Back in the Saddle Again

Well its been a frustrating time the last couple of weeks as my cold has stubbornly refused to go away which meant that I couldn't do any training. Finally last Wednesday I started to feel a little better and managed to do 13 miles on the bike followed by 26 miles on Thursday. I'm still not feeling 100% though so I'm having to take it steady and not ride too hard, its a good excuse to avoid the hills for a while. Its not really been great for the training with only 45 days to go until we set off for Paris.

I've entertained myself during my lay off from training by watching the Giro D'Italia bike race on television. The Giro is the Italian version of the Tour de France and lasts for three weeks. Its a really tough race with some incredibly hard mountain stages. I really take my hat off to the riders, I just don't know how they get up some of the hills. It was a good year for the Brits with the highest number of British riders there have ever been on the Giro. And whats even better the British rider Mark Cavendish won two stages of the race, the most stage wins a British rider has ever won on the Giro. The overall winner of the race was the Spaniard Alberto Contador. His team was only invited to the race at the last minute and eight days before the start he was lying on a beach on holiday when he got a phone call to tell him he was racing. So I suppose I shouldn't complain about lack of preparation for my ride.

Bruce Springsteen was excellent last week. He played a great set which unfortunately didn't include Thunder Road but was still brilliant. My hearing hasn't been very good this last week and I can't decide if it a side effect of my cold or the after effect of the Bruce concert.

Today has been really hot in York so we had a drive to Beningborough Hall (see picture above) which is a stately home about ten miles north of York. Its a really nice place with lovely gardens, well worth a visit iif you are ever passing this way.