Show me the money

I use to watch most motorsport, gradually it left my schedule, F1 being the first. It is all about money, with less dependence on the human element. Other four wheeled racing followed, finally the two wheelers no longer interested me. When human frailty is removed from the equation it becomes a race to spend the most. 

So what do I watch now?

Cycling; more specifically road racing. There is a lot of money in the top flight, if you are a mens team. It's very different for the women's side of the sport, that really needs to change. They don't have so many live televised events, or the same length of races. This is wrong; why don't the organisers do more to promote it? More screen time will mean more sponsors, it's a little chicken and egg at the moment.

The top teams spend big, up to around £40 million. This could sterelise the sport, as it does for the motorised genre. The better funded teams generally lead the races, but the winner is never certain. The recent Tour de France for example; Ineos with Egan Bernal were favourites. I think they have the biggest budget, he pulled out due to injury. Anyone from any team could crash, become ill, or just have a bad few days, especially in the mountains. That's all it takes for any hope of winning to disappear. Three weeks, 3,484.2 km (2,165.0 miles) with only two rest days. This year it went down to the wire, with a mammoth effort on the last stage from Tadej Pogacar to win.

I must admit to imagining myself in those races, testing my determination against whatever the course throws at me. I also think about some of the endurance events, how great would it be to complete them with friends?

And now for the regular feature; pics from the daily rides.

 

The weather was still great at the beginning of the week, starting to see sunset colour during my ride

The nights are getting darker.

My after work route is only twelve miles but it includes four steep hills, two of which I first ride down, turn around, and then ride to the top again. On Wednesday night I passed the same people on both hills as I rode in both directions. I wondered what they might be thinking. They gave me a half smile, half laugh the last time our paths crossed.

I also got a puncture on Waller Lane, the camera caught the moment, with sound.

I hope the evenings will be as nice as the one on Thursday. It was wet all day, I did got dirty, but the sunset was worth going out.

The wind made a big impression on Saturday. I went out with Oxted Cycle Club in a faster group than previously, it was okay at first. As we neared the end I ran out of acceleration; if I needed to catch up on a hill I had nothing left. It felt like there had been a headwind most of the time, not too bad if I was in a slipstream. A few feet further back I lost that help, and could not regain my position, the gap increased quickly. It was a weird feeling, I wasn't out of breath, my legs just didn't have any extra push. 

Matt and I met at our winter residence on Sunday, the Tatsfield village bus stop. It's covered location is less exposed to the weather than our summer locations. 

During the week Matt had discovered an off road route from Redhill to Caterham. I knew some of it, but there would still plenty to explore for me. A ride to a cafe and back, what's not to like.

It's okay to talk

I have never been affected so deeply as the the guy who made the video.

The message is to talk, it's hard at first, but it gets easier.

It's still warm

This week we had an Indian summer, so cycling in shorts for a little longer.

What does the term mean?

The exact origins of the phrase are uncertain, several writers have speculated it may originally have referred to a spell of warm, hazy autumn conditions that allowed Native American Indians to continue hunting.

Whatever the origin of the phrase, it evidently first was used in the eastern United States. The first recorded use of the phrase appears in a letter written by a Frenchman called John de Crevecoeur dated 17 January 1778. In his description of the Mohawk country he writes "Sometimes the rain is followed by an interval of calm and warm which is called the Indian summer."

The term was first used in the UK in the early 19^th century and went on to gain widespread usage.

After work was very pleasant weather for my rides.

A slight change to my normal route added an extra steep hill, in place of just a steep one.

As I rode into Tatsfield on Saturday there was a display commemorating 80 years since the battle of Britain.

Phil arrived on his newly restored Honda CB750, having had it in bits for a number of years. It's one of the first to arrive in the UK, 44 years ago. He is rightly very proud of his achievement. It looks excellent, I can't see how he could have done any better. It runs perfectly, just like it did when new.

