A warm Sunday and tired legs!....

I woke early and was heartened to note that my toothpaste didn't need to be defrosted under the hot tap - today was going to be warm - an almost tropical 11 degrees according to the thermometer in the courtyard - great.

No base layers then, a vest and cycling top only, one pair of socks and lightweight gloves - and I was on my way. My old 'winter bike' has been showing its age of late and I have an annoying squeak and a kind of crackling sound from the back wheel (I think) - I suspect bearings but I'm not entirely sure. Anyway I carried on regardless, after 7 miles or so Gary called to say he'd got a puncture - he had two choices; fix it or use his new bike!!! - I encouraged the latter option and it was arranged that we'd meet somewhere on the road.

Sure enough, after about 11 miles I spotted a black and white blur heading toward me - Gary on his new 'Specialized Roubaix' - soon we were off and heading out via Shackerstone to Austrey and then up the 'big hill' to Orton-on-the-Hill - I hadn't climbed that one before and just before the top as I tried to change into a more comfortable gear my chain came off, slipping between the gear and frame at the back and dropping off the small ring at the front - I quickly fixed that but then had a standing start on quite a formidable incline - the result was I misjudged the effort required and fell off into the road!! - falling off is becoming a habit for me. I managed to keep moving at the second attempt and soon we were at the summit. We quickly traveled on to Twycross and then dropped down via Bilstone to Congerstone where  we joined our usual route around the outlying villages of Market Bosworth - the sun was out, we had worked up an admirable sweat and it all felt good; spring-like in fact. The sun popped out for a while to put a smile on our faces and we made good progress.

I had an idea; if we stopped by my house on our way back to the finish point I could get my new bike out for it's inaugural spin - this we did, and I tentatively explored the gearing and the general 'feel' of this highly strung machine - it felt okay - although a few tweaks maybe needed to saddle and handlebars and possibly the shoe cleats - I noticed on the computer that i was traveling at the dizzy speed of 37mph on the flat stretch out to Barton in the Beans, I was disappointed when I realised the speedo had been calibrated in Kph and not Mph.

After getting back home and adding up the two distances for both my bikes I had covered a very reasonable 50.5 miles this morning - trouble was I felt totally knackered - tired and aching, the more aggressive riding position of the Trek may have contributed to that - certainly the saddle is a lot harder than my 'softies' gel filled version on my other bikes - we'll see how I feel tomorrow - meantime, check out Gaz on his new machine here...