Sotonopoly, 19th of December, 2pm at the Cowherds

What is the shortest route through 30 checkpoints! Have you considered the crowd of Christmas shoppers, the fizzy December air, a bit of Atlantic wind and there you have it: this is the perfect recipe for Sotonopoly, the race in which each cyclist becomes a capitalist to take over the whole city!

It has been two years since last edition, won by (Dr.) Charlie Main and Alessandro Mozzato with 84 points and 13 points lead over the runner up. There is plenty of room for improvement, though, as they only managed to complete 60% of the course before the time was up. Do you think that you can do better? Have you prepared you bike? Have you studied the maps? Have you been waking up the muscles from the autumn stillness? Are you ready to burn some calories in order to make space for next week’s food craze?

I hope to see you all on Saturday (19^th of December) at 2pm at the Cowherds for race registration, final bike checks and a legs-warming pint. Remember to bring

- a bicycle

- a helmet

- bicycle lights

- a map of the city and the surrounding area (as detailed as possible)

- 5£ for entry

- some sort of digital camera (your cell phone will do the job, if it has a camera).

More details on the facebook event

Video Teaser 1

Video Teaser 2

After the race we will convene at The Alexandra Beer Emporium (6 Bellvue Road SO15 2AY) to celebrate, stay dry, have some drinks and give out the prizes (at 7pm)! The evening will continue with a DJ set from 9pm so tell all your non-racing friends to come along!!

Not in my name

Earthrise - Taken by Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders on December 24, 1968

Last Friday I was out at a salsa lesson with my friends when the attacks in Paris happened. Initially I
felt helpless, like last month after the attacks in Ankara at the peace demonstration. Than I felt anxiety, because I realized how many people that I know live in Paris, and started stalking all of them on social media. Yes, cultural and geographic vicinity affected my reaction, and for a while I felt really bad about it. Now that a week has passed, though, I feel a much heavier uneasiness: what the hell is going on? Why are we letting our governments speak about war so easily? Do you remember all the peace rallies that we did in 2001 and 2003-2004? I was 12 and I did not go, but I remember reading on the newspapers many disgusted comments to the Western reaction to terrorism. Millions of people across the world flooded the streets to say NO to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

What is different now? Why are we letting ourselves be tricked? Is it because those peace marches did not have any practical effect? Those wars started anyways, and we are still experiencing the consequences... Is it because this declaration of war was only symbolic? Effectively we were already at war, we were already training militias, we were already funding drone missions... Is it because Paris itself was hit? Are we so hypocritical? Why are we reacting to this by singing the French National Anthem, which talks about slaying wives and children of the enemy? Do we really think this whole national/european/western unity attitude is going to stop religious fundamentalism? Why can't we see that, in other culture's eyes, we have been and are the terrorists on every conceivable aspect?

How can we pretend that the oppressed Muslims of Africa and Middle East overthrow their bloodthirsty oligarchies, if we can't even show them that we fight against our own capitalist and imperialist system? We are oppressed, they are oppressed, and we are all fighting against the wrong enemy. Our governments are happy, because a couple of videos of French kids interviewed in front of flowers and candles are enough to quench our daily need for peace and positive feelings. We share on social media breathtaking open letters by the survivors of Bataclan, that make us feel pacifists. We play "Imagine" on loop, in all sorts of different versions. We are more aware of the daily suicide bombings that happen a bit everywhere...

Then we go back to our workplaces, fighting with our peers for the crumbles; complaining about the mirants that make the line at the hospital a bit longer, or about the excessive heat, excessive cold, excessive drought or excessive rain, while we eat a tasteless banana from across the ocean...

I don't want my world to be like this

It doesn't matter how safe you are...

...it only takes an idiot driver, and you are done!

Yesterday I almost died: I was cycling on a straight stretch of road, slightly uphill, at night. I had my lights on. A driver overtook me only to hit a  traffic island just 5 or 6 meters in from of me. Obviously he swerved to the left and I was able to slow down enough only because I was going uphill.

He broke his front-right rim and suspension, but what would have happened to me if I was just a bit further ahead? Do you think he apologized? Or do you think that he blamed me for going too slow, forcing him to overtake me?

Cars in cities are weapons! Stay safe and look out for idiots!