You can see Phil's reflection as he stands proudly by his bike

We sat and chatted over drinks and twix. Catching up with what had happened since Phil's last visit. We were soon laughing and chilled out as if he had never been away. But he had to get home, and I had a far destination to reach. I rode off to explore Ditchling Beacon, Matt and Phil went home; promising we would all meet again next weekend. 

I had wanted to climb the hill for a long time, but this years events meant I hadn't wanted to go too far. With public transport now running, if I had any problems it's possible to get home.

The weather was nearly perfect, warm but a strong wind pushed me quickly on the outward leg. It really hampered my return, some descents required me to pedal hard to keep up any speed.

A view from the top.

I won't bore you with the video of the ascent - it took about seven minutes - here is the descent. It's much quicker and you can see the valley below.

Sunday at the churchyard with Matt was a great end to the week. Please can I have a few more warm weekends?

There are so many pictures of this spot, inspiration came to me as I sat on my bench.

Comfy slippers

There have been a couple of reunions recently. Geoff - an old friend from a company where Matt and I use to work - arrived by car for a couple of Sundays. And Matt met Phil - use to ride with us years ago - in Westerham on Saturday. Phil was supposed to have meet us on Sunday, but didn't arrive.

After tea had been made Matt and I munched our cereal bars and discussed club meetings. When it's just the two of us, we say hello, sit down and it feels like we continue where we left off last time. It's the same with Matthew, Richard and Jmaes. Even when we met after many months of lockdown. 

It felt like putting on a pair of comfy slippers; new or returning members mean a pause while everyone settles down and catches up. Don't get me wrong, we like to see new and old faces, the second appearance will have us all in our favourite footwear straight away.

Assorted pictures from the daily rides after work.

Some videos too.

Saturday morning.

Surrey hills, early sunrise.

Stop, look, go

During a Moof IT morning team meeting, a colleague talked about happiness and ways to achieve it. He gave a link to a presentation about gaining happiness through being grateful.

It got me thinking about my journey and I realised, subconsciously this was partly how I had coped with depression. 

I had stopped thinking about what had caused me to be so down, and started to focus on the opportunities I had been given and taken. How they had helped to provide happiness and a level of contentment I hadn't felt in a long time.

Stop, look. go is what I try to do now. Stop; don't react immediately. Look; what is really happening? Go; choose a way forward that is positive. At its most basic, this gave me the opportunity to avoid doing or saying something I might later regret. Meaning I didn't then have to criticise myself, even if it was just me who thought I had acted badly. This can be applied to any situation, whatever you choose to do is an opportunity to improve the outcome. Which leads to happiness, because you remain in control.

In the video David talks about returning from Africa and having water at the twist of a tap; light at the flick of a switch. They are two things I take for granted, but they give me the opportunity to spend time with family and friends. I have time to ride my bike everyday because of them. I can work because of them. Think about the other parts of your life that give you time to be happy.

Another link he sent was this. Brené says one thing in particular that most resonated with me, courage to be imperfect. I realised as I get older or better at coping with life I had partiacialy embraced this. If people don't like me for who I am, it's not my fault. I don't mean I want to act badly towards them, but there are somethings about me I like, or don't want to change. And that's okay.

Let yourself be seen. You are enough.

A tale of two jerseys

When I first returned to cycling it was in normal clothes, jeans and a t-shirt. I rode a bike given to me by my brother. As the distances and frequency increased I wanted to be more comfortable. 

Looking for a replacement bike, I couldn't believe how expensive they were; I wasn't after a top of the range one, but it needed to be reasonable. So I bought my Kona through ebay, the spec was better than I could afford new; it was only eighteen months old.

A few years later I planned to do RideLondon, so a road bike was needed. I faced the same problem, resolved in the same way. This time it was older, I upgraded the brakes straight away. You need to buy well above entry level for them to be effective.

