A dark day

Lucky Grills, aka Bargearse, is dead!



Thanks for the memories...

Harry Potter

Weather: damp

Tour: pretty good

Rest day

Hyde Park Corner in Londres
© Jeff Jones

The Tour is now. And now is a rest day. QED. It's been a good race so far, innit?

I was in Londres for the start, and it was jolly good. A whole lotta people, noice weather and a good atmos. The Tanman and I stayed with Lucy 'n Pete for the duration and had a good curry and a Greek nosh-up on Le Thames.

The BikeRadar launch party was impressive, even if the site was a bit underdone. That was expected as we had a whole two and a half days to test it before the Tour. Not ideal, but we got there. The bits that were working were good, and over the course of last week we fixed a lot more bits. Folks were impressed and that was nice for us. Especially as they were folks with cash. I'm glad I wasn't the one picking up the tab at the Dorchester.

Onto matters of lesser import. I turned 36 last week to little fanfare. The phones were ringing hot as I fielded a call from Kitchens Direct. They obviously hadn't been briefed that it was my birthday or that I was not in a position to buy a kitchen. At least Lucy called, so it wasn't all bad. And I did get a number of congratulatory emails.

On a more positive note, I got up Kingsdown in 6'50, easily my best time since I've been here. I worked out I averaged about 380W, so I'm getting there. I'm still on the creaky Flandria too, because there are headset bearing issues with the Ridley after the crash :-( I'm hoping to reclaim that tomorrow.

I note that the Los Angeles Catholic Church, inc. has had to pay out nearly a billion Aussie dollars to its sex abuse victims. They're pretty well buggered now. I wonder how parts of the Church will cope with bankruptcy? I expect the Lord will provide.

Weather? It's been 18 with occasional showers for as long as I can remember. It's unbelievably poor, given that summer's half over! I don't want to hear any complaints about how cold it is in Sydney.

I appear to be getting cynical in my old age so I'd better stop.

Tools of the trade
© Jeff Jones
Bike riders
© Jeff Jones
The HMS Belfast avec le Tower Bridge
© Jeff Jones
Lucy 'n Pete 'n beer
© Jeff Jones

I knew it

The NHS was behind all the attempted terrorist bombings in the UK. No wonder they ran out of plastic swords. I have to dress my own wounds now. Another week, and I can remove the bandage.

I seem to be riding OK again, although the weather is utter rubbish. It's as cold here as it is in Sydney, but we're in the middle of summer while it's bloody winter in Oz. And it's raining here too. Not proper rain, just drizzle. I'm going to take mine back and get a new one.

Speaking of getting a new one, BikeRadar.com is almost live and that means I have eaten more Schwartz burgers this week. Future also bought Cyclingnews today, and that means the company owns six cycling titles. Crikey.

I had more that I was going to add to this blog but my brain is now empty and I'm tired.