L2P24 - Done!

Phew! What an experience

9 stages - 2 shared, 4 more for me, 3 more for Simon. 281 miles covered as a team, at an average speed of 17.4mph. Max Speeds 42.6 - Darren and 38.9 - Simon.

Rode in the front group pretty much all the way - and finished with them just 23hrs and 24mins after leaving Blackheath.

Highlights:

• John Torode (Masterchef) starting us of at Blackheath
• Shooters Hill - hit 42.6mph!
• Eating what felt like pretty much my entire bodyweight in 24 hours!
• Riding with a great group of people
• The Scope / Action Challenge guys and girls - always helpful and supportive
• Mick and The Artel Scaffolding boys - legends!
• The Pink Jerseys - Absolute machines kept the pace up / down / flat - bike monsters!
• Riding a bypass (can't remember the name) between Calais and Norrent - super smooth 2/3 lane highway - we flew!
• Riding in the pitch black - red lights as far as you could see!
• The morning fog - at times could not see a thing except the cyclists around
• Descending for what seemed like forever on one of the night stages
• Racing through the Paris Suburbs to catch up the front group when we had been held up by red lights
• Arriving in Paris and riding across the Arc, and down the Champs
• No Mechanicals / punctures suffered en route
• Shower at the Sports Centre - never has hot water felt so good before!
• Breakfast in the Hotel - slow and leisurely, plenty to eat and great coffee
• Watching Le Tour
• Cav winning on the Champs Elysee(Again!)
• Tabbing to Gare du Nord
• Eurostar Journey
• My bike still being in one piece when it arrived back at the O2!
• Team Roaring Forties doing it together!

Sure there's more but hey. Now what shall we do next...?

Tomorrow we ride!

Says it all doesn't it?

We leave today for London, and then "Tomorrow we Ride"

Weather looks a bit iffy, but holding on to Sean Kelly's wise words, "you don't know what it's like till you are out there and once out there you may as well ride"

Full report of the 24 hour epic to follow....

Mid Week Update

2 days to go!!!! Tyres changed, bike cleaned. Last day at work today, packing tonight, travel to the smoke tomorrow and then pedalling furiously from Friday till Saturday - all day and all of the night!

Further to the postings below, Halfrauds said no to my magnaminous offer of £999 cash for a Boardman Team Carbon so am now not buying one on principle. Don't mind spending the money but not on a bike that should have been £200 cheaper, so new potential purchases are:

The Focus Cayo 105 Ltd Ed

OR The Planet X SL Pro Carbon

OR The Ribble Sportive - not with those wheels though :-(

Help....?!

Training Update Week 28

L2P24 - C'est arrive dans 4 jour!

What a journey, 6 months of anticipation, planning, training etc - Adrenalin pumping, excitement building, nervous tension abounds.

The stats:

250 miles covered this week, longest day on bike 57 miles, that's 5604 for year to date.

Weight continues to fluctuate somewhere between 11st 1lb and 11st 3lb, best Wii fit age of the week - 20, worst - 35 - still not too bad for a 40 year old - huh?

Tyres and tubes purchased - think that's probablt all the cycle related stuff i need now - just got too decide what i want / need for the trip and attempt to fit it into the relevant baggage i am allowed to take.

Loving the TDF this year, Schleck currently in yellow, although needs to grab significant time in the Pyrennees over the next few days.  Looking like Bertie and Schleck plus A N Other on the podium next week, as most of the other (alleged) GC contenders are disappearing southwards.

Petacchi and Thor swapping the Green Jersey with each other, whilst Cav slowly creeps up behind them, although Cav looks favourite to take the remaining two sprinters stages in Bordeaux and the Champs Elysses, the other two only need to place to deny the world' fastest man on a bike from taking the prize he so desperately wants (and deserves).

As for the Renshaw incident and subsequent ban, yes he headbutted, and yes it would appear that he shut the door on Farrar, although was it pre-meditated? BUT show me a sprint where a rider does hold his line and not dart for the space - bumping. boring and general mayhem is the plat du jour. Is it just an anti HTC campaign by the organisers or even an AntiCav campaign? Ultimately so long as they consistently apply the rules then i guess its one to put down to experience - interesting to see if the Green Jersey wearer was to "foul" before the end of the race and their consequent reaction.

Lance has lost more time this year than ever before - a sad sight to see a truly great man and cyclist being abandoned by his team - not quite in the Autobus, but a long way down on the stages. Wig(NO)go also not having a good year - maybe scrape something in the final TT?

Oh well - i shall be there on Sunday for the finish in Paris, after cycling 180 miles or so in 24 hours - full report on all the weeks  and partiularly the weekends action next time!

