And After A Long Time in the Wilderness...

OK, so I appear to have stopped cycling judging by my lack of update here. This, unfortunately is partly true.

I did another stunning 200km down in the Borders a few weekends ago shortly after we got back from Majorca and I was toddling along quite nicely with a couple of guys from the local club (Gala CC) and went past them coming down a very steep (20%) hill which I had ridden over in the other direction about 6 weeks before. Much more pleasant going downhill (or so I thought)!

I came a bit of cropper coming into a sharp right hander at the bottom, where, despite all my best efforts I went careering over the top of the handlebars and ripped all my nice new gear I'd bought in Majorca. The folks I was riding with kindly stopped and enquired as to my injuries (they hadn't much option as I took up most of the road as I lay there legs akimbo staring into a sullen and rather mocking grey sky!). I checked myself over and set off again, only to stop shortly after when I realised the handlebars were pointing off into the distance at about 30 degrees to the direction I was wanting to travel.

Straightened out, we carried on to the second check of the day in the village of Moffat. The ride was named the Moffat Toffee 200 after the eponymous (and supposedly famous aforementioned sweetie). I, however, was in considerable pain and pedalled on my way to get it all over with. I'd crashed after 40 miles and still had 85 to go so just wanted it over and done with.

From Moffat I found myself all alone and in front of the rest of the riders. I did stop in a very pleasant cafe by the side of St Mary's Loch (I'd recommend a trip - 'tis lovely) for a quick bite and some of the other front runners stopped just as I headed off on familiar roads covered in the Dave Harris Memorial 200 a few weeks earlier. Needless to say (as I'm a bit of a moany so-and-so) I was feeling sorry for myself and kept up a brisk pace to Hawick (one of many smal towns in the Borders which is notorious for the game of rugby - a sport I'm beginning to reconsider - it never hurt this much getting sat on by 15 stone hairy thugs, and it smelt considerably better too).

Out of Hawick a short 25 mile hop to the finish. The road was irritatingly undulating and I kept looking over my shoulder awaiting a troop of guys overtaking me. They never came. I began to think I was going to come in first - a first (if you see what I mean). With 5 miles to go though I turned a corner to see a familiar top from earlier struggling up a climb and thought: "I might as well go after him!"

I screamed past him up the last climb of the day and thought first dibs at the awaiting soup and cakes was assured. Little was I to know he was going to take a shortcut and beat me back. I claim a moral victory however.

I didn't want to hang about though as the pain was returning so I drove the 85 miles home and waited to my arrival to strip off and reveal a very grazed and cut right knee, thigh, elbow and shoulder and a throbbing left thumb. :-(

I'm a hardy soul though and off to work the next day with the excitement of a week's stay in Dundee.

Anyway, I was out the next Saturday with the intention of a trip on a previously tackled route to Linlithgow. I got as far as Ruchazie (not a place to be seen in Lycra, I can tell you) before realising that having to release the handlebars every time I hit a bump due to the pain in the left thumb probably meant there was something wrong. Off to the local hospital for me! After the quickest stint in A&E ever (40 minutes) I was assured there was nothing wrong as the x-ray appeared to show. Four weeks later it is still fairly sore however - but not enough to keep me off the bike though - I told you I was (fool)hardy!

The next two weeks were, to be frank, rubbish. Work has got in the way. I managed a half-hour on the bike before my folks came up to relieve the tension which work had built up in me. A very relaxing weekend with Ma, Pa and Dog (that's an actual dog, not a nickname for an ugly sibling) and a 75 mile ride with my Dad (that's Chris for those familiar with Ian's blogs) left me feeling much more perky.

However, I then had a four week away job in the Scottish Borders (the arena of my footballesque hitting-the-deck antics) to contend with. The bike was loaded into the back of the car though and with the Scottish summer come in May I took advantage with 40 miles on the Monday-Tuesday before work caught up again.

