London to Brighton 2009

Well we went and did it again this year.
London to Brighton..... 56 miles of gruelling non-stop road riding.
Ok. Ok. 18 miles riding and then a stop for a burger.
Here are the burger boys Stevo and Eric.

Another 18 miles and then stop for a cake.
Another 12 miles and then stop for an ice cream.
Then cruise down into Brighton and take the applause from the crowds of people at the finish.
Yes. We is athletes ya know.

A 6am start meant that we could get a move on and not get baulked by the majority of the other 27 thousand riders.
The weather held up nicely with no rain and fairly cool light winds.
All of the group rode up Ditchling Beacon without as much as a moan or groan.
The hard part of the climb was getting past the mass of walking "riders" as they spread out and staggered all over the road.
Third highest point in the South of England.

Once into Brighton we quickly got changed and straight down the pub for lunch and a few beers.

The sun came out and once fed and watered we were straight onto the beach for two hours of synchronised sleeping.
(the body count grew throughout the day)

Thanks for all sponsorship money so far.
Don't forget there is still time to give if you haven't already.
There is a donate box on the right hand side.
Don't be afraid to click on it.

Scotland at Easter.

The Carnival made it's first trip up to Scotland this Easter.

We allowed a day to drive up there, 4 days of riding and a day to drive home again.

We were In the South West region.

The base was a lovely 20 berth log cab in on the shores of Loch Tey.

A beautiful and scenic area.

Riding en mass through 4 of the 7 Stanes areas was a great experience.

The weather was very kind to us with wall to wall sunshine (while it p****d down in the south of England)

Yes. We were blessed again.

The trails were quite technical and rocky but the climbing was not as severe as we were all expecting.

There were a few crashes in the rocky terrain.

I can take the credit for one of the biggest.

Ouch!!

I must say that 4 weeks later I am still limping after that one!

A brilliant time had by all and we are looking forwards to our next trip up to sunny Scotland.

Scorchio scorchio

Another lovely day. 25 degrees in torre.

Guess what time it is.

Yes. You guessed. Lunch!

A bit of sun bathing.

Chilling on the beach with greenday on the phones and no one near us. 24 degrees and getting a tan.

Sunday breakfast

Yes. It does look a bit like beer. .;o)

It's not just me.

Keep the sunburn in the family.

Sun and gin

I know it's not a good look but. . . . A scorched face enjoying a g&t is quite a good feeling.

Anyone for cricket?

Found this mutant cricket having a hop around town. Hola cricket.

13:00 hrs local time.

Oh what a hard life. A large beer and lunch by the sea. 20 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

7 am. Beer time.

Cheers.

5 am. Holiday time!

Time to get our lazy asses out of bed and head off to the airport.

A cheekie midweek Swinley Forest Ride.

What to do.....
A lovely mild and sunny Thursday morning.
Gill and Chris not working.

Hmmmmmm..

(Shouts) .. "BIKE RIDE"

Haven't been to Swinley Forest for ages so off we go.
What a hoot.















We must have ridden every trail 3 times over.
(And not JUST because we were lost most of the time).
Loads of short sharp climbs to kill the legs.
Loads of tricky technical downs to make the adreneline flow that bit faster.















One little crash (Chris).
A few near crashes (Chris, Gill and Me).















Perfect riding weather conditions.
Mega fun had by all.
And to cap it off.......
Lunch from the back of the car.















Thanks Gill for the food and drink.
Thanks Chris for driving us.
Best bit of riding I've had in ages.
;O)

As Rod Stewart sang............

The coldest winter in almost 14 years.

We have had snow all week in Hertfordshire.
The freezing conditions meant the snow was still there Sunday for us to play in.
Here we come.
Looking good.














Straight into deep and frozen snow.














All of a sudden it's not quite as easy as it seemed.














Still...
Being hardened bikers we all got going.
(and because the camera was out)














It was harder to walk than ride as Gill demonstrated by tripping head long into the snow face first.......Twice.














And off to the next frozen track.
Safer than the roads though.
Both Gill and Nicky slid off on the icy lanes.
Great fun had by all.

The Return of the Spinks.

Well....

After his accident in Spain Eric has been in forced rest mode.

That is until last weekend.

We dragged him out in the cold and rain.

Unfortunately the rain meant I had to keep the camera at home so no pics.

This week the sun came out and so did the camera (still bloody cold though).

There were some beautiful views with the sun streaming through the trees.

...and us streaming through the trees.

...and us streaming through the streams.

...and....... Ok. Enough of that.

Here are some pictures.

Look at that sky.

Yayyy.

This Video is available in full DVD quality at all good Delbert shops.

Starring The Herts Carnival.

See them make no attempt to ride on the first day.

(swimming pool was sooo much better)

See them arse around.

See them try and ride bikes.

See them crash.

See them cross-dressing......ehem...sad but true.

Today is the 150th Aniversary of the Gin and Tonic.

First invented in India in 1858.

Tonic was the drink they used to combat malaria.

(Hence Indian Tonic Water)

The quinine in it made it taste bitter so.........

They had the bright idea of adding Gin to off-set that bitterness.

And bloody good job they made of it too.

I guess they were ..... Very very drunk at the time.

And home again.

We are all cheesed off to be home.
Here are the pictures that are on Sierra Cycling's website.
http://www.sierracycling.com/imagegallery/2008-10-4/index.php
All that blue sky..................
Hmmmm...
Enjoy.

Injury of the week.

Eric turned an ankle and is sat out the rest of the week. Great colour eh?

Poor old fella.

It turned out that he has ligament damage (and very black toes).

The good news was that it was near the end of the week.

The day after this accident 6 of us went out on the wettest, windy and coldest ride I have ever had in Spain.

Mini gave up after 10 mins.

The rest of us pushed on for another hour and a half before calling it a day and ending up in a bar.

Several brandy coffees warmed us up.

We stood there with gallons of water pouring from our clothes onto the bar floor.

He he he he..... Had to be done.

It absolutely pi***d down for the rest of the day.

We had to go and eat and drink for the remainder.

What a hard life.

Group picture.

Time to pose after a big climb.

Just an excuse to put our lungs back into our chests.

This was our last ride before rest day.

Everyone was glad to get to this point and get a good 'ol dose of downhill.