A little later than planned, after an evening wining and dining with a couple of birthday girls, I stepped out this morning in my cycling gear to be greeted by something I've yet to feel prior to one of my morning circuits .. the heat of the sun! Oh how I need a short sleeved jersey before this mini heat wave passes me by. I've written recently about my mission to acquire an AVP team jersey and to answer The Book Munchkin's question of yesterday, here is where I am with this. Two potential sources were identified on Thursday evening while out with the AVP peloton. Soanes, the local cycle shop, was reconfirmed as a source of last year's top, should they still have stock. The club secretary, having secured a new supplier, has the only other stock .. an XL 2013 design, a little too large for my new svelt figure, but agreed to place an order for more. With a 4-6 week lead time on the 2013 jersey, I called Sloanes. The earlier top, unlike the new version, has a full zip front which I quite like, but they had to disappoint, they had no stock and no more was expected. Oh well, 4-6 weeks will be OK for the Tour of Britain trip that I'm planning but this sun is looking likely to be here at least until the end of the week, so I turned to one of my favorite on-line suppliers, Chain Reaction. They have a Tour de France mega sale on, perfect timing for my immediate jersey needs. In honour of the Tour and the AVP, I procured a yellow short sleeved Funkier top, a proven design with me already having 2 long sleeved versions. Chain Reaction are one of the best suppliers of cycle equipment I've come across, so am confident it will be with me on Tuesday.
Back to this morning's circuit. I've been thinking about where next to take my hill training, now that I've more than conquered my three hills and performed (in my view as King of the Mountains) so well on the last AVP ride. Near me, the single hill of note is our Seaton Down Hill, a mile steep climb which just seems to go on and on. I've been thinking that some time soon this has to be brought into my training plan. So, with the view that there's no time like the present, I headed out up hill, but after a 'thank you' wave to a car who stopped to allow me past, I realised I'd set off without my helmet! The unusually warm morning sun had really thrown me off balance. After a u-turn back to the garage, I thought I'd also check the tyres, I'd meant to give them some more air before my Thursday ride but ran out of time and with a steep drop down into Colyford in plan for this morning, I wanted to make sure that I had the perfect tyre setup to generate a good speed. I did not want any unnecessary rubber in contact with the road to slow me down. Talking of rubber, one thing I noticed on the Thursday evening ride was that I was the only one with a hybrid or, as my fellow pedallers incorrectly categorise my steed, a mountain bike. The big difference between this and their road bikes, apart from the obvious 'ram horn' handlebars, is the wheel size or more specifically, the width of their tyres. They seem to run over the asphalt with nothing more than a layer of dental floss, which against my chubby doughnut rings made me feel like a shire horse against their thoroughbreds! However, as one pointed out, I'm having to work twice as hard as they to cover the same distance which is really what my tour is all about .. a tour de fitness, not speed :)
Helmet in place and floating on air .. my tyres needed quite a bit of air to move them from 50 to the correct 90 psi! .. I returned to the hill. Pleased to make the climb in one go, my fitness is really building, I stopped at the summit to secure my jersey which had been almost removed on the assent, my core temperature having reach meltdown levels. Launching myself, zipped to the chin in Lycra, I pushed over the summit to descend at speed into Colyford. I thought I may have come close to my Lyme Regis down hill PB speed of 33 mph, but could not believe, on my return, to see I'd smashed this reaching 36 mph! I think this PB will take some beating.
Feeling exhilarated, I decided that I was not yet ready to start my return via Axmouth so headed off the main road to bring Colyton into my circuit. Through Colyton, back to Colyford and Axmouth, I returned to Seaton, first checking out that the fisherman's cafe was open on a Sunday morning, more on that next week, and then to take in the glorious view of the marina full of all types of craft. I've misplaced my camera this week, hence the lack of pictures, so you'll have to let your imagination do the rest. Just as everywhere in the world, the Devon coast looks its best on a beautiful sunny day. Leaving the marina, I was flagged down by
Handbag, a good new friend from the AVP. At first, to my embarrassment I had him confused with a neighbour of mine. You know those times when your watching a movie where the sound has gone out of sync and the words being spoken don't match the person saying them? Well, that was the moment here when I realised that the person before me was my cycling buddie and not my neighbour! Sorry,
Handbag, I'll explain all on Thursday. Once home, I felt I'd done more than the 9 miles actually covered. It certainly makes a difference riding in temperatures above the single digit degrees centigrade that I've become accustomed to, role on Tuesday and my new yellow summer jersey. And finally, talking of Yellow jerseys .. congratulations to Chris Froome who has now started his attack on the Tour de France for real, winning his first leader's jersey of the Tour during yesterday's stage through the Pyrenees.
The route art today is one of my favourites, a seated bunny!
Stats: 9.13 mi, 48m:00s , Avg 11.4 mph, Max 36.3, 532 kcal
PB:
Max Speed: 36.3 mph
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