PS further to the rant below, i bit the bullet and went in to Halfrauds and challenged them face to face ref the Team Carbon, even offering them the previous price for a dal there and then. Head office are to make a decision today whether i can have it or not!

The bike i would have bought...?

Reminiscent of the great Jim Bowen in his Bullseye days - "take a look at what you would have won".

So the bike I have set my sights on, to purchase under a cycle to work scheme has now had its RRP inceased above the threshold for C2W to apply!

There I was minding my own, strolling through Norwich, glanced in window of Halford and noticed the Boardman Team Caron bike with a £1,199.00 tag on it. Hmmm thought I, perhaps another limited edition, perhaps a misprint, perhaps a logical reason. - NO!

I checked the interweb and lo at halfords.com their prices were the same, but no other price changes in the range incl the womens version of the same bike? So I ring Halfords city centre store and enquire about price increase and consequent loss of sale. Duty manager informs me that carbon prices are on the up as are prices of componentry on the bike - so why not the whole range. 2011 range coming out he says, new prices across the board he says - reading between the lines he says that we are now making £200 profit before we start as we are selling old stock at new price - frustrated - yes I am!!!!

The real shame is that Boardman Bike's web site still shows it as "setting a new standard for Sub £1000 bikes" - would that be without wheels, handlebars and saddle then?

Always liked the Boardman's, but never liked the Halfords tie-up - go with your gut I reckon? Ribble, Planet X, eBay - my search is widening!

Training Update Week 27

Right, so that's 11 days to go then - how excited, nervous,apprehensive am I?

This weeks stats:

301miles completed, longest day in saddle 63 miles, thats 5354 for the year to date.

Weight is hovering around 11st 1lb ad Wii fit age is 23 (amazing!)

Rider packs have all arrived - see below, plus lots of info / timings etc - Seeing it all on paper makes it seem so real and maybe a tad daunting?

New Saddle bought, awaiting delivery, also will be buying 2 new tyres and tubes this week.

In other news Spain win the World Cup and deservedly so, quite how Holland finished with 10 men is amazing could easily have been only 8!
TDF has had a cracking first week. Petacchi with 2 stages, Cav with 2, Hushovd, Chavanal and Schleck (yes Schleck) with 1 apiece. On reflection sad that sgate 2 was effectively nullified but loved the cobbles and 2 days of mountain sages have shaken up GC with the big boys coming to the fore.
Lance's aspirations are now pretty much gone, and Wiggo would appear to be going backwards, but Evans, Schleck & Bertie all look strong, with a couple more days in the Alps and still the Pyrenees yet to come - watch out for more excitement on the roads of France - oh and have i mentioned i will be there to see the finish?!

Rider Packs Arrive!

At long last the rider packs were shipped and received this week. They include the fabled jersey (now white as opposed to the original blue design), rider numbers, map, luggage tags, timing chips and final information.

13 days to go and the excitement is growing, adrenalin pumping and reality biting.

Bring it on...

Training Update Week 26

Phew - 6 months and still going! 18 days to go to my own personal Grand Depart

Massive milestone broken this week - see post below, weather on the whole has been awesome, if not a tad on the warm side, excepting the drenching I got last Tuesday, on with the stats:

205 miles done this week, thats a big 5053 for the year to date! Longest day in the saddle 54 miles. Weight according to my friend the Wii Fit is around 11st 3lbs, with my age consistently stacking up sub 30 - can't be bad?

Also had a week of "cross training" this week, helping to deliver a sports based activity in a local high school for 30 plus teenagers for four days - in a word - Knackered!

L2P24 pack should be with me any day....
Sponsorship up to £2,110 plus around £50 to come from the local school too, also I have bought a 2nd hand bike bag from eBay, complete with wheel bag to protect the trusty steed on the return from Paris.

In other news:
England Football Team - FAIL
Andy Murray - FAIL
England Cricket Team - SUCCESS

British cyclists - JURY OUT -

yes the TDF is upon us, after 11 months of anticipation, The prologue was on Saturday in Rotterdam, with Spartacus doing what comes naturally, Lance placing 4th ahead of Bertie. WigGO became more of a WigNOGO, after a disasterous tactical decision to switch start time for his prologue run - right in the middle of a downpour.

Stage 1 promised much with Cav eying up his 11th stage win in 3 years, but after crashing on a sharp right hander, his race was done, two further pileup's occured to gift the stage to Petacchi, with Renshaw taking 2nd. - Thought the carnage was due on stage 3? Oh well. Classics type routes and cobbles over the next couple of days should keep the excitement up.

More soon...

Initial Annual Target Breached

5000 miles completed in under 6 months of riding - nuff said!