I was terminally uncool. I know better son, learn from your elders.

Robbie McIntosh is 45 and has spent much of the past year clad in lycra after being talked into cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats.

Ten days of pain, rain and groin strain later, he decided he was ready for Mont Ventoux.

This mountain, the Giant of Provence, is one of the toughest climbs in the world - 23km straight up. British cycling legend Tom Simpson died on its slopes in 1969. With terror in his belly, Robbie began the slow climb up its slopes last month.

"I wanted so much to say I'd climbed the Ventoux. It's an amazing mountain and a serious challenge.

"I was surprised at my nerves but I had a sense that if I could do this on a bike I could do anything and that was a feeling I wanted so much."

And make it he did. He wasn't as balletic as the local, young French riders - but he stood alongside them at the 1,910m summit and surveyed the world.

"Cycling has given me an opportunity to feel sporting achievement of the very highest level," says Robbie. "It doesn't matter that the pros ride up Mont Ventoux at twice the speed or more. I can scale the same sporting heights as the best cyclists on the planet. I can walk with giants."

Flash road bikes definitely look like a midlife crisis”
So a man becomes fitter and happier.
Where's the midlife crisis in that?
Ah. The costs.

Ladies, look away now. Men who seriously cycle typically spend about £3,000 to live that dream. For a time, at least. That sum will cover the set-up and the first year, then about £1,000 a year, at least, on top of that.

The must-have bike of the summer is the Pinarello Dogma, the bike used by the British Team Sky in the Tour de France. Yours for about £7,000. Thankfully, most Mamils don't have that kind of money to burn.

But it hasn't stopped the rapid growth of a suburban money-laundering operation. It goes something like this. Man dribbles while looking at £100 bib shorts on cycling website - they're the kind that make you look like a wrestler. Partner says no, think about the starving children. Man continues to look at bib shorts and decides they will help conceal his 36-inch waist.

Ventoux brings some men close to collapse He calculates that three weeks of hard pedalling will help on the belly front - which is coincidentally the same time it takes to receive a secret new credit card to pay for the shorts. Job done. Platinum status achieved with the online cycling retailer. Discounts on more kit to be sent direct to the office rather than home.

When you run the slide rule over all of this, flash road bikes definitely look like a midlife crisis.
There's a look to strive for, expensive kit and excuses for weekends away.

I and my band of hill-climbing brothers disagree. It's about becoming a happier and healthier person rather than sliding towards mediocre oblivion at the bottom of a pint glass.

But a message to other cycling widows from my own Mrs Mamil. She's discovered a precise form of retaliation. If your portly husband buys another stupid fluorescent jersey, buy yourself another pair of shoes.

That way, at least one of you can look good.

For original article and other related stuff visit BBC Link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10965608

We are going on a Bear Hunt

When my children were younger I used to read to them avidly- like most dads.
One of the stories I liked most, which fortunately they enjoyed too was 'Going on a Bear Hunt'. For the uninitiated its about a journey through a variety of different terrains and the regular proclamation that fear was not on the agenda, well something like that.

Well last Saturday brought a similar Journey. I was joined by Simon and we decided to head North.

Not North as say, North into the Wolds. But north and north again.
Into and over the Wolds, across the Vale of York, Dalby Forrest and onto the Wild North Yorkshire Moors.
I was quite content that no large fury mammal was going to be able to out pace me, but with the weather forecast threatening the warmest day of the year, and strong south westerly breezes I was slightly concerned about the rigours of the road.

The plan was to cycle to Grosmont, to get the steam train back to Pickering and then get a lift back home.

As Simon had not been through Dalby Forrest I thought it would be a good idea to include it in our schedule. On my map it showed a turn off midway through the Forrest that cut through to the moor, so it was not too much of a diversion.
Dalby Forrest is used by Mountain Bikers and is often the host for the National Mountain biking championships. On a weekend it is bustling with our 'wide tyred' colourful cousins especially at weekends. Although we are all cyclists their appearance, language and gestures are very different I guess the closest comparison would be between skiers and snowboarde.It pretty much consists of great climbs and eye watering descents even on the black top roads which are used to access the myriad of Forrest trails.