That first weekend saw me helping my friend Kirsten move into her new (third-floor) flat on the Saturday. So with sore arms I set out to do the mammoth ride (which Ian has earlier mentioned) on the Sunday. It was a 180 miler taking in three ferries, an island, the Mull of Kintyre (all sing along) and some brutal climbing.

The timings of the ferries meant that some hard riding was required at points and so off I set at 7:50am (5 minutes later than planned). It was a wee jaunt of 30 miles to the coast at Ardrossan to catch the 9:45am Brodick ferry to the Isle of Arran. A road closure gave me a few problems but a brisk tailwind solved those and a made it with 5 minutes to spare.

There was a glut of cyclists on a jaunt for the day, including rival clubs, the East Kilbride Road Club and the Johnstone Wheelers. The Johnstone Wheelers are a club I'm considering joining and they were helpfully going in the same direction as me so I caught a wheel and had a wee chat before the road went uphill and we were scattered apart. A thoroughly friendly bunch of all abilities who reminded me of the atmosphere I used to experience at the Charlotteville CC in Guildford has persuaded me to join up with them so that's a job for this weekend!

Anyway the ferry at Lochranza (to Claonaig -no idea how to pronounce that!) split us apart and I set out to bask in the sun on the 30 minute crossing to the Mull of Kintyre. The next bit was the tough one. After 45 miles of cycling I now had a brief 11 miles to cover in 45 minutes over 300m of climbing. I knew it was going to be close but also didn't want to take my heart rate into the red as this ruins the legs for the remainder of the day. I pedalled and I pedalled, all the while working out distances to go and average speeds required (I'm a big geek), and cursing every rising piece of tarmac. I arrived into Tarbert and follwed the signs to the ferry. I'd checked my map and thought the terminal was only just round the corner...time was running out...I had one minute to go and still no ferry terminal...I rounded a left hander and there it was..but that sound was one of a soon-to-be-departing ferry! I looked pleadingly at the man on the bridge and he waved me on as the ramp began to rise behind me - I kid you not - I made it by about 10 seconds. I tell you it was exciting stuff (well, relatively speaking!)

On the ferry I met a very friendly chap who cycles around Scotland in his spare time (see his website here http://www.toroddfuglesteg.com/cycling.html - he's more eccentric than me I think!). We went our separate ways come Portavadie, which was where I discovered why the trip to Ardrossan had been so easy (15 mph easterly - oh bum!) I still had 125 miles to go into this with some ruddy big hills. I followed the route round to Ardlamont and Tighnabruich - two very scenic little villages on and around the Kyles of Bute (I take many visitors here in the car as it is simply stunning!)

Here I stopped and reassessed the chances of getting home in the daylight with enought ime to eat, iron and prepare for the next week down in Melrose, rapidly concluding it wasn't possible. I determined to follow my route forthe next 25 miles before diverting to Dunoon and the ferry back to the mainland.

This 25-30 miles was VERY hilly and windy (if not a little bit absolutely beautiful!) and I enjoyed and cursed in equal measure. I was a bit knackered by now after 95 miles and actually fell asleep on the ferry home before jumping on the Gourock to Glasgow train home and a rapid ride back home. So a shortened ride of 97 miles - but the most enjoyable for months - and I stayed on the bike.

Anyway - that's me caught up. Apologies for the epistle and hope you ain't missed me! Now that work is under a little more control I should get to update this bad boy a little more!

South Glos 110km

Since the Dic Penderyn a couple of weekends back I got out last week with Dad and did a very scenic and hilly route through Somerset which added another 75 miles to my total. A testing route for both of us and I was pleased at how well I was going on the hills. Unfortunately Dad had a nasty crash with 10 miles to go. He hit a rock in an otherwise empty rode and went over the handlebars injuring his shoulder. Unable to cycle home, a phone call to Mum had him rescued. An unfortunate end to an otherwise lovely ride.

