On yer bike!

Here's where the blog goes a bit bikey - having been a runner for many decades and only looking at cycling as a means to get from A to B, I have now started to get more enthusiastic about the pleasures of cycling. This is the Dawes Audax Giro - a fine vintage touring bike which has carried me round the lanes for the last few years. Probably indestructable it goes fairly well but the brakes and gears leave a lot to be desired. It also rattles and shakes so on any longish ride it's a bit jarring and uncomfortable even with the padded shorts and padded saddle cover. Still it's put in some good service.

And this is the shiny red one - a Fuji Sportif, sportive or sportif is a flash continental term for a touring bike and this one's fairly sturdy (note the mudguards.) The man in the shop spent ages talking about the relative benefits of disc brakes and Shimano whatsits and trying to sell me top of the range Cannondales and Specializeds and so on, but in the end I just said I'll take the red one! I've put the padded seat cover on and am just about to do 50 or so miles on a pleasantish Sunday afternoon. A few weeks ago I'd have struggled with half that distance but we're building it up to a big one. (LEJOG!) Not that I'm losing interest in running or anything like that but last weekend's Fairy Freckled Cow trail race was a bit painful as you can see from the following photo. Vicky took this about half a mile from the end when I was rapidly running out of steam in part due to a wicked tumble which saw me splattered on the ground. In fact no one saw me as at that stage I was well ahead of the next runner on a isolated part of the course. I staggered to my feet expecting hordes of runners to whiz past but in fact nobody appeared. What had seemed like several minutes must have been just seconds - I got going again and managed to stop my fast finishing clubmate Fred Jones from beating me to win an excellent bottle of beer for finishing in first V60 position.

N