Three Months to Go

Well three months today I will be cycling through Northern France on my way to Paris and I'm really looking forward to it.

I finally managed to get back on the bike this week after a two week lay off due to a really bad cold that took me ages to shake off, really frustrating! I've had a couple of decent 12 mile runs though the last few days and the legs have felt pretty good, but then again there wasn't any hills on the route! I thought that my bike had major mechanical failure on Tuesday when the most horrible metallic noises started coming from the back wheel whilst I was riding. Fortunately it was just a spoke that had become detached and was rattling around so after a bodged roadside repair I was able to carry on. The weather has been really nice this week so I've enjoyed being able to shed the winter training gear and dig out my shorts for the rides.

I've been watching the spring classics pro bike races on the television the last couple of weeks which have been really good. Paris-Roubaix was my favourite as ever. How the riders can ride 160 miles in a day over roads that a lot of the time are barely better than farm tracks is beyond me. And they still average 25 miles an hour! It makes doing 80 miles a day sound like a walk in the park.

Well now the weather is improving (its torrential rain outside as I write!) and with the lighter nights I'm hoping to step the training up over the next few weeks. I'm trying to work out a good 20-25 mile circular route around York so I will keep you posted on whether I find one. The problem is always finding a route that doesn't involve cycling on busy roads, perhaps that's why they use farm tracks on Paris-Roubaix!

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