Hot – R O T H A R . C O M

It’s getting damn hot. Apparently it’s going to get even hotter by midweek. Predictably Britain has been thrown into chaos yet again by the weather. You might think that after several thousands of years our society might have adapted to our maritime climate more effectively. This from Private Eye, continues to remind me that at least we can appreciate the ridiculous state of affairs.

Today I spent the day in the bike shop and the next too days are going to see me stuck inside at home and the office working. Both are hot enough to induce meltdown. Tomorrow night I’m off out on the road bike and out of Manchester, which like London has a geographical position that encourages the formation of high pressure air zones above the city that allow things to get pretty uncomfortable. Up in the Peaks things get a bit cooler.

As Sleepless approaches the surrounding hype is beginning to grow and people are getting set for this weekend. Jed and I are hoping that things will go according to plan, but you never can tell with these things. Preparation has to help. Talking of preparation Biker reports that getting the energy intake sorted definitely helped him in his recent efforts offroad in Switzerland. He rode the Simplon Race, which started in Brig, Switzerland at the weekend and had this to say:

From: Biker
Subject: Simplon Race

Patient beat me by a couple of minutes. I creamed everyone on the descents! Fucking whacked now. Need about a week of sleep. Managed to eat – definitely helped.

I’ve been promised a bit of a race report, if a recollection can be pulled from what was sounds like one hell of a race and undoubtedly caused a mental blur. This is the same race that kiwi Tim Vincent came second in last year. Full results from this year’s event can be found here. By the looks of the map, the course had a fair bit of climbing involved. I want to do that next year, looks like fun.

I reckon there’s about 2000m climbing on that course

I learnt today that a rider was knocked down and killed at the weekend whilst riding a time trial on the A50 and it just reminds you about how susceptible cyclists are to serious and fatal injuries following accidents with other road traffic. You can understand why raging bike is such a popular site. So popular I’m going to make it site of the week.