"The Welsh are so damn Welsh that it looks like affectation" - Sir Alexander Raleigh
Today’s ride was a load of shire (sic). We stared in Shropshire, ended up in Cheshire and traversed through Wrexhamshire. There isn’t a county called Wrexhamshire but it would spoil the joke if I didn’t say it was. Most of the day was spent cycling along the ancient Marches where towns have both Welsh and English names. We were chatting to a woman with the poshest english accent you have ever heard and her name was Cerys. I forgave her as she was serving me Fruit Cake at the time.
It was also really flat. Only 346m of climbing in 70km of riding. But there was lots of rain and unlike Spain, the rain falls mainly on Lorain. When heavy rain starts there are only 2 options to consider. Option 1: Stop, put on your rain jacket and plough on. Get drenched. Miss all the countryside because you can’t see through your splattered glasses and feel miserable for the rest of the day because you are damp and cold or Option 2: Stop at a café and drink coffee and eat Fruit Cake until it stops raining.
The good news is that Day Six’s route took us close to home so we popped in. The bad news was that this ended up being where we stopped because my knee was playing up - again. Having visited the local hospital they decided that my hurty knee only constituted a minor injury. Even though it was really hurty. The ‘nurse practitioner’ was ace. She is off to Afghanistan soon to work with the Army but in the meantime allowed me to fondle her metal knee-cap and she told me how to get an immediate consult with a private orthopaedic surgeon so fingers crossed for a good outcome. I am increasingly confident that it is not a structural problem but is related to my changed riding position on the touring bike. So at least now we have cycled from Land's End to Northwich. Next stop John O'Groats..........soon.
Today’s ride was a load of shire (sic). We stared in Shropshire, ended up in Cheshire and traversed through Wrexhamshire. There isn’t a county called Wrexhamshire but it would spoil the joke if I didn’t say it was. Most of the day was spent cycling along the ancient Marches where towns have both Welsh and English names. We were chatting to a woman with the poshest english accent you have ever heard and her name was Cerys. I forgave her as she was serving me Fruit Cake at the time. 
It was also really flat. Only 346m of climbing in 70km of riding. But there was lots of rain and unlike Spain, the rain falls mainly on Lorain. When heavy rain starts there are only 2 options to consider. Option 1: Stop, put on your rain jacket and plough on. Get drenched. Miss all the countryside because you can’t see through your splattered glasses and feel miserable for the rest of the day because you are damp and cold or Option 2: Stop at a café and drink coffee and eat Fruit Cake until it stops raining. 
The good news is that Day Six’s route took us close to home so we popped in. The bad news was that this ended up being where we stopped because my knee was playing up - again. Having visited the local hospital they decided that my hurty knee only constituted a minor injury. Even though it was really hurty. The ‘nurse practitioner’ was ace. She is off to Afghanistan soon to work with the Army but in the meantime allowed me to fondle her metal knee-cap and she told me how to get an immediate consult with a private orthopaedic surgeon so fingers crossed for a good outcome. I am increasingly confident that it is not a structural problem but is related to my changed riding position on the touring bike. So at least now we have cycled from Land's End to Northwich. Next stop John O'Groats..........soon. 
Surely it can't be the bike: To do an end to end, you'd make sure you trained on the bike for a few months to get the riding position right. Only an idiot would buy a bike 2 weeks before and try ride it 1000 miles, and you're an intelligent man with a degree in a proper subject, not an idiot.
ReplyDelete....ahem.....yes I am an intelligent man and the 20 mile training ride that we did to Chester (and got the train back - coz 40 miles would be too tiring) is surely ample testing to 'break the bike in'. It all seemed to go well......ahem......
ReplyDeleteFrom the looks of it in the beautiful pictures you've been posting, you and Lorain have identical bikes. You haven't mentioned Lorain's hurty knee at all . . . maybe she can give you some bike-fit tips. ;o)
ReplyDeleteI set both our bikes up...........
ReplyDelete