The road to ECMC 4: all packed up and ready to go

It's time for packing up: tomorrow I'll be flying to Milan!

Gelatina, my bike, has flied already once to come here in the UK, so she knows what is going on. In fact, I felt that she was a bit excited today on my daily commute, knowing that tomorrow she will be riding in Italy!

I think I got everything I need; probably even too many tools, but I prefer being safe than sorry as the headset is still wobbling a bit... I'm even bringing a spare cog, but this is because I'm crazy!

Tomorrow at this time I'll be having an aperitivo with my sister and my dear friends Camilla and Michele, planning summer holidays and enjoying the pre-race excitement. I can't wait!!

The road to ECMC 5: a busy programme!

Here I am, landed in Linate and in the process of unpacking and rebuilding Gelatina. While on the plane I thought of giving you a quick overview of what will be the plan for the next few days.

We are going to start tomorrow, with a group ride to the sanctuary of Madonna del Ghisallo, protector of cyclists and travellers. This is a sanctuary placed at the top of a really famous climb, often used in the Giro di Lombardia and Giro d'Italia. It is also treasured by cyclists as it features a museum of cycling, with old bicycles from champions of the past.
There we will also meet a large group of couriers that has been riding from Bern (Switzerland) for the past few days, heading towards Milan. Once back to the city, there will be the opening party at the ECMC headquarters: time to meet everybody and get in the mood!

Friday will be a relatively easy day, as the only race in the programme is scheduled for 6pm, and it will only be raced by OutOfTown couriers. Since I'm just pretending, I'll see if the organisers need my help at one of the checkpoints. The positive thing about this is that I'll be fresh for the party at the Velodromo Vigorelli, sanctuary of Milan's cycling history, which has been neglected for a long time but which is now slowly coming back to life!

Saturday will be the busiest day: main race qualification's from 10.30am, dispatchers race qualifications from 3pm, Private Alleycat at 7pm...and of course a big party afterwards! The qualifications will be held in a "closed" circuit at Parco delle Memorie Industiali; there will be a range of pickups and deliveries that we will have to do, following a manifest. Only those that complete most jobs will qualify for the finals.
I'm not entirely sure whether I'll be taking part in the dispatchers team race as well: from the looks of it there is already plenty of teams, but it would be nice to put together a group of us solitary souls and give it a go!
The Private Alleycat is now a tradition of the Italian scene, and this will be the 5th edition. Along with the competitors for the ECMC there will also be many other riders from all over in Italy, and it will be a hard race in the busy streets of Milan. I took part in the first two editions of the Private Alleycat, once racing with Sarah, and once on my own. Not being really an expert of Milan's geography I never had amazing results, so this time it might be a good idea to follow the locals...who knows, time will tell :)

Finally, Sunday we will wrap up the event with the final race, a group ride to see the end of Giro d'Italia, and the awards ceremony.

I hope this gives you a good idea of the busy schedule for the next few days. I'll try to keep you posted as much as possible here, on Twitter (@Mat_Cha_Ich) and on G+.

Now I'll try to find my way to my sister's university...it is going to be a good first test of my orienteering skills..

Up and Down - Southampton 27/06/2015

Last Wednesday Ben, Chris and Tomas went out for a ride and came up with an idea for a simple race. This is the result:

Unsanctioned race in the busy streets of a Saturday afternoon in Southampton

Distance: 11.6 km - 7.2 mi
Ascent: 83 m - 272 ft
Plenty of traffic lights!

Meet: Southampton, at the very end of Red Funnel Pier (it is a parking lot), 3pm.
Race starts at 16:00. NO HELMET NO RACE! Only one checkpoint at the top of the Avenue, all routes allowed. First racer that gets back to the start wins!

Prizes for:
First overall
First man roadbike
First man trackbike
First woman roadbike
First woman trackbike

Bring:
Helmet
£3

Race teaser

The road to ECMC 3: Stay True - the zen of wheel building

I built my first wheel about 5 years ago.

When I went in the bicycle shop (La stazione delle biciclette) I did not really know what I was doing: I needed a rear wheel to convert my current city/road bike frame into a fixed gear bike, as the whole drive train was failing miserably. I asked for the most basic hub, a Novatec flip flop, the most basic rim that they had, 32 spokes and nipples and I headed back home. That same night I started building my wheel following a YouTube tutorial.