Some intense turbo training and some time putting my Eddy Merckx racing bike back together in readiness for Saturday's 110km event, which started in Alveston, Bristol. This was my first time on this bike for 10 years and I had converted it from a double-chainring bike to a triple to give me more gears for the French mountains. I thought this ride was a good starter to test this bike out. With the ride to and from home, it ended up being 98 miles. I met up with Chris to do this gorgeous undulating route on the hottest day of the year (25C). We averaged over 17mph and took in some fabulous Gloucestershire scenery. The main problem I had was that even with the seat bolt tightened up to maximum, the saddle kept annoyingly slipping down. This meant regular adjustments which on a hot day is really frustrating!

Matt had devised a mammoth route for Sunday so I had better start getting in some regular big rides again now I've got the bike up and running. I am hoping that with some ingenious advice from my brother James regarding the use of a sliced up Coke can wedged down between the saddle pin and seat tube , I will have solved the saddle issue! Next weekend I have entered a hilly 160km event in the Cotswolds on Saturday and then a 200km event on Sunday called the Stonehenge 200 which is an event organised by my old cycling club back in Surrey. I have ridden this several times in the past and it will be interesting to see how my ride this time compares after all this training.

A Mixed Weekend in Wales

This weekend was supposed to be another double: The Milford Haven 203Km starting from Carmarthen on Saturday followed by the Dic Penderyn 150km starting from Merthyr on Sunday.

On Thursday I got out with Dad again and we put in 40 miles. We headed out along the lumpy lanes from Portishead across to Butcombe where they brew my local favourite. After a good deal of looking, we were unable to find a pub in Butcombe so we pushed on to Wrington where we found a very nice pub. It turns out that Butcombe beer is, in fact, brewed in Wrington and not Butcombe! Gorgeous weather and some big hills made this an enjoyable outing.

A 5am start on Saturday for the 100 mile drive to Carmarthenshire, west Wales. I arrived an hour earlier than predicted so I needn't have got up so early after all! I was looking forward to this ride. It was a hilly 127 mile route heading out past Milford Haven and into Pembrokshire, apparently Dylan Thomas' neck of the woods. Well 9 miles into the route, and powering up a long drag there was an almighty noise and I noticed my front mech rubbing gainst my chainrings. Initially I thought this had come loose, but a couple of seconds of further examination revealed that I had snapped my seat tube right the way through where it meets the bottom bracket. GAME OVER! With extreme care and trepidation, I turned round and made it back to the start with my frame feeling very ropey! Anyway, I got back to the car and drove home. 200 miles of driving for 18 miles of cycling. What a great start to the weekend!

Sunday's start was a more reasonable 9am in Merthyr and I had arranged to meet up with Matt's dad Chris and Dave, who I had ridden the Hereford 48 miler with in February. I borrowed my brother James' bike for this one. I used to time trial on it but as a training bike it really felt odd. Several inches smaller than my (now dead) bike although considerably lighter. We had originally planned to ride the 150km event but due to inclement weather and Chris and Dave's training regimen, we decided to do the 100km Dec Penderyn event. Dic Penderyn was, apparently, a man who fought for the rights of workers several hundered years ago and was incorrectly hanged for killing a policeman. Its thought that he was framed because the law had had enough of his meddling. While the 150km ride actually visits his monument in a churchyard, the shorter 100km went out as far as Sennybridge. This was a very hilly route heading over several cattlegrids and accross the Brecons. It was so murky and foggy you could barely see the guy in front of you! And sheep posed an equal hazard! After a good lunch in Sennybridge we were well stocked up to attack the "Devil's staircase", a notorious haipinned climb up several hundred feet. I'm pleased to say I powered up this, having had to get off this time last year. No problems this time and I felt really strong all round. Being a short event, I used the hills for power training, powering up them and waiting at the tops for the rest of the group. All in all an enjoyable ride. Chris and Dave's traing is also paying off. Well done Dave for riding his hilliest and longest route so far! He also provided some light entertainment by falling off three times (we've all done it!!). Great to have friends to ride with.

We covered this 63 mile route at a 15mph average.

This week I'm hoping that we will be able to get my Eddy Merckx racing bike set up. I will be riding this in France and need to get used to riding it over the next couple of months. If I break this too, then I'm really stuck!

