Gear and Loathing

Cris, Pete, Jimbo and I are all entered in the 10 hour endurance race that is 10 Under The Ben. Taking place this weekend, the idea is that the team which has completed the most number of laps after 10 hours of competition, wins.

Simple really, but then I haven't mentioned the fact that as well as the individual challenge of mountain bike racing and the physical challenge that the 10 hour format will bring, we also have to face down a personal battle against our nemeses, Team Barlas (aka Four Crank Redemption). This team of young whippersnappers will be lead by their incredibly motivated captain, Simon Barlas, against the might of our own collection of finely honed athletes, lead out by our charismatic captain, Cris Walsh. The vitriolic verbal battle between these two captains has been in effect for the past couple of months now and has escalated to the point where the rest of the team members began to wonder if they would even be allowed to ride the event or whether the captains would simply choose to ride the full 10 hours themselves! Those concerns have been soothed however and the respective captains both appear fairly confident in their own teams abilities (although it would appear that Team Barlas have made a couple of team changes in the run up to the event).

Personally speaking, I'm just looking forward to a weekend of camping with friends, a good hard bike ride on Saturday and a lot of drinking on Saturday night. I've managed to borrow a bike for the event from a work mate, a Kona CinderCone which, after riding it back home last night, is quickly becoming my most favourite bike in my (very small) biking experience. I want one, even if it is only for blasting up and down the canal paths, it just makes everything so much more fun!

Anyway, because I have the Kona (and my computer is on my own bike), there are no more commuting miles to add on to the overall tally other than the couple of days I've done at the start of the week. We will be slapping a computer on the Kona at the weekend, so any miles I clock up there will be added to the overall total.

Here's to a cracking weekend.

Weekly Total: 44.61 miles
Overall Total: 1587 miles

World Cup 2006

Its started.

I know that because I've just got back after flying down to Luton over the weekend along with my mate Paul who is an avid England fan (well he's English, so he has little choice in the matter) to watch the England v Paraguay game in the heart of the motherland and to enjoy the fine hospitality of our excellent host, Mr Sweeper, who has just bought himself a fantastic little property in the lovely village of Chesunt, Hertfordshire. England managed to earn an unconvincing win.

Anyway, I broke through the 1500 mile barrier this week. I reckon I'm about 6 weeks behind where I should be if I am to reach my target but as long as I'm still cycling every week then I will certainly smash last year's total.

Weekly Total: 95.77 miles
Overall Total: 1542 miles

It's damn quiet around here...

It's been a while since my last ramble, but that isn't to say that I've stopped cycling, it's more a reflection on an increased workload at work (how dare they!) and also a lack of free time at home (which is a good thing). I guess my motivation for recording every single aspect of the challenge has dwindled and I'm less concerned about the days I can't cycle in (eg because I'm off to the beach for a kitesurfing session that evening) and enjoying the journey more as a result.


Total travelling over the past 4 weeks: 256.5 miles
Overall Total: 1447 miles