Well I spent the weekend in the Yorkshire Dales and despite the wind and the rain it was fantastic. I mean the fact that the car door nearly got ripped off it’s hinges, the rain was horizontal and the Polaris riders (I don’t think I have ever seen so many people with the thousand yard stares on bikes – there were some people deep in the pain cave) around Leyburn looked absolutely buggered by about lunchtime on the first day didn’t seem to matter.
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The way that ribbons of sunlight were racing across the green fields of the Dales just seemed to make the place feel so alive. There’s something appealing about that landscape that I can’t quite put my finger on, but it just makes me think of that big debate between the difference between wildness and wilderness. I think its appeal was heightened by reading James Herriot and sipping decent bitter in fresh air and good company.
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Prior to this weekend’s big race twice former World Champion Oscar Freire stated:
“Up until now, I’ve always lacked a little something to win at San Remo,” Freire told La Dernière Heure . “A little luck, but sometimes a little lucidity as well. I feel as though I’m riding more with my head now, and who knows, maybe this will make the difference.”
Initially marked as one of the favourites for the Milan-San Remo, he clinched this years La Primavera on the line, poaching the win from Zabel who sat up too soon.
Now Hans Rey is one of those riders in a similar category to Frischnecht, Tomac, Overend, Furtado. In short he’s a living legend. Now I’ve had some communication with him because he’s done a lot of riding in the Alps and has given me some advice on a route I’ve been researching for a few years – it’s a big one and part of a Transalp epic I’m planning. So I was a bit interested to read about this opportunity to ride with one of the sports legendary figures.
The ABG letter from Bikebiz has disappeared having been pulled following a request from one of the parties involved. There is a lesson to be learnt from that debacle.
R O T H A R . C O M 