New Bars

Here's the proof of the crack in my old carbon handlebars:


Apologies for the quality of the photo.

And these are the new ones all ready to go:

That was close :-(

Having not ridden my race bike since unpacking it after Nice and wanting to check it out before packing it again this evening, so I rode it into work this morning.
Well, I say into work. I got as far as the county hall roundabout. Did a track stand waiting for the traffic to pass then as I pulled on the bars to accelerate onto the round about my handlebars broke. I'd pulled the right shifter so hard the bars just next to it fractured.
So pleased that they didn't break on the Ironman or next Monday on l'Etape. The thought of them breaking whilst descending a mountain at 30-40+mph doesn't bear thinking about.
I quickly changed plans on the roundabout and threw a complete circuit to head home to change bikes - wasn't helped by the driver that decided to overtake me on the roundabout. We had a touching of wheels. That was too close for comfort.
Now in the market for a replacement set of bars, which I could really do with today as my bike has to be packed by Thursday evening.

Swimming with JT

He he. :-)
Missed my swim yesterday morning, due to working late on CBTs Sunday evening ahead of a course and exam yesterday, which incidently I passed. So having missed the swim yesterday morning went for second chance Monday and shared a lane with JT. We're now both on wk18 of 24 of the schedule taking us up to Ironman Canada and Ironman Louisville. It was fun to be doing the same session as JT, though we had both put our own twists on the session. He'd opted to miss out the Individual Medleys.

First week of the 96th edition of Le Tour

Wow, this tour has been great. Cav into Green. Cav winning two stages. Miller almost winning a solo break away. Cav keeping green. Hosvod sneaking green from Cav. Wiggin's proving that he's now world class in the hills as well as on the track. Team Astana fighting for the leadership of their team. Break aways working. All been happening.

Nice - Day 16

My melencholy at being last man standing soon past when my journey home started. Again another smooth journey, though we were delayed at Antibes due to an accident on the train. This delay meant that we were late getting to Lille and I was a bit concerned at having only 15 minutes to get from my TGV to my Eurostar. You'd normally think that changing platforms for trains would be simple enough, but for the Eurostar you do have an airport style check-in (though admittedly you keep all your bags). There's passport control and security to go through. I didn't rate my chances, but through with 5 mintues to spare. It's definately way way easier changing in Lille than in Paris.
Was met in London at Liverpool St by my London based Friend Helena Bergholtz. Nice of her to come say hi. Whilst we were waiting for my Norwich train, Mitch Dann came off the train from Norwich with his bike having just done the Norwich Tri and was returning to Greenwich.
All in all, a good adventure - just need to write up a short (ish) report now for the club website.

Feels very very strange...

... and rather sad being the last one left at what has been a thoroughly enjoyable trip. Said good bye to Hollie and Andy this morning at 7:45am when their taxi arrived to take them to the airport. My cab arrives at 9:45am to get me to Gare de Nice Ville for the final day of my adventure and the train home. I'm hoping that changing in Lille where I won't have to leave the station will be a whole lot easier than getting across Paris.
Thoughts are with Will Hall at the moment. He is currently in Frankfurt for Ironman Germany and should now be out of the water and onto the bike. In fact having just looked at: http://ironman.com/coverage/?race=germany&year=2009 did the swim in 1:01:15 and did the first 12.9km on the bike at 33km/h (20+mph).

TDF Grand Depart Prologue TT

Day 15 of my trip to Nice and after a very easy day on the beach yesterday it was back to Monaco today for the Tour de France Prologue. Spent the morning trying to find the Livestrong expo stand to no avail. Having worked out where the expo was, wasn't pleased to hear it had moved. Went to where to was only to be told that the Livestrong stand was in the Monaco Nike shop.

Anyway the 15.5km TT was really good, with a very dramatic finish to the proceedings. Bradley Wiggins took the lead off Andres Kloden, only to hold it for a few minutes before Fabian Cancellara went even faster.

Here's a montage of the video clips I took. Lance Armstrong making his return to le Tour after four years in retirement is fourth in the clip.

Some of my photos can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=122043&id=602602194&l=4f14fce4d5

Oh and I got to give a live 30 second report of the event to the BBC Radio Norfolk listeners from my mobile.

Le Tour Team Presentations

Went over to Monaco yesterday for lunch on the F1 course and to see the presentation of the Tour de France teams.

The video above shows pictures of all the teams with photos of the brit riders, plus some of the protagonists. Also got some photos of the bikes as well all of which can be found on my facebook album at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121657&id=602602194&l=3c0340a662

Spent a while unsuccessfully looking for the Livestrong stand. If anyone knows where it is, let me know.

Today have packed the bike and will soon be heading for the beach.

Rob

Congratulations to Andy and Hollie

Last night Andy and Hollie slopped off for a romantic meal for two.

At 7am this morning when we met up for a 90minute easy ride Andy wasn't answering questions about his meal. Then at breakfast Hollie came bouncing up to our table with the biggest diamond on her finger and an even bigger smile on her face. Andy had asked her the question she'd been waiting to hear.

P.S. Feet aren't hurting so much now and went into the sea wearing flip-flops today