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