Back to Work

After two weeks off, I’ve been back to work this last week.  Its been busy, 600 emails to respond to, that’s after I’ve filtered out the crap!

Mileage wise, its been OK.  We move buildings which adds a few hundred yards to the journey, more if I forget we’ve moved.  I rode all week, getting 68 commuting miles.

Continuing the theme for the last few weeks, we went early on Thirsty Thursday and did Beacon Fell.  This week just me, Ian and Nic.  Karl and Alison are off to the Hebrides this week touring.  It is Alison’s first proper tour and they decided to use the run out to the Plough as a full dress rehearsal.  We were  expecting a dour mood when  we got to the pub.  It had rained all evening.  But when we got there Alison was quite up beat, pleased with her performance and looking forward to their trip (!!!).  We got a soaking 30+ miles in .

Saturday evening was supposed to be the Rapha Nocturne criterium in Blackpool.  Nic and Ian both said they might go depending on the weather.  We got up to blue skies and decided to go to the Lakes walking.  As we pulled out onto the road Ian texted asking if we were going to go to the Nocturne.  We replied yes and would be at his for 7 ish, i time to see the support race, the folder race and the pro race.  He replied saying be at his for 5 and he would barbeque before hand, aiming to get there for the folder race.  We rapidly changed our plans and went for a walk over Nicky Nook. 

We rode out on the tandem to Ian’s calling in at Nic’s on the way, but they weren’t in.  We got to Ian’s about 5:15 and they plied us with wine.  We tried to get Nic and eventually he turned up sans Elizabeth at 6 ish.  They’d been to Ingleborough and struggled to get home.  Elizabeth was knackered.  Nic came on his own.  Ian’s barbeque was excellent, as were the three bottles of red.  We eventually staggered off and got to Blackpool just as the folder race finished.  By the time we’d got a spot on the barriers the Balckpool bike-hire race, using bikes from the bike hire scheme, had just about finished.  I chatted about tandems with a drunk Scottish guy, Ian talked Independent Fabrications with a guy from the Dahon stand.  Jayne and Nic got us coffees. 

The racing was very intense, eventually won by Russell Downing, who nearly lapped the field.  We rode back through the Blackpool traffic.  Jayne wasn’t happy riding at night but we eventually got out of town and headed to Lytham.  Ian and Nic stopped of at Ian’s to admire his Parlee frame that had just arrived.  Jayne and I headed home.

As we headed into Moss Side, along unlit roads, Jayne yelped, followed by a loud crunching noise behind us.  A car, coming the other way, had come round the bend on the wrong side of the road.  It missed us by quite a way, but side swiped a taxi coming up behind us.  We stopped when we heard the crunch, I thought maybe our pannier had come off.  We saw the taxi stopped in the road.  The car that had hit it didn’t stop.  We gave the taxi driver our details and made sure the 4 elderly ladies in the taxi were OK.  The driver was pretty shook up.  Jayne had reinforced her fear of riding at night!

Today we did a gentle 25 miles out to the Courtyard Cafe in Great Eccleston.  Tea Cake, coffee etc and away. 25 miles of easy pace.

Total for the week – 156

Year to date – 3765

Cheers

Tim