Today was another very hot day, Im not sure what the temperature climbed to in the end but it felt even hotter that its been the last few days. On my ride today it ws OK while I was moving but having to stop at traffic lights or railways crossings was definitely getting uncomfortable.
Two hours to day with a few 2 minute, one minute and 30 second intervals thrown in to remind my body what's required, then back for a nice long cool shower, I couldn't quite manage cold water, but tepid was very very refreshing. A few domestic duties in the afternoon like washing through my cycling clothing, I also spent some time tuning my PC, bloody things, the one I have with me only really gets used on trips and badly needed a bit of 'tidying up' and tuning!
In the evening I had dinner with an old mate that I haven't seen for over 30 years, Steve Snowling, Steve used to mechanic for us when we had the team going but more famously he was a regular six day mechanic and did spells with the German Telecom team and the ill starred British ANC outfit including the TDF. Steve now lives in Belgium and has for a long time, I tried to get hold of him the last time I was here but couldn't but we had a great 5 hours last night doing all the old stories and some of the intervening 30 years. Part two will be in a week or so, Steve now lives in Wevelgem and the ICF world Championships this year are apparently being held almost within walking distance of his house.
I'm racing at Laarne with the WAOD today. I prefer racing with the VWF but apparently WAOD races are 'easier', we'll see, I don't remember any easy races in Belgium to be honest, so I will be expecting it to be as hard on my legs as Boom. Assuming the Laarne circuit is the same as previous years its not a finish for me, the course is fine in the main, I remember it has a couple of nasty tight corners and a vicious stretch of cobbles, but in the last 500m there's a 120 degree right hander and the last 100 metres makes a slow 90 degree right as well. I prefer a fast straight run in where sustained top end is in play, jumpy stuff isn't my forte, others are a lot better at that than me.
The main reason I'm racing at Laarne is to meet up with another mate, Pete Ryalls, Peter rode the 1965? TDF, which was one of those years they experimented with national teams, Pete rode with the British team but more of that later.
One bonus from meeting up with Steve last night was that he insisted in giving my bike a going over and a bit of a tweak here and there which was very handy. Although he still does bits and pieces with bikes and his legendary tool set is even more impressive than it always used to be, he actually builds industrial robots these days.
No comments:
Post a Comment