Last year I looked for a newer road bike, with some better features aimed at comfort. Second hand made it affordable, but again the brakes were a joke. It wasn't a starter bike, costing nearly £1000 when new, so I would have expected better. Looking at other bikes in that price range and higher, the same penny pinching is still evident today. It's had a few updates that I have mentioned previously to bring it closer to what it should have been. 

The clothing purchases started with padded under shorts. Then a coat to keep me dry, which it didn't. A pair of trousers was next, light enough that they dried quickly but still able to keep me warm; and shorts for the summer. 

That was it until March this year. Being furloughed meant I rode everyday. The weather was mostly brilliant, but I still needed some extra items, and more than one change of clothing. I looked at jerseys, and some more shorts. Buying from a big, well known brand is expensive. I found an alternative, that fitted well and had brilliant customer service.(d2d Cycling Clothing)

It appeared that the more premium producers used better fabrics, and spent a lot on development, hence the price difference.

Knowing a bit more I looked at these premium manufacturers, I found that they did list alternatives to polyester. Or varying percentages of polyester and something else, not always lycra as you'd expect. Some would just say "made of quality Italian materials", whatever that means. 

The short sleeved jerseys I have are 100% polyester, the long sleeved one has 10% spandex. Many months of wearing and washing hasn't affected them. I then bought a Rapha jersey, ex-display so nowhere near full price. What exotic material did it use to justify being double the RRP? The majority is polyester except for the stripe on one sleeve, which is 88% nylon and 12% Elastane. It could be the zip, it doesn't look like an expensive alloy though. In fact, the Rapha jersey doesn't have the grip tap around the bottom like the D2D has; it's just at the back, so you could say it's not as high spec. To access their high tech offerings I'd need to spend at least an extra 50%. I can't comment on it's longevity, it doesn't look different or fit better than to the jerseys I already own. If it wasn't discounted I wouldn't have bought it.

No-one is going to loan or give me clothing to compare, so I'll just have to pass judgement based on limited experience of the clothing available. I'm sure their racing kit is very high tech and consumes much R&D, but I'm not after every advantage, to save seconds on my rides. I just want comfortable, long lasting, affordable cyclewear. I'm not convinced paying so much has enough advantages

Now for my cycling week.

Monday; a bank holiday and really nice weather. Best of all a ride to a cafe in Westerham to meet Matt. I arrived just before him so ordered and took a seat. I was was very relaxed, and feeling great. 

Matt arrived and we chatted over breakfast. Deli Di Luca is a friendly place to spend half an hour catching up. It would have been even better without a few wasps, attracted by Matt's cake. I know they do a great job in the garden; but why do they have such a bad attitude all the time?

Tuesday; the Waller Lane loop on the mountain bike. On the return leg, up Waller Lane two people wished me luck getting to the top. I wasn't struggling, I guess my default expression is pained.

Two urban animals crossed my path, a fleet-footed fox and cool cat.

 

The second video shows why most urban walks are almost impossible for Marcia and myself without using a car. The pavements are blocked by thoughtless parkers. We couldn't travel by foot and wheelchair down most side roads and even some more major ones. We are forced to drive.

The rest of the week; because I'm sure you don't need a day-by-day report. 

I'm getting faster each time I ride up Waller Lane. People are still a mixture of surprised, disbelieving and impressed at my attempt.

A pic from the week.

The weekend came around and I could just squeeze in a longer ride on Saturday to Eynsford. It took me back to my childhood, we would regularly visit during the summer. Eating sandwiches on the banks of the river and splashing around in the ford. We would also bring boats my dad had made, careful not to let go of them, lest they be dragged under the bridge.

And a picture as well. No, I didn't ride through it.

Some ducks.

And finally a great way to end the week, cycling to the churchyard to meet Matt. There was a rumour Phil would be there; it's been years since he attended a club ride. Matt had bumped into him near Westerham on Saturday. But he he didn't appear, a shame.