Carmarthen Bay 200km and Dustman Dave's Double Doddle 220km

This has been a tough week's training.
Following on from last week's 307km ride where I rode the furthest distance in one day for several years, I decided to set myself another challenge: to ride two 200km rides back to back.

Along with some light turbo training early in the week, I decided to do a short (60 mile) ride on Thursday. Having put together his racing bike after moving to the west country, Dad thought it was about time to get back on it after a lay-off of several months. The night before I planned a route to cycle out to Portishead to meet Dad and then we would cycle from there over the hills to Clevedon, then out into Somerset towards Cheddar. Rather than going over my usual route up Cheddar gorge, I thought that, being it was Dad's first ride for a while, we would go up to Shipham. Unfortunately this turned out to be a very long climb with lorries passing us regularly on their way to the quarry at the top. Anyway, we made it and had a pub lunch before heading back to Portishead, and my final leg back to Clifton. I used this as a recovery session and it was a good workout for Dad who put in 40 miles.

An early rise (5am) on Saturday to drive to Pontardawe near Swansea. Drizzle on my windscreen along the M4 and seeing tress blowing in the wind told me that it was not going to be an easy ride. A carpark start at Pontardawe leisure centre at 8am attracted about 25 cyclists for the event including 2 tandems. I started off with the group but after dropping everybody up the first climb, it would be the last time I would see another cyclist! With the wind behind me I steamed my way around the coast through Millenium Coast Park to Burry Port Harbour and on to Ferryside. I didn't bother stopping at the first control except to get my card stamped and ploughed on through Carmarthen, Llansteffan all the way to Amroth and had a bite to eat on the sea front. A big climb up to Summerhill and I knew the second half was not going to be so nice. The wind really picked up and I had to really work to keep the bike moving. The return leg took my over the west Wales hills back round to Carmarthen to a control at a pub in Ffairfach who had not been expecting anybody yet! They had prepared sandwiches for the cycliststs so I gladly munched on these before pressing on to the finish at Pontardawe. I finished before the marshals arrived at the control.

I averaged 15.5mph over this hilly and windy 125 mile route and was first back by a long way. I had been meaning to take it easy knowing that I had a longer ride the next day, but in the wind it was impossible to keep the heart rate down.

Another 5am start on Sunday this time to get to Bishops Lydeard, Taunton for an 8am start. No rain today and less wind. Although this ride had "doddle" in the title I was not going to be mislead knowing that we were heading into Exmoor! This time I found myself in a group of 10 or so riders and we set a great pace out to the first control on the seafront close to Dunster. Today I decided I was going to stop at controls and the rest of the group did too. They were amazed that I had ridden yesterday as well so I explained my plans to ride the Tour in July (bringing out mumbles of madness!). From Dundter we had a seven-man group and we made great time past Dunster castle, up a long, foggy climb (an alpine gradient) which I powered up leaving the group behind bar one rider, and we continued to Tiverton at about 20 - 22mph for some of the way. We had lunch at the Grand Western Canal country park in Tiverton. The next section would take us back to the start after 84 miles. On the long drag up to Wiveliscombe, our pace split the group leaving myself and 2 others to power on for some cake at the next control. This had been a fairly hilly route so far (about 1500m of climbing) and were pleased to hear that the scond half would take us out over the Somerset levels. This loop took us through Kingston St Mary, Creech St Michael, Stoke St Gregory (lots of saints!)to Langport where I scoffed some jelly babies before we made our way back to the finish control at Bishop's Lydeard.

A great ride of 137 miles polished off at 16mph average.

A solid week overall, covering over 320 miles. Next weekend is going to be a toughie with a 200km event starting in Carmarthen on Saturday and a hilly 150km event starting in Merthyr Tydfil on Sunday.

Heart of England 307km

Since coming back from Majorca I have been spending a fair amount of time on the turbo, gearing my workouts to building muscular endurance and power. I feel that these are areas that need improving.

