Another weekend is upon us and like hundred and thousands (can you still buy those?) of others I am busy trying to squeeze at least one ride in to a busy schedule of family and work (plus of course the essential activity of sport watching).
Since my cycle Europe challenge and RideLondon I have only been on the bike once and that was a tiny cycle to my local train station and back. This is despite the fact that I still had one final ride to complete for my three part charity challenge.
As of yesterday the ballot for RideLondon is once again open for the Great British public to chance their arms at gaining one of the 25000 available places for July 2016.
But I won’t be one of them, or at least thats what I thought!
To be positive or negative that is the conundrum!! Being a rather indecisive individual I think I will play it by ear and see where we end up.
After the build up already described, the dawn broke in a ridiculously warm (and ridiculously small) famous chain hotel room last Sunday morning. Myself and Mr Less Roly awoke ready to join 24998 other gluttons for punishment at the start of RideLondon in the wonderful Olympic Park.
Finally its here, a year after being stood at a standstill in Richmond park needing a lifejacket more than a cycle helmet, RideLondon 2015 has arrived.
Last year the tail end of hurricane Bertha severely tested the nations (and my) love of cycling to the limit. I honestly can’t remember ever being outside in quite such a downpour as on 10th August 2014. The rain played havoc with the route and before I had even crossed the start line I had heard that what I feared the most, the dreaded Leith and Box had been removed, PHEW. 87 miles in total last year, but this year would be different, this year I had unfinished business!!
So its been a little over 48 hours since I arrived at the Rouleur-in-laws after having to call time on the first and toughest of my cycle challenges due to injuries to my fellow Roly.
On arrival there was predominantly a huge amount of guilt to reason with, but added to the mix was a dash of anger, a spoonful of pain and a whole heap of frustrations, which overall meant, that like a cheese that had been out of the fridge too long I was pretty stinky (metaphorically of course).
Of course no option really existed other than to abandon given the injuries my colleague suffered (I am still waiting on the finding of the Doctors report but wouldn’t be surprised to hear that he is now a Eunuch!) but it was still hard to accept.
This has been the hardest blog to write so far, but unfortunately the ride was over before we had left Belgium yesterday.
I know some of you have been contacting me to see if everything is OK and I am sorry for not having responded so far but I will explain all.
As you will know from reading this blog for the last few days the ride has not been without incident, and it is one such of these that has ended the ride early.
Good afternoon to all,
So here we are still in Belgium but closing in on both the Netherlands and Germany where we should end up in tomorrow.
Todays stats, 70 miles, 2.5km of Cobbles, four buckled wheels, and a cycle path that my good friend described with an unbroken five minute expletive filled rant.
My fellow Roly started the day (and ended the day yesterday) with both wheels severely buckled, so much so he was basically riding with the break on for 20km. Oh and a drunk past out on the concrete in front of him where his wonderful bedside manner came in to play (tongue firmly in cheek), he did put him in the recovery position and slapped him until he woke back up.
This morning was spent trying to align this and a quick fix was completed, he still had to leave the back break open though! And away we go.
Good evening everyone. So here I am in our tent in Belgium after a very brief interlude in France.
The morning got off to an inauspicious start with a chat with possibly the most grumpy customer service representative in history (sorry to name and shame again DFDS ferries, I do understand it’s tough at the moment but…….) followed by the news that we were delayed by 20 mins (40 in reality). Not a problem normally but when you have 75 miles to cover and you aren’t starting until 1pm (actually 1.45) things start to get nervy.
Away we went in to the town (or is it a city?) of Dunkirk and it’s rather interesting cycle paths that seemed to criss cross every road and took an age to negotiate and then out of the other side in to Belgium (eventually). Talking of cycle paths by the way, we had our first run in with the Police who politely pointed out the cycle path we weren’t using and who then waited 3 miles down the road to check we used it!!
Today was considerably flatter than yesterday so the pace was much higher with the first 35 miles covered in 2hrs 45mins which when the fact that we are both rather Roly and are in no way as fit as Alberto Contador is not too bad.
As with yesterday though things then went a little down (or rather UP) hill. Yes Belgium is supposed to be flat but with a fair few miles in the legs any rise was tiring. Time seemed to go backwards and miles seemed to drag on forever!
Finally though we entered Deinze (5 miles south of Ghent) to find our campsite which once found has offered fantastic accommodation, a warm shower, beer, and most importantly takeaway Pizza. 75 more miles ticked off!
All in all a fast and furious second day through the beautiful villages and farm land of France and Belgium.
Unfortunately for us though tomorrow is looking very wet with rain forecast!!
Thanks for reading, it’s time for bed.
100 miles and 6400 feet of climbing, that’s how I spent my day and I can think of oh so many better ways to spend it……..
Today was hard, very hard and if I am honest a lot harder than I had anticipated. I knew there were hills but frankly it feels like all we have done today was climb (obviously not as much as the men of the tour but hey I am Roly!!!).
Oh and did I mention the head wind!!
But Day One is over and we are now tucked up in a B and B in Dover, I know I know, I said we would camp but I think we earned a little comfort tonight.
Now just waiting on a bit of dinner and then a very early night!!
In conclusion (and sorry it is short and sweet) Tired? Check. Hungry? Check. Nervous for tomorrow? Check. But just a little bit Proud too!!
Check out http://www.justgiving.com/Philip-keel.com if you would like to sponsor me for this challenge for the incredible Shooting Star Chase.
Until tomorrow! Good Night.
The Roly Rouleur 