Everybody can build a wheel, it is a relatively simple process. The only "professional help" that you need is to calculate the right length of spokes, as it is the "conditio sine qua non" for the whole process to work smoothly. Then you need patience, loads of it. Especially if you are using an old, slightly bent rim, you should not expect a perfect result but you will succeed.

Repeat the mantra: I am True, my soul is True, my body is True, my aim is True, my wheel will be True. Only slight adjustments, fractions of turns on the nipples, like when balancing on a slack-line, or when avoiding an annoying argument. Just like when you are looking for the smoothest route between A and B. You pull a bit here, you let out a bit there, and everything falls into place.

What just minutes ago was a pile of metal pieces without purpose, is now a coherent race machine, a sword ready to cut the air and roll over every surface. Is your soul that has found its path.

Once a man said: "be water". You are now your wheel, and your wheel is you.

Stay True - ECMC is just behind the corner.

Riding like a hamster

Riding in a velodrome is not my favorite thing in the world, but overall I did not mind today's trip to Bournemouth to ride with Felix, from Velo Sur Mere, and to try the outdoor track.

Ben and I left Southampton by train on a windy and slightly wet morning, but soon the Sun decided to peak out of the clouds warming us up and rising quite a lot of humidity.

I don't even know how many laps we have done, you can count them on my Strava track, I cannot be bothered. What I know is that we tried a bit of everything: from steady riding on our own, to flying fast laps and 1 on 1 sprints...I was definitely the slowest of the trio, but at least I could trackstand on the top of the bend!

It was nice and quiet and we only had to share the velodrome with some little kids that were riding in the inner part of the track. In a way it is relaxing to know that you are safe, away from cars and other dangers. You can concentrate on the movement, the breathing, the whole body in general; you look ahead, following with the eyes the sprinter's line on your right and being pulled around and out of the bend by it.

What I missed was the sense of travelling and reaching a destination, which is what I mostly love about cycling. But it was a fun day and I'm quite sure it won't be my last time in a velodrome.

The road to ECMC 2: Back on Track

We are back on track.

After a month without Gelatina, she is now all built and running smoothly. I had decided to take it all apart and give it a good wash and overall check to get her ready for the ECMC in Milan. Nevertheless this took longer than expected: it was hard to find the spokes of the right length, and the time to rebuild everything.
A more detailed post will follow, regarding wheel building.

Sour dough bread tutorial

I quite like cooking and I love bread, but in the UK there is not much tradition of bakeries, and the bread from the supermarket is boring and tasteless. So, roughly three years ago, I started baking my own bread using the sour dough that my mom gave me. Apart from some initial troubles in getting used to it, after a while it becomes quite a smooth process, and I prefer it to using yeast because you really don't need much in terms of ingredients.

Here is a tutorial on how to bake bread with the sour dough. It does not cover the initial process of creating the sour dough itself, which is a bit more complicated, and a matter of trial and error. To start, I suggest you ask for some dough to somebody that already does it...it is quite trendy now, so you will easily find somebody.

THE FIRST TIME THAT YOU BRING THE SOUR DOUGH HOME:

-transfer the dough to a larger container (I use a 1L plastic yogurt container)

-dilute it with one small glass of warm water (~200ml)

-add one little spoon of sugar and one little spoon of salt

-add strong white flour until reaching again a gooey consistency

-place a lid on the container, but don't close it firmly

-leave it out of the fridge in a warm corner of the house for ~24h

TO MAKE THE BREAD:

-after 24h it should have more or less doubled in size

-place 2 glasses of warm water (~400ml) in a large mixing bowl

-add a large spoon of sugar and a large spoon of salt

-add all the sour dough and mix

-start adding strong white flour until reaching a gooey consistency

-take away 3-4 large spoons of dough and place them in the sour dough container. The actual quantity of dough that you keep aside every time depends on how big you want your loafs to be and how much you want them to rise, so you can play a bit with this and see how you get different results

-place the lid on the container (don't close firmly) and leave it in you sour dough corner

-if you bake every 2-3 days you can leave it out of the fridge

-if you bake more rarely keep it in the fridge

FINAL BREAD MAKING:

