Getting faster...

This is a picture of Pic Saint Loup near Montpellier, which Chris used as a warm up ride during my recent visit. Since then Chris has started a really interesting blog describing some of the problems which he has encountered personally and professionally since moving from England to Montpellier.It's a heart-on-the-sleeve sort of thing and therefore very interesting. www.otgeuro.blogspot.com
This past week has all been about shaking off the fatigue, but last night the current Mrs C returned from her sojourn to the jolly middle-class ladies tennis camp on The North Island, and gave me the chance for an evening 20 mile time-trial.
I've been doing the same route from Brook to Niton since I started training in March. I really gave it the full berries last night despite a gusty wind, a squall of hailstones and some disturbingly localised lightening. Hence the last 5 miles were on wet roads which didn't feel very secure but I finished like a demon with my lungs protruding from my nostrils in a new Island record ... I finally cracked the 20 mph average. Top Northern semi-pro rider Jacko said he would buy me a set of go-faster stripes when I cracked that particular figure. I used my newish Polar HRM and can report an average of 144 bpm and a max of 164 during this ride. I think I'm a bit of a slow beater with a resting rate of 42. I've never seen my max above 166 to date.

Annoyingly, I suffered with the low back ache again, and the same problem emerged during my Cotswolds ride last weekend. I suspect the pain is proportional to the amount of effort I'm making, and hence only emerges when I'm trying to ride faster than 'average'. Bike-shop mogul Adrian almost wet himself at the site of my reversed stem this week, and labelled my bike a 'chopper'. Boy, he's a witty dude. He's pissed that I haven't bought anything from his shop for about 5 years. But, I agree with him, so the stem has been reversed. He also thinks I should have a longer stem, longer than 100mm, because he thinks my bike geometry is a bit cramped for my physique. He could well be right, but unless I buy a new stem and try it I'm not going to know am I? How many of us can afford to buy stuff just to try it?
I'm also very conscious of the proximity of L'Etape, and the inadvisability of trying out modifications at this late stage.

I mentioned that I witnessed a nasty 'off' during the Cotswolds' ride when a bunch of us were descending at 35mph down a narrow country lane. A dog ran across our path between farm buildings and the poor bloke in front slid off after testing his brakes to their limit. He left a lovely black tyre mark. I thought he had fractured his femur by the way he was holding his thigh, and he turned a sickly shade of white. After 5 minutes or so he started to perk up and asked, 'How's my bike?' , so at that point we knew he wasn't too bad. Then his mate took a long look at the rubber streak on the road and chipped in with, 'You're not the only one who has left a skid mark after that'. Funny. I felt very vunerable after seeing someone fall at that sort of speed, and when we got going again after calling an ambulance, we took it easy for at least a mile. It's best not to think about falling off.

I can confirm that the rider who fell was OK with no serious damage apart from the obvious road-rash. You know I've been there (see my blog on April 18th).

Tonight we're gigging at The Anchor in Cowes. This is usually a great gig, and it should be buzzing after the annual Round the Island Race which took place today, starting and finishing in Cowes. That's a boat race, by the way, not bikes or cars.

Good luck to all those riders who are doing the Dragon Ride tomorrow. I'd be there too if it wasn't for tonight's gig. No matter, I'm planning a fast 40 miler tomorrow, weather permitting.