1 Aug 2012

Ist August 2012

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1st 60-70F, 16-21C, breezy, overcast, dry. I felt the need for a longer ride again and chose to go to Middelfart. Then on to Fredericia across the iron bridge. I was trying quite hard right from the start and kept pressing on all the way there and back. The magic mudguard weather insurance is still working. The greyness eventually lifted and it became quite sunny towards the end. Not a drop of rain.

Lots of cyclists out and about today. Several larger groups near Gamborg. A favourite, minor coastal road for cyclists and usually fairly devoid of traffic. I saw lots of smaller groups of cyclo-tourists. Quite a few individual racing club persons were out training. Including three different blondes on carbon bikes. They did look happy, tanned and healthy!

I tried to chase one of them uphill but was caught at every single traffic light of five in a row! She slipped through all five as if by magic. It wouldn't have made any difference but it is maddening to accelerate as hard as possible. Only to be pulled up every few hundred yards! The same happened going into Fredericia. You'd think there was somebody watching on camera and deliberately changing the lights! And, no, I'm really not that paranoid. :-)


The cycle paths in the Middelfart/Fredericia area are still absolute crap! With every damned drain sunk below the tarmac. Massive changes in level, steps and crazy camber changes, potholes and cracks. In some places the thistles lining the cycle path, right alongside the immaculate main road to Middelfart, are 6' high. They run for a continuous mile at Erritsø! I was hitting them with my wheels as I rode along because the path was so narrowed by the weeds!

Under one bridge I nearly fell off the pavement/cycle path because the path was down to only a foot wide! How the hell would a wheelchair or mobility scooter get through? Lazy council gits! Blew their entire annual budget on Danish designer furniture, modern art, sculpture and fancy new offices! (again)

In Middelfart I was nearly mowed down by a car driver who wasn't concentrating. He overtook me and then turned straight across my path at a junction. A shriek of brakes and he stopped just in time! This is the first time this has occurred since I started riding seriously on the trike. Which says a lot about the Danes as drivers.

A British driver would just have mown me down. Then would  been fined £2 and banned from driving for a week had I been killed. Probably not even prosecuted if he had the right golfing partners. Cyclists in Britain have less status than road kill. Thanks god I don't have to ride over there any more. I'd come in a rage after every ride! 

My knees were hurting now and then. And still do. I'm obviously just not cut out for riding hard for 6 hours. (with a few stops for shopping in between) It was into a headwind all the way back. A teenager on a racing bike overtook me on the way back but I was too tired to chase. He did a few hundred metres and I did over a hundred kilometres. Reminded me of the brain dead shite running along the side of the road in the Tour de France! 67 miles.


My wife snapped these butterflies.

Wiggins wins gold in the Olympic Cycling Time Trial. Beating Martin of Germany into second place and Silver by a huge margin. Froome retained his good form to claim Bronze. Poor old Cancellara (Gold medal winner at Beijing) was riding with his injuries from the crashing out of the Tour de France. He only managed eighth and was in obvious pain after the event. Sanchez crossed himself before setting off and his chain broke on the start ramp! Then he punctured. I'd find a much friendlier god if I was him! And a better mechanic.

What a shame they closed the roads for the Olympics cycle races. Had they had to race against typical British traffic then Cameron (who?) would really have been able to call them heroes. (Had they survived!) Afghanistan is probably safer for British cyclists and everybody gets a medal for going over there. 

Well, it's happened already. A 28 year old cyclist has been killed by an Olympic bus outside the Olympic stadium. Luckily the 28 year-old was nobody important! Just another hedgehog cyclist. The road kill didn't even have a name according to the BBC Olympic Breakfast TV. So that's all right then.

An interesting response to the Olympic badminton disqualifications. (for failing to compete under the broken, self-defeating, rule system) What a shame the gutless cycling "governing bodies" didn't do the same to the national teams sitting in the Peloton in the Men's Olympic Road Race.

But then, the self-appointed, cycling control Nazis are usually worrying about millimetres of seat sizes. As "their" sport collapses under the sheer weight of drug cheating. It amazes me that Campag never made handlebar syringe carriers to fit racing bikes. Perhaps somebody should take away these dead body's right to govern anything?

2nd 65-70F, 18-24C, breezy, humid, warm and sunny. I thought I'd better have a wind-down day but ended up fighting the wind on the hilliest route I know. Feeling rather tired today though my knees were okay. Thunderstorms and cloudbursts forecast for later. 20 miles.

3rd 65-70F, 18-24C, windy, sunny. 20 miles.

Wild flowers beside an Assens cycle path. 

I tried going back to the Velo saddle but it still doesn't like me. I'm going to try the Vetta SL now. Interestingly (?) I saw a couple parking their Trek touring bikes. Well set up with large panniers and handlebar bags. Both had what I took to be Bontrager saddles. Vinyl looking, but quite broad and very flat at the rear. Quite noticeably so. Hardly any curvature crossways at all. So they wouldn't try to wedge the Ischial tuberosities apart. As do the vast majority of saddles on the market.

Well, the Vetta was much more comfortable than the Velo. I can't explain why but it felt much quicker too. Though I had some odd pains in strange places after thrashing both ways, uphill and down, to more shops. Probably because the Vetta is rather too high. Quite oddly, it has slightly curved rails. So any for-and-aft movement in the clamp tips the saddle. I've dropped it 1/4" or 6mm to see how I get on tomorrow. 15 more miles.

The British Cycling Team are doing amazing things at the Olympics. Isn't it peculiar, though, that despite hosting the Olympics, one still cannot access the BBC iPlayer from outside the UK? What a load of cobblers! This must be another UCI-nazi-inspired decision. Thank goodness Victoria Pendleton wasn't robbed of her next Gold Medal by the jumped-up, cold blooded, UCI dinosaurs.

4th 56-64F, 3-18C,very light winds, rather overcast with occasional watery sunshine. Turned to rain later just as I came home. I got on rather well with the Vetta saddle, comfort wise, but had the weirdest pains in my legs and knees at times. It may be that I am sitting on muscles, or nerves, which are being pinched. 25 miles.

Click on any image for an enlargement.
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