After much deliberation I decided to enter this 191 mile event on Saturday. This is the longest distance I have ridden in one go for several years. It would be a real test of mental and physical endurnace. Being nearly 50 miles further than the longest stage we will be riding in France, I felt it would be another confidence-builder and it certainly was.

Starting in Cirencester at 6am meant an early start on Saturday. I was up at 3.15am! The first section (41 miles) took me from Cirencester through the Cotswolds to Alcester in Warwickshire. 4 miles into the ride the pack ahead of me came to a grinding halt and I saw a rider motionless lying in the middle of the road being put in the recovery position by a fellow rider. On questioning, a deer had run into the road and charged straight into him, knocking him flying and breaking his collar bone. An ambulance was called and a number of his fellow riders stayed with him. Further up the road I saw a stampeed of deer charging through one field, straight across the road into another field so could see how easily they could take out a cyclist. Anyway passing close to Stratford upon Avon I saw no further mishaps.

After getting my card stamped at Alcester, I decided to press on to the next control at Atherstone, between Tamworth and Nuneaton. This was a 36 mile stage. Reading place names such as these on the sign posts made me realise what a huge distance I was going to be covering today! Towards the end of this stage I picked up a group of three riders who had all done several long distance rides and was pleased to be keeping pace with them. Again, I decided not to stop at this control apart from for a quick Mars bar and Coke.

The three of us pushed on for the next 43 mile stage which took us on a scenic route through Sutton Cheney, Kirkby Mallory, Dunton Bassett and Swinford on the way to the control in Daventry, Northamptonshire. The wind picked up considerably and 5 miles or so before the control I was setting a fair pace at the front of our group of 4 and actually cracked the other riders, who dropped off the back. I waited at the control for 15 minutes for them and decided to push on by myself as they needed to stop for food. I found myself to be the third rider through this checkpoint out of 65starters.

Another 35 miles took me on an undulating and lonely ride through Canons Ashby, Farthinghoe and finally to Tackley, Oxfordshire. This control was at a pub and I couldn't resist some apple pie and a lager shandy which I felt I desrved for my efforts. Chatting to the marshalls here revealed that I was in third place, 90 minutes behind the leader who was Nik Gardner - one of the top long distance riders in the country. He has ridden over 500 miles in a 24-hour time-trial!(I was to finish 2 hours behind him at the end which I thought was pretty good for 191 miles!)20 minutes at this control and no sign of any other riders turning up so I pushed on to the finish at Cirencester. I suffered on this last 35 mile stage - a combination of dehydration and the pure distance I had ridden. This section took me through Witney and Brize Norton, crossing over the M40 at one point.

All-in-all a great ride. I covered 191 miles at an average speed of 15.5mph to finish in a total time (including stops) of just over 13 hours, which is by far the fastest 300km event I have evr done. In fact my 12 hour on-the-bike distance was over 180 miles (only 45 miles less than I did in my 12 hour time trial 10 years ago)and this was considerably hillier.

I had entered a hilly 107km event for Sunday, starting at Merthyr Tydfil but this required a 6am start and I felt that I should rest properly after an event of this length. This didn't take much persuasion! Over training at this point would be extremely detrimental.

Majorca 22-29 March 2008

Apologies for the delay on this - first week back to work has been a bit manic!

Anyway, what an amazing week in Majorca. In the 6.5 days we were there we managed:

• 553 miles
• 1 rest day
• 1 broken rim
• 1 broken rear mech (fixed by Ian's Dad Peter in 30 seconds!)
• 1 puncture
• 1 crash
• Plenty of dodgy Spanish
• Copious quantities of beer (the local shop started giving us discount we drank so much) - all in the name of recovery you understand.

Day 1 - Saturday

It started off well - arrived in Palma and picked up the car without incident, found the apartment with relative ease and assembled the bikes (or mostly). Ian's rear mech (the bit that moves around and changes the gears) had lost all its "spring". I recalled a bike shop from my previous trip to Majorca so it was off there. This was Easter Saturday and it was shut, however. Fortunately the owners were just back from a bike ride and so I knocked on the door and pleaded in bad Spanish and puppy dog eyes for a new rear mech for Ian. The lady duly obliged and it was back to the apartment for reassembly and out for a ride at about 4:30pm.

