Simon says

There are a few pictures to go with all these words. Click here. Back in Canada now where by all accounts the summer was a washout which makes me all the more grateful for the generally great weather that we had in Europe. When we landed in Ottawa it was like walking into a steam room but thankfully the hot humidity has given way to sunny, cooler weather and ideal conditions for rehabilitating my desperately unfit body in time for the autumn cycling and running events. But what of the last three months?! Since writing my account of the Paris-Nice epic in between dips in the villa pool I have had yet another lifetime of experiences. I have often thought this summer how lucky I am to be able to do all these things in my early thirties – a rare opportunity to change career, study and explore Europe before knuckling down again to the world of work. If you want to read no further then here is the whistle-stop version: after a few days at the villa in Nice it was back to England for Geor

Sorry they are a bit all over the place - I will get to label them at some point but they do fit in somehow with the text bit.

1.  Day 1 - Leaving Paris; 0m:41s 2.  Day 3 - Champdor campsite video diary; 2m:13s 3.  Day 3 - Accidental video!  Nice scenery... 0m:05s 4.  Day 3 - Climbing Col du Glandon; 0m:52s 5.  Day 4 - Summit of Alpe D'Huez; 0m:37s 6.  Day 4 - Accidental video on route to Col de Sarennes; 0m:05s 7.  Day 6 - Heading towards Col de Cayolle; 1m:43s 8.  Day 6 - The support car; 0m:52s 9.  Day 6 - Enjoying the gorge; 0m:38s 10.  Day 7 - Approaching Nice; 0m:29s 11.  Day 7 - Descending toward Nice; 0m:44s

If I hadn't spent 59 hours and 50 minutes of the last 7 days perched on my saddle exposed to the elements I may be sitting by the pool soaking up the Cote d'Azur sunshine. But as it is the farmer's tan will stay intact while I reminisce on the most spectacular 7 days of cycling that I've done. Day 1 - Paris to Vezelay, 244 km (152 mi) Still struggling to get over my jet lag from Canada after a week of late nights and late mornings made the 4.30 am alarm (3.30 am UK time!) uncomfortable to say the least but we were on the road by 6 am as dawn broke over Paris. Somehow we had managed to coincide our departure from Paris with some sort of French holiday so we enjoyed a remarkably peaceful roll out of the city and on to the beautiful Fontainbleau. What a difference a following wind makes and although we didn't make it into camp at Vezelay until after 9pm we had 244 km under our belts and were feeling pretty good going into day 2. Day 2 - Vezelay to Champdor, 278 km (173

Day 6 - Barcelonnette to St Dalmas, 123 km (76 mi) Cols passed: Col de Cayolle (2326 m), Col de la Couillole (1678 m) Despite the brooding skies we left Barcelonnette cheered by dry shorts, confidence that we were within touching distance of our goal and enjoying the atmospheric effect of the wispy mist, high clouds and soft sunlight. Our hopes for the newly adapted route were met and surpassed as we wound our way up a stunning gorge towards Col de Cayolle. Despite a brief hailstorm as we approached the col we stayed dry and enjoyed a pit-stop and blankets amongst the snow pack on the col before negotiating over 1500 m of patchy wet descent to Guillames at 793 m. The high Alps now behind us we climbed back up through the ski resort of Valberg and on to the Col de la Couillole up at 1678 m and rolled back down to 500 m where we expected to spend the night. Our ever-supportive support team had other ideas however and let us know by way of text message that they had found a fantastic ca

It's busy being on holiday. After a whirlwind trip to Scotland for my cousin's wedding, two days cycling the Surrey country lanes and a couple of days in Southampton at my Dad's I'm back in London ready to head off to France on Sunday for the start of our cycling epic. Here's a few photos and a couple of videos from the last two weeks: Bagpiper at the wedding New Forest pony and foal Video 1 from the New Forest Video 2 from the New Forest Breakfast with Tim and Damien at Damien's in London A herd of deer halt the traffic in Richmond Park A turtle (I think?) in Richmond Park

Saturday was 27C, Monday was 30C so we went for a ride Sunday when it was showery, windy and topping out at 11C. I would say mad dogs and Englishmen but that would be to do my wife a disservice. The positives were two and a half hours on the road enjoying two-wheeled marital bliss and a season's first foray onto the Gatineau Parkway. In the summer the Parkway is closed to vehicles every Sunday morning - until then it is closed to vehicles full stop. Imagine that, a hilly, tree-lined, tarmac road winding through the beautiful Gatineau Park and accessible only to bicycles. Strange but wonderfully true. In fact Ottawa and its Quebecois neighbour, Gatineau-Hull, deserve never ending praise not only for the Parkway road but also for the endless bicycle/pedestrian pathways, particular the many, many kilometers stretching along the banks of the Ottawa river. Ignore the grey skies and relish the blacktop (click on the pics for full size):

The hottest day of the year so far saw the leg warmers come off for the first time much to the excitement of, well, me. I went out on my own today and tried to push it a little which saw my average speed up to 28.1 kph for the 118 km loop. That pushed my HR to an average 149 for the 4.5 hours that I was out and gave me distinctly wobbly legs for the rest of the day. But in my unscientific training world I am sure that those hill bursts close to max HR will be adding some strength to my legs. So, I often read The Original Big Ring's blog for two reasons: (i) it's a good source of info for riding routes and general biking inspiration and (ii) it's just a very entertaining read! Big Ring's wife works with my wife Crystal hence the connection. Anyway Big Ring rides with the intriguingly named Vegan Vagabond so as I am climbing out of Wakefield I think I recognise aforementioned Vegan (whose real name at that point I do not know) at which point I will let her pick up the s

From the beautiful hills of a sunny day in Quebec to a hard slog out west. A strange thing happened to me today. 2 minutes out of the front door at 7.30am my shorts were wet which in itself is not unusual as the road spray kicks up. What was different today is that the water came with grit and for the next 7 hours my sandpaper shorts proceeded to injure me quite painfully. So much so that there was blood on my shorts. Not a pleasant experience. I have photos to show the damage but thought it best not to pubish for everyone's sake! I think the combination of dry weather recently and the city street cleaners pushing the winter dirt around led to my predicament. In short Ottawa to Jo-Anne Mandy's parents place in Golden Lake; 181 km; 7 hrs in the saddle, 8 hrs of heart rate monitor activated, during which avg. HR 140, cals burnt 5248. <a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/canada/on/ottawa/938124035845025918">Ottawa to Golden Lake&am