The rendevouz

Today we get together for our next big tour; a ride from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean, timed to co-inside with the Tour de France. The big ride is book-ended by a cruise-ferry voyage and a trip across France by rail, plus a few shorter rides thrown in to take in the sites.

This should have been a strait forward case of my riding from Bristol to London per #the plan#. Naturally though, the same focus on my planning that saw me commence my last tour after an all night session putting my touring gear together has caused complications... Things started to unravel on Saturday, when I decided to attend the St. Pauls Carnival in Bristol with my friends rather than prepare my gear. My quick stop into the office to tie up loose ends on Monday morning was also hampered by botched engineering works which saw me arrive (and hence leave) considerably later than planned.

I ended up leaving my house in North Bristol at about 16:10, a shake down ride to Bath (going very gingerly, to test the balance and handling of my fully loaded and towing bike) took until 18:00 #Bath pic# and decided that it was best to catch a train and get there today.

In the space of that short ride I managed to accidentally find my way onto an unoffical Cross-country mountain biking course. I also got a tack strait in one of my tyres, which is the cycling equivalent of slipping on a banana peel; it happens in cartoons, but I never thought it would actually happen to me.

All in all things aren't boding too well, but there is a promise of Shepard pie to keep me going to Epsom.Read more