A Sheep's Tale...

Saturday gone I had an invite to ride part of the "Ronde van oost Lancashire" with Alan Dorrington. I was the sheep and Alan would be my shepherd for the day. I would spend the whole ride completely lost. A fresh perspective.

He didn't know me, I didn't know him. How would it go?

I arrived and was met on the doorstep - I expected him to be pixelated. He wasn't.

He expected me to be a cartoon with wobbly legs. I wasn't.

It's funny but I had no apprehension about turning up and riding. We all probably get a sense of personality from our writing so I didn't feel totally in the dark. It was also refreshing to meet new people and see new places, I was excited about the prospect. A micro road trip for me.

We rode and talked and talked and rode. We have some interesting times ahead - keep watching our spaces, they could be your spaces.

The "RVOL" goes up - alot. Some of the climbs, while not Alpine are brutal. The cobble sections range from brutish to joyous. I even felt like a semblance of float over one section. I just need more revs.

The streets of Colne reminded me of the working/mining areas of Roubaix. The streets were paved with cobbled gold though. We were told our tyres would "pop" by a small boy in the middle of the road.

On the descent (I call it 'the' as I only remember going downhill once) we saw a sheep's tail. The tail was in the middle of the road unattached to a sheep. I thought about going back to get it but we were going uphill again. I couldn't stop.

We continued to talk and ride. Alan talked going uphill, I tried to talk going uphill.

We rode for around 3 hours - I forgot to set my trip but my heartrate read 190 max. I should be dead.

After our ride I now had wobbly legs and laughed as much as a cartoon.

Post ride we ate some great food and had some more great conversation - interspersed with a four year olds view of the world, which wasn't far off from my own.

Alan's a bad man. He took me to his cellar to see his Uncle John (he has a XL) and collection of rubber. Alan now blogs from his cellar as I took all his rubber and Uncle John. Now I'm a bad man. No Serious... Alan has a great tub collection (of the cross variety). I'd like to see them framed in an art gallery, white space and all that. No scratch that, they should be ridden to destruction on Belgium soil.

So to summarize (as they taught you in science class) a great day of riding, new friendships made and a healthy dose of respect for the East Lancashire landscape.

Inspirational.

Hand Sling

Comments are great and I love reading them, I suppose this is where Twitter finds it niche (although in the time trial of life I'm finding it difficult enough to post never mind twit).

Andy Waterman's comment on the motocross post warrant's a Hand Sling onto the front page. This is close (Andy's own admission) to what I was referring to in the last post and I'm looking forward to the hard earned film skills being transfered to Cross, the Road or a cobble Classic.

So come on photographers, Filmographers, Cinematographers or any other Ographers the gauntlet's starting to be thrown down.

As a foot note this is probably one of the only posts that will grace these pages that contain Mountain bikes. In the name of spreading my horizons it's a goer, but you'll never tear me from the road and the childhood memories of Greg winning the Tour.

But that's another story.

Enjoy.

A Brief Aside...

In my defence they have two wheels, are racing on the dirt and the belgians have an equal love affair with them.

A week and a half ago I spent the day watching the qualifiers for the British GP, the weather was fantastic, the crowd was as drunken as a world champ cross event and the riding was insane.

Have a look at the clip. Even if it's not your thing the camera work is amazing. I'd love to see Nys, Albert et al filmed in a similar manner.

Time Trial

Prologue.

Time trial.

Team time trial.

The Giro, now Dauphine start to be defined by the time separation between contenders achieved by the race against the clock.

It's a race that consumes our everyday life. I've had a couple of conversations and read this (great pictures too) concerning our ever dwindling attention spans and the pressure we have to rush from one daily or work task to the next. It's impact cannot be underestimated, down the smallest of margins, in our daily task's: minutes, in the time trialist's journey: seconds (or fractions of).

We shuffle our agenda's, rush from work to home, surge to change and manage to get through the door to hopefully relax on the bike.

We then proceed to ride tempo to beat our last average and return home as quickly as we can.

Ironic.

Return to Cool...The Cool pt. 3

The Giro is now becoming a distant memory yet the tribulations of life have succeeded in denying me the chance to sit down and watch it's closing moments. I have it recorded and will watch it, but sacrificing precious recovery sleep when I'm not getting enough as it is, is a difficult choice to make.

I doubt a spring classic would get this treatment, I owe an apology to the Giro.

My pet concept of Sprezzatura warrants a final time trial though.

What does it mean to us? I believe it's probably at the core of Road Cycling. The many blogs that extol the virtues of PRO - from your pre ride customs to bike to riding to post ride refinements - are probably talking about Sprezzatura to varying degrees. Yet blindly striving for inclusion to the club of PRO probably would not be Sprezzatura-like. A Renaissance courtier would have been expected to have a wide range of abilities, all done to their best. In this context we as cyclists should broaden our horizons, embrace our weakspots and work on them, create a sense of balance and do what we do with style.

Sprezzatura did become tarnished with the nonchalance and arrogance of the successful, becoming a highly negative energy focused on the aspirant. Something we should maybe bear in mind as we pass judgement (maybe unintentionally) on our fellow cyclist.

So where does Giovanni Agnelli come into it? The ex head of FIAT was said to be the pinnacle of men's fashion and grooming and with style, flair and knowledge of self he was able to twist the rules of dressing - e.g wearing his wristwatch over his cuff, at will in order to lull his competitors into a false sense of security.

So next time you get dropped by a old guy with unshaven legs, on a nail, with black socks on, stop and think. He may just have more style than you realise.

Seconds out....

In the red corner of the Belgium superteams, here's the Lotto boys on their Roubaix training ride. If you weren't impressed with the blue corner, hopefully this will give you spirit during your summer training miles.



I must admit I have a soft spot for Lotto, especially Hoste (always the bridesmaid). Van Petegem always looked better in red too. Great to see Gilbert win a stage in the Giro, hopefully he will have a better Classic season next year.

Waiting....

"Cobble, Cross and Classics are life.......everything before and after is just waiting." Steve McQueen (kinda)

One grand tour down, 2 more to go, turning the cyclist into spectator. Here's Quickstep to help you keep your motivation for the snap of autumn/spring weather.