I've got the 'Winter (Turbo) Blues'

Alan & I managed a couple of rides on the 'fixed' over the Xmas period, we went out on Xmas morning, me thinking for a lap of the park with nowt but a bottle of water and ended up at Windsor watching the police guards and the tourists. It was a plesant enough ride but the traffic was getting bad as we headed home for lunch with 60 miles in our legs

Old style


New style

Rode along the old Hampton and Thorpe '10' courses we both first started racing on back in the 70's, a strange ride down memory lane, Alan on his 'new' Pearson Touche and me on an old Allin probably got raced along these very roads



Just passed my 20th turbo session of the winter (since November) and the signs are there that I'm going a bit stir crazy. It's roughly two a week and although I only do an hour that last few minutes is beginning to wear a bit thin. I know it's all the rage and with the current patterns of weather making road riding nigh on impossible it's the only way to make a bit of effort (safely). I have it set up at work which is a bit annoying when you want to do a spontaneous session between Corrie and Eastenders, thankfully I've not had the urge yet and I feel that's the way it will stay at a safe distance Last night I had to curtail my session to 5 minutes as I had my very first turbo puncture, not prepared to change it I did a bit of stretching and came home, I didn't feel up to it anyway

Instrument of torture!
Special adaption unit

Went up to Manchester for LVRC track session the first Saturday of the year, trouble was it was between 7-11 in the evening so not back to Leicester until after one o'clock and I was so knackered I could only manage two hours on the road the next day

I got in a couple of tough back to back long rides mid January when Fiona & I went over to Essex, I rode most of the way (to Harlow) 100 miles and then 80 miles the next day with the Shaftsbury CC, only three others turned up and we battered ourselves in the wind and rain and I thought to myself "What am I doing here?" I knew the signs were not good as we rode over to the meeting point at Mountnessing so as we waited for the last man to turn up I took my food out of their (plastic) bags and put them inside my overshoes, it held off the rain for the first hour, but that was all. We all had mudguards and fought all day to stay off the back wheel of the person who didn't have the 'extra' mud flap



I took a weekend off at the end of January to visit friends in Devon and although I took my bike I only went out for a cursory two hours on the Saturday as my heart was not in it. I do not get on with the hills in winter and It didn't help matters that it was windy as well. After falling off five times in December and January I have managed to avoid doing so in the recent cold snap by staying on the main roads which is not pleasant but it just has to be done and I have not missed any of my twice weekly long rides but as the need for speed approaches a bit of better weather please!

STOP PRESS After quitting yesterdays turbo session I was full of riding on the way to work this morning, managed a magnificent 19 mph on my 72" over the wet but thankfully not icy roads, only the second time I've ridden to work in the last 10 days. Only downside was my pedal falling apart at the end of the road, I'd changed the bearing yesterday and not put it back together correctly Doh! Looking forward to the weekend, Yipeeeeeeee!