After about ten miles into the Forrest I was starting to feel the fatigue of a weeks cycling and there was as much 'grunt' as gradient and we had not even come to our turn off.
A few miles further we exited the Forrest which definitely was not supposed to happen.

A friendly ranger stopped and pointed out to us that the turning we were looking for was one of the mountain bike tracks, which eventually turned into a road.

I don't like the word 'Eventually.

Its a long word with too many letters, it takes more than a second to say. In my mind it often describes something a task or journey that is harder and longer than is anticipated.

I was reminded of my Bear song ....... 'You cant go over it, you cant go under it.........you have to go through it'

Simon and I both looked at our brand new tyres and decided that common sense/ cowardice should prevail. We would retrace our tracks and enter the moor on a more conventional road.
The A169!!!!!

All though this road was conventional in that it was made of tarmac it had been adapted to ensure that any cyclist would end up with blistered hands and a numb bum. There were pot holes ever few feet and the surface felt like it had been covered with golf balls
Added to that the road was steep, testing and winding in the same direction as the wind which meant that our speed nullified any cooling effect of the wind - making it very hot.

The views were breathtaking though and there were no bears, although this is where they filmed 'An American Werewolf in London'.

With our earlier detour we had added on an extra 20 miles so we decided to stop at Goathland or for TV viewers Aidensfield (Heartbeat)

All in all it was a great ride, I just love going on the moors.

SKINS

Sunday saw my first proper evaluation of my new skins clothing.

I have agreed to do a cross section of rides to fully test out the clothing during the Tour de France.

This will take in some of the features of a tour. My assignment is as follows:-

Week 1: Time Trial (15km over a flat route)
Week 2: Hill stage (120km which takes in two hills – one between 5 and 8% and the other between 10 and 12%. Neither should be any more than 5km of climbing)
Week 3: Road stage (150km flat route)

On Sunday I completed the Time Trial. I completed the ride in 26'15" with an average speed of 21.3 mph. My evaluation is as follows:-

Bib Shorts
What I wear over my engine is the most important piece of cycling clothing for me.

Whether you wear shorts or bib shorts if you are not comfortable, getting any rhythm is nigh on impossible and it can can ruin your ride experience.

Having large quads I do find all my bib shorts too restrictive on the lower leg hem, which often has grippers or some form of localised elasticity.

With skins the material does the work unaided, hugging the leg rather than strangling it and making it feel warm and secure.

I don't know what Multi-D Anatomic Carbonium means in describing the chamois but its net effect was like sitting on a feathered cushion, a feeling I like, but rarely experience outside my lounge.

At the same time there was no unwanted movement within the saddle.

The material felt good to the touch and was sympathetic with all movement.

These get 10/10 in my book

Base layer tank top

I have always been a wearer of compression type undergarments and for me this was an area where I could make significant comparisons. The skins base layer was far thinner and more breathable than the competition yet it still retained compression qualities in the right places. On such a hot day I would have expected to felt as if I were being 'poached' but the garment seemed to have a cooling effect.
I wish they sent me two! I have not seen anything like it on the market.

These get 11/10 !!!!!

Short Sleeved Jersey

After ensuring that I had chosen the right size my first impressions of this garment was that it was too small for my barrel chested frame and I was overcome with a sense of disappointment.

However this feeling was short lived.

This is compression clothing of the highest order.

Made up of a number of different panels the material is designed to move the way your body does and in the same direction. Its not just a design concept that you get to read on the box you can actually feel it.

With meshed under arm vents, reflective logo and vertical pockets at the rear it also oozed style. The material was silky to the touch and felt great inside and out.

For me it was not the most flattering of garments to wear but that's about the manikin and not about the garment.

These get 9/10

Summary

Skins are pretty much how they are described, like a second skin.

If you closed your eyes for a moment it would not be implausible to believe you were riding naked apart from wearing a helmet. The price range is competitive with top of the range cycling clothing but with a lot more to offer.