The Artane Boys Band

If anyone is going to Torquay before 23rd July, and wants a discounted Italian meal, let me know, I have a discount card which I didn't get to use when I was in Devon last week. While I'm on it, I also have a five pounds off voucher for ladies skincare products at Boots. Has to be used by 9 August. In case you hadn't guessed, I'm doing the reckoning for my holiday, emptying out the wallet to see what lurks inside its depths.

What wonderful, sunny weather we had, with just one light shower the whole week. And not a breath of wind. The isobars on Mr. Kettley's chart remained resolutely widely-spaced. Which was a shame, since the one thing mini MR and I love to do in Devon is to go body-boarding in the sea. So we contented ourselves with a bit of swimming, and a lot of eating and a fair amount of drinking.

I call this rest and recuperation.

So today, I had already decided to do the Great Weston Ride again, repeating our round trip into Bristol for the start, and then ride back from the finish at Weston, a trip of just shy of 85 miles. Skip and I did it with Rosa Luxemburg last year, this year it was just we two.

You can imagine how appreciative I was of the torrential rain and gale-force westerly winds, ideal body-boarding weather really, still not like me to grumble. I was quite pleased with my efforts given I haven't ridden a bike for 10 days, you never forget you know.

K-1 came out of the shed for the first time since March, courtesy of my sore neck, one of those injuries more commonly associated with the likes of Rio Ferdinand, but painful nonetheless. And the black bike is more comfortable, even if the indexing was a bit out at times. The 23 mm tyres certainly helped in the wet, especially the flooded sections, of which there were a few. Potholes lurk beneath to trap the unwary on their skinny tyres.

I was also up for a bit of descending practice, and did quite well on some of the shorter hills, but when faced with an 8-14% hill, awash with water and littered with gravel I decided I didn't want to be out of control and crash, and reined it backed in. Or rained it back in.

I got back and washed the bike, hoped for better weather and watched Cav win again. I do love his immediate post-race interviews. It's no good watching them on the highlights programmes, they've been sanitised by then, and you miss that authenticity and honesty of reaction. You see it in his eyes, his expression and hear it in his tone as much as his words. The perfect antidote to all the bland sports interviews we get nowadays. Then of course there is his jersey, let's hope that by this time next Sunday we can celebrate another stage win in Paris, and the maillot vert draped across his tiny shoulders.
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