We went up to Cap Formentor, a rolling route of 40 miles return and we both enjoyed the hills and the conditions...until we turned for home when we realised that the rim on Ian's rear wheel was split (most probably due to over-exurberance on the part of baggage handlers). This meant some very steady descending for Ian on the way home. When we hit the flat though, we cranked it up and were whizzing along as the rain started to fall in big clumps. It was as we were speeding into a roundabout on the outskirts of Alcudia that I cranked the bike over at 20mph+ and found myself skidding along the ground on me bum. I quickly jumped up and hobbled to the side of the road. We were nearly home so we cycled on and on return investigated the damage. Most importantly the bike was fine, as were my new shorts (my first concern!) and I had some minor road rash.

So that was all good.

40.51 miles in 2:31:54 at 16.0mph average.

Day 2 - Easter Sunday

No shops open today so Ian's wheel was gaffa-taped to prevent inadvertent tube-poking-throughage-and-going-bang-ness! Ian had found a 50mile drive from the town of Petra which sounded flat (no descents to trouble Ian's dodgy wheel) and pleasing to the eye. So we cycled to Petra and then followed this route.

The scenery was very nice (wide green meadows, flowering orchards etc), the weather was changeable (overcast, windy, sunny in patches) and we felt good. We stopped for a bite to eat in Petra after 26 miles or so and headed on our merry way to Felanitx, Porreres, Llucmajor and then north towards Algaida. By this time I was getting a floaty sort of feeling caused by insufficient nutrition (i.e. I started to bonk) and we struggled from town to town trying to find a bite to eat. Eventually in Sencelles we found a bar open showing the football (Barca vs someone else!) and I wandered in through a haze of dope smoke to buy munchies. The barman must have thought we'd been indulging outside when I asked for four chocolate bars, two cokes and a water with a glazed expression on my face!

This provided us with valuable fuel to get home and we tonked it home along the main road from Inca to Port d'Alcudia at a healthy 20+mph (wind-assisted - as it would be for the rest of the week).

95.05miles in 5:43:02 at 16.6mph average.

Day 3 - Easter Monday

It was back to the bike shop in Binissalem today (Ciclos Gomila) to sort out Ian's wheel as we felt that after 95 miles the previous day was pushing our luck. We took what was meant to be a direct route, but lack of signposting scuppered that plan).

We reached the shop and in my best Spanish ("Esta rueda es rota. Quiero una nueva rueda, por favor.") tried to get a new wheel. The chap in the shop couldn't help us that day though but said he could have it ready for tomorrow - which meant Ian was going to have to do the world's most impressive stoppy to get the 30 miles home! However, the shop assistant then offered Ian his wheel for the day and we could ppick up the new one the next day!! This was so unprecedented that I asked him to repeat himself! So MANY MANY THANKS to Ciclos Gomila for their assistance!

So off we toddled towards the climb of Soller (5.1km at 5.5%) where I got a bit overexcited and climbed it in about 17 minutes pushing the heart rate far too high. Ian (being sensible) arrived at the top about 3 minutes later and we went for a hearty lunch in the restaurant at the summit.

The descent then took us into the town of Soller from where we headed through the very pretty village of Fornalutx before hitting a more main road and turning back East towards Lluc. This involved a climb of 10.7km at 6.4%. This was a real killer (especially in the heat of the day) but I was still surprised to drop Ian for 7+ minutes. When he reached the top - looking very grumpy he collapsed over his handlebars and proceeded to swear when he realised he cycled the entire climb with the front brakes on!! (I did laugh).

The climb had been made more interesting by the sight of cars approaching us with minature snowmen built on the bonnets of the cars! Very weird - must be a local tradition. However, as we descended the other side of the climb it got more manic as the entire local population of Majorca appeared to have decided to congregate at the side of road to revel in the snow - this lead to me getting angry as I couldn't enjoy the descent! Bah Humbug - people enjoying themselves!

