Greiz road test ...

Is spring here??!! I still don't know. Nature says yes! After watching a nest from the house stairs when passing each time for a week the "amsel babies" have hatched! (Blackbirds in English) . On the way out to meet friends in Greiz for lunch two or three very naked-looking bird shapes were just about visible in the foliage. With temperatures between 0-10 degrees C I hope that they'll fluff up quickly and thrive.

The ride back from Greiz was a bit bleak, a biting cold wind and a saddle that is absolutley not living up to the hype of it its 500 x 5 star reviews and praise as a good touring saddle. Initial tests on the turbo trainer indoors were promising....when it came to it, a 14km round trip turned into a pretty miserable affair. Not a good sign at all!

Afternoon plans had to fall by the wayside as this is a pretty critical bit of kit not to be right. Selle Italia is not my friend and someone will get an absolute bargain of a saddle on eBay when I'm back!!

An evening spent shopping on bike24 until the early hours shooooould provide a plan B and C....!! watch this space.

Before such a long sporting endeavour I'm trying to stay injury free by not doing anything too stupid..(aside from my day-to-day walking /running up and down the steep stairs of an old house in some novelty hugley oversized ant slippers, that is)...it turns out that a single HAIR from a toxic cactus of doom can have much more painful effects than misadventure in inappropriate footwear. Whilst lying on the floor to carry out the first part of kit inventory checking as P was bike tweaking, a cactus hair got into my calf and caused a huge hot red lump the size of a gooseberry which sends a wave of weird pain up my leg everytime I move my foot..like when climbing stairs..and cycling 😂😂😂. Cactus Jack and Selle Italia Diva saddles are on todays sh!t list!!!Les mer