CLIC24, Il pleu beaucoup!

As the dust settles on CLIC24 for another year...hang on that was last year, no dust this year thats for sure.
Well despite the daft conditions CLIC rocked.
I did 7 laps, Alan did 5 and Pat did 3.
Mike rocked by doing 11 solo laps - good work that man.

Most importantly though, lots of money was raised for CLIC-Sargeant.

The rigid singlespeed was the bike of choice in the quagmire. Just a bit of lube on the chain and a bit of superglue on the grips and we were good to go.

Riding in today I got soaked...and forgot my towel. Less than ideal.

The brown eye bogey levels were topped up though.

It was this muddy:

Black Anodized cheese…

Well that really didn’t go as planned.

Saturday Night: sort out bike and kit, newly purchased water bottles (without black mould), energy drink at the ready.

Sunday Morning: drive to start of Audax, put bike together, tighten up seatclamp. Thread strips out of seatclamp. Seatclamp appears to be made of some sort of black anodized cheese. Swear. A lot. Drive Home. Eat bacon sandwich. Steal clamp off wife’s bike. Ride 39 angry miles.

I can feel a strongly worded email to Specialized UK coming on.

In better news I now have a permanent job - woo hoo! I can actually start thinking about getting my favourite old frame built up again… I would be lying if I said I didn't have a spreadsheet for the build already...

Belated scores on the doors, Afan Argoed in the sun, The PA is being resurrected, My lungs are officially rubbish, Audax this weekend…

The mileage for January:
Road – 278.71miles - not bad.
Off Road – 52.5 miles - all at night a bit rubbish really but I have been road riding at the weekend. [Edit, I missed out on nightride]
Total – 331.21 miles

This weekend we headed down to Afan Argoed and I wheezed my way around the Skyline trail after having what appeared to be an Asthma attack on the first climb. No power in the legs and lungs contracting to the size of an eight year old’s made life somewhat difficult on the singlespeed. Pictures can be found on Pat’s flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/66688582@N00/ . However the weather was gorgeous with dry trails for the most part at great views.

We planned to ride on the Sunday too but much wheezing forced us to abandon that idea and we headed back early. Shame.

When I get a proper job, ie not a temp job, I’m going to build up my Dialled Bikes Prince Albert frame up. It’s going to be built up pretty much with the same sort of stuff it had on it when we were touring Europe (130mm Z1 Freerides, Saint Brakes, strong components, 2 rings and bash). It’ll be my Fun bike for big rides in big mountains and when I want to run gears. A few bits will move back from the singlespeed and some bits will be bought new and the forks need a service too. All in all it’s going to end up costing about 300quid to go from one bike back to two. I even have a spreadsheet. Can’t wait to do it as I miss that bike. Hopefully the job interview will go well this afternoon… So Mr Lees, why do want this job? Well…I have a frame…

After a trip to the doctor it would appear I am Asthmatic again. – Boo! But I now have performance enhancing drugs (a Salbutamol Inhaler – hardly EPO) – Woo! Did a easy road ride last night in the cold and a couple of preventative puffs of the inhaler seemed to do prevent bronchial constriction. – Yay!

Rutland and Beyond Audax this weekend, bobble hat, saddle bag and kagool at the ready. 100km or so and a couple of café stops. Should be ace!