We soon passed this though and hit a lovely descent into Caimari which I thoroughly enjoyed - catching and overtaking cars aplenty! We headed back through Campanet along our fast return road to complete a total of:

98.82miles in 6:44:36 at 14.7mph average - not bad for a hilly day!

Day 4 - Tuesday

Oh how the time was flying past. We returned to Binissalem today but via Pollenca and the climb up towards Lluc (7.8km at 5.1% (or something like that)). Our legs felt awful - very heavy and not at all energetic as we started the climb. However, we spun away in small gears and proceeded to catch and pass just about all of the Wrekin Sport Cycle Club (or so it appeared). This was quite a surprise to us but made us feel pretty good about ourselves to be catching folk when we felt awful! We were soon put back in our places when a group of about 10-15 guys went past us with a swoosh soon after the summit (I swear one of them was Marco Pantani's taller brother)!

After a stop for to pick up the newly mended wheel we headed south towards Algaida where we stopped for a late lunch before taking a North Easterly road home through Sineu and Santa Margalida. This covered some wonderful ground, lightly rolling with green fields dotted with early spring flowers, a slight tailwind and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was only a shame we had to finish along the strip from Can Picafort to Port d'Alcudia which is populated with nasty high-rise hotels and Burger Kings! But you can't have everything.

80.50miles in 5:25:02 at 14.9mph average.

Day 5 - Wednesday

After much debate the night before it was decided we NEEDED to do a proper mountain stage and this was the day for it. We set off at 7:30am knowing we'd need all the hours we could get. The route toook us on back roads to Caimari before climbing up towards Lluc (7.7km at 5.6%)and on to Sa Calobra. Sa Calobra is a small cove at the bottom of a long, steep descent and the only way out is back up the road (or hire a boat!). This is a killer of a climb and one which the professionals use in early season training. It's 9.9km long at an average gradient of 7.0%. This is equivalent to a Category 2 climb in the Tour de France (maybe Cat 1 if you're lucky).

We were filled with trepidation at the bottom and set off very slowly. With slightly bigger gears than Ian I went up faster and crested the summit after 45minutes 18seconds. Ian was about 3-4 minutes later and looking considerably more relaxed! We had done it though and felt excellent! So onwards and back down towards Soller (after another 5km of climbing at about 5%). This was followed by 15km of descending (which I found a trifle scary as my headset became disctinctly wobbly as the descent continued!)

At the bottom there wasa quick call to Dad who gave me a quick fix and then it was off to climb Soller again from the other direction (7.2km at 5.7%ish). Ian clearly felt good up here and he powered off. I tried to keep pace but watching the heart rate I backed off and saw him at the top after what was a very pleasant climb. Lots of hairpins, plenty of shade and very quiet roads. We stopped breifly at the top before dropping back down and into the village of Bunyola where we stopped for more food.

This brief respite was followed by the last climb of the day of about 8km at about 5% out of Bunyola towards Orient and Alaro. This was a spectacularly beautiful road and little used as there was a much quicker route between the two villages. It descended between two enormous rocks which looked to me like volcanic plugs of some sort but I'm no geologist - they were pretty spectacular either way!

It was again home along our fast route from Inca and a well earned beer (or two) and rest followed by watching an awesome display from the British Cycling Team in Manchester.

110.65miles in 7:39:54 at 14.4mph average.

Day 6 - Thursday

This was our rest day. I got up at 7:30 (more sort of wobbled up due to the feeling in my legs actually) and my kit had not dried from being washed the previous night so we couldn't go out. It was hence back to bed and an enforced rest day was the result. We drove out to Santa Eugenia and had a very simple Menu del dia followed by an easy walk in the coutryside around the village to ease off the legs.

We had an easy evening that day and I planned a monster 140miler the next day to take in the Easternmost point of the island (Cap de Capdepera) and the Southernmost point (Cap de ses Salines) before returning up the North of the island.

