Puddles and Pheasants

Let’s start, as usual, with the road bike news.

David Millar wrote an open letter to Dutch paper De Volkskrant explaining his angry tweet that followed Rabobank’s announcement that they would be leaving professional cycling as the company does not believe it can ever be a clean sport.

If you want unbelievable feats on a road bike I think that the key is to look away form the doping issue and focus instead on these out-takes from Martyn Ashton’s video of a little ride he went on, on a Pinarello.



In other news the weekend threw up some opportunities for a bit of my own riding. Once again I explored a bit of the riding south of the M4, an area that doesn’t get much attention but has some hidden riding that is well worth a quick stop. Due to the wonders of technology I can show you exactly where I rode, and (if you’re interested) exactly how slow I am up hills.



The ride was more than wet. While there were warnings of “puddles” I think that “lakes” would have been more accurate as the track was thoroughly wet, and required, at times, a carried detour. Aside from this, and avoiding the pheasant shoot, the hills were challenging, the descents fun and in one place at least pretty exciting, and there was the usual offering from the Ridgeway, with wide open views and sunshine as the weather held off and gave a beautiful autumn pale blue sky to offset the drenched green of the landscape.

Riding so close to the motorway always reminds me that nearly everywhere (except perhaps London) there is something to find and your own route to put together. Go and do it.

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