Fixing a fat

No, you read it right. Inspired by Adrian Gunn at Howies attempt to beat his fastest time in to the office by using a TTX, and provided with opportunity by moving closer to my office, I've decided to fix the tyre currently sitting somewhat stubbornly around my waist.
Two years ago I rode the Etape du Tour in the Pyrenees, taking on the Col de Marie Blanque and the mighty Aubisque. I got a Silver medal. To those that don't know about the Etape, it's quite an achievement. It's not Gold but for the majority of people who ride the event, it's still out of reach. I was pretty fit, lean as you like, weighed 58.5kg and actually liked climbing hills. Unfortunately it was two years ago and a couple of changes in job have dropped me off at 65kg.
So this morning was the first step on the long, and, no doubt, painful road to the Etape in 2008. I'll be posting as many stats as I can over the next year, partly to give the blog an episodic flavour and partly so I keep it up. If you want to join in, let me know.
This is part of my ride in to the office. Sweet!

Flat Earth Society (new member).

They were wrong, and, so it would appear, was I. I moved down here dreading the days on the bike without hills. How wrong can you be? I set out today on what I thought would be an hour's jaunt and got back 1hr 45 mins later. There's a few hills around here but they're to the North of Towcester, an area I'd not ridden before. Heading out toward Abthorpe and then up to Blakesley is a long old drag that, so early in the ride, fair tuckered me out, but later on coming out of Preston Cope is another hill that reminded me of the smaller hills of the Dales. Steep as you like and a really bad road surface. I was pointed in this direction by a couple marshalling a race outside Blakesley where, strangely, I met a colleague from the Euro department, Marc Snelson, out on his bike too. He was surprised when we found out there was a Snelson Trophy in the A5 Rangers club that I mentioned in an earlier post and it turned out the couple marshalling were from that club. Spooky. So you'll see me on the members list before too long. 

Capital Gains

It's always a fuzzy feeling I get when I see someone receive a new bike. The look of joy, the sheer excitement of the moment; the realisation that in their hands is means of escape from whatever is weighing heavy on their shoulders, be that stress of work, relationships, puberty or indeed the immense weight of having nothing pressing left to do in the day.
Check out what the Capital Radio guys got up to when a Trek Madone turned up at their offices. Paddy Bunce, (Sports Monkey and World Record Holder from the Johnny Vaughn Breakfast Show), was due to race in the London Triathlon earlier this month and through our involvement with Tim Don, Paddy was loaned a Madone. I'm not sure I got the fuzzy feeling, but at least they enjoyed the bike.
Paddy, I'm watching.

Bike as Art

During the build up to the Tour de France in London, we were asked by Oakley if we could get hold of one of Lance's bikes for an exhibition of Tour images being held at the Getty Images gallery in London, (where else?). Knowing the likelihood was pretty slim, we decided on the next best thing, a replica. Picking the bike we wanted was one thing, so many custom P1 paint jobs to choose from, but getting built was something else altogether. It took a lot of teamwork with the P1 guys in the US to get not only the right colour but spec as well, but they did us proud and the bike got to the gallery just in time; take a look.
Somehow, the gallery had also got hold of a Lance jersey! How rare is that?

Farewell to the Dales

In taking up the Managerial duties in Marketing here at Trek UK, I had to move, lock, shocks and bikes, 200 miles south to the sunny, but rather flat, environs of Milton Keynes. Actually, I moved to Towcester, (pronounced toaster, and yes, it's just down the road from Kettle/Sink/Hob and any other kitchen appliance you care to think of), just north of MK and home of the A5 Rangers Cycling Club, which I fully intend to join.

Saying goodbye to the Yorkshire Dales wasn't easy, it's a beautiful part of the country and Pateley Bridge itself is possibly the most desirable village. It's a personal opinion of course, but the combination of quiet roads and hills aplenty, along with a great leisure centre and swimming pool, (not to mention 2 curry houses and Fish and Chip shops, a pizza restaurant and the best damn delicatessen in the country, Elliotts), all adds up to a cool place to live, especially if you're a cyclist.

The most leisurely gradient out of the valley is 10%, the worst is 25%. My bete noir was always the climb out of Lofthouse, which, if you've ever been out that way, you'll know as the narrow, twisting, torturous route over to Masham. Your other choices are Greenhow Hill, 16% more or less for about 2 miles; Old Church Lane, 25% but only about half a mile long; Two Stoops, again about 25% but over a mile long; Silver Hill, average of only 10% but with the start being 30%.

If you ever ride that way, try out your own 3 peaks route, it makes for a short but crippling ride!