Day 7 - Friday

It was up early then and off through Can Picafort and Arta to the easternmost point. This was a smooth if busy road with a few brief gentle climbs to wake the legs up before we reached our first goal after 30 miles. This had been fairly easy so we had a quick photocall and off we toddled to head to the South. This took us through some nasty developments along some splendidly made roads (pain and pleasure!) to the beautifully located Cap de ses Salines. We had managed the 78 miles there in a 17.2mph average. We basked in the glory of the sun before turning unwillingly back into what we anticipated would be a very strong headwind.

We were very glad to be proved wrong, however, and continued along at a fair old pace back to Felanitx (96 miles) where we stopped for another bite to eat (our first stop having been after 48 miles in the very plush Porto Cristo). On continuing from there I completed my fastest ever 100miles (5:49:00) and we carried on cranking up the pace as the legs got stronger and stronger.

On arriving back we both looked at each other thinking "Well that was easy" and thinking that we'd come a long way in the week and that our training was paying dividends.

Last day: 128.00miles (I didn't read the map properly the previous night) in 7:19:25 at 17.5mph average.

Conclusion

An excellent week. We've both come out of this with the confidence that we can complete the Tour if we pay close attention to diet and heart rate. These are going to be the key things to watch.

Anyway, keep the support coming - we've just reached £1,500 today in sponsorship - and we can definitely do this!!

The next 14 weeks will fly by now!

Photos

Kingdom of Fife 210km

This ride started through in Edinburgh so I travelled through to stay with an old school friend, Simon, and his girlfriend Anna the night before. A big thank you to Anna for a splendid dinner once again - she looked after me before I did the marathon 3 years ago as well!

Simon's friend Ben came along as well for the ride which worked well - the more the merrier! The route started just shy of the Forth Road Bridge before heading out (unsurprisingly, by the name of the route) to Fife through Cowdenbeath, before heading to the coast South of St Andrews and hugging the coast all the way to Newburgh where we headed South and back to Cowdenbeath, the Forth Road Bridge and Dalmeny for a very welcome feast of tea and soup!

The route was not hilly, but undulating with only two proper climbs after about 25 miles and 85 miles. We'd started about 5 minutes late and ended up picking up a number of riders on this climb - Simon and Ben disappearing into the distance as my excess weight (bodily and bikily!) showed.

We kept together throughout the ride and had a really pleasant ride, even meeting up with a couple of guys short of St Andrews and getting into a 5-man team time trial-esque bit of riding for about 8 miles! This was fun but my legs complained too much and we let the two chaps head on in St Andrews while we grabbed some lunch.

Had we know what awaited us another 33km up the road we may well not have done as George and Margaret Berwick put on a wonderful spread of tea and cakes at their house - many thanks indeed. We sat on benches outside enjoying some very welcome rays of sun with a cuppa and some flapjack. This is what Audax is all about! CAKE!

It was around this point that we had started to head back with the wind having had a mild but persistent headwind for the best part of 75 miles. This was some relief and the average picked up from a low of about 14.0mph at 25 miles to 16.1mph by the end of the clocked 131miles.

Many thanks to Simon and Ben for sticking with me today - we worked really well together (though maybe more of them on the front than me for a lot of it) and it was great to have company on the ride for a change.

It's now less than a week before Ian and I head to Majorca for our week of training in the sun (hopefully) and no wind (even more hopefully!). Looking forward to that, I'll tell you.

I'm now half way through my 32 week training schedule for the Tour and have completed 140hrs 36mins training, of which 97hrs 41mins had been on the bike. These 97hrs odd have taken me 1,500miles at an average speed of 15.4mph. So basically, in 16 weeks I've not even cycled 75% of the distance we'll be doing in 23 days. Hmmmm - a little worrying. It is still the most training I've ever done, though - so that must count for something, eh?

Keep the sponsorship rolling in as well folks, we're over £1,400 and counting, but still have a long way to go - if you'd like a sponsorship form to pass round your office/friends/acquaintances/strangers you meet on the street just contact us and we'll e-mail you one.

Matt