-with the remaining dough in the mixing bowl you can finish preparing the bread

-now you can add olive oil, seeds, or other types of flour

-add your chosen type of flour until reaching a solid, non-sticky consistency

-it should not be too hard though, otherwise it will not rise

IF YOU HAVE TIME:

-leave the ball of bread dough in the mixing bowl for a couple of hours, in a warm place with no air currents

THEN (OR STRAIGHT AWAY, IF YOU DON’T HAVE TIME)

-mix it and roll it in your chosen loaf shape

-place it on a cooking tray and in the oven (you can preheat the oven at ~30 C, and then turn it off, just so that it is more cozy for the bread)

-leave it overnight (if you mixed in the evening) or through the day (if you mixed in the morning). 8 hours are usually a good rising time

COOKING:

-take the tray out of the oven

-place a small bowl or cup with water on the bottom of the oven (in my experience this adds a bit of moisture and improves the bread crust)

-heat the oven (top and bottom) at 200 C. If your oven has it, use the fan.

-place the tray in the oven, roughly at the mid height

-cooking time depends on loaf size: when I do the bread with two glasses of water I cook it for about 35 minutes

-after the first 20 minutes usually i flip the loaf to evenly cook the bottom as well, but this might not be necessary if you have a better oven than mine

-smaller loaves will take less time, larger loaves will take more time

TROUBLESHOOTING::

-the sour dough does not rise: leave it out of the fridge, wait a bit longer before baking again, add a bit of flour, sugar, salt and water to give a little push to the yeasts in it

-the bread does not rise much: try reducing the amount of water you add when mixing, effectively increasing the sour dough to new-dough ratio. Also, try adding a bit less flour, leaving the loaf a bit more sticky/moist while rising. Finally try warming up the oven (never over 40 C though)

-the bread is too acid: keep the sourdough in the fridge, effectively slowing the yeasts a bit. Use more water when mixing, diluting more the sour dough and then using more flour. This should disperse a bit the acid taste. Bake more frequently, potentially reducing the size of the loaves if you think that you don't need all the bread.

IF YOU TRAVEL:

-the sour dough can easily stay in the fridge for a week and a half. this “vacation” could even boost it a little bit!

-when you come back the first couple of bread could be a bit more acid than usual, but if should all go back to normal if you keep taking care of it

-for longer periods I would store it in the freezer. When you do this, store it after it has rised quite a bit, to start the hibernation period with a larger number of yeast cells. When you come back, let it defrost slowly, feed it, give it time to re-adjust, don't be afraid if it does not start immediately to rise

DRY-STORING

-alternatively, you could try dry storing. I have never done this myself, but my mum has, and it has worked.

-again, start from a moment of maximum activity, so after the sourdough has had the chance to rise

-now dilute it with water, until it is very liquid (so a bit more water than for the usual bread making)

-mix it well

-spread the liquid on cooking paper placed on a baking tray: it should be quite a thin layer

-place the paper in the warm oven (20-30 C) to dry it out. You will be left with a thin crust of dough

-break the crust into flakes, store them into ziplock food bags squeezing out as much air as possible

-theoretically you could store the bag in a cool dry place for quite a long time

-to resuscitate the flakes place them in some water (not too much) and let them melt

-if the process has worked, after a couple of days the water will start bubbling again

-you can then start a slow process of adding sugar, salt and flour to reach again the sour dough consistency

Enjoy!

King of the Itchen - 1st edition

All bow to the one and only King of the Itchen, undisputed lord of the mighty valley that links Southampton and Winchester.

His name is Ben, and he shall be referred to as King, until he will open a new challenge for the mighty title.

 

One more reason

Why do your ride a track bike outside a velodrome? Is a question that many of us have received many times, and many times we had to come up with all sorts of different answers.
There is the esoteric/philosophical answer: on a track bike you are directly linked to your bike, your speed, your cadence, the road, the traffic. Your mind is sharpened, it is zen...this answer can actually go on for a while.
There is the utilitarian answer: a track bike, on the long run, is mostly cheaper and easier to maintain than a road bike or MTB of comparable quality, mostly thanks to the lack of components that can break down.
There is the playful answer: track bikes are fun to ride, no one can deny this.

I think all of these answers are generally relevant and partly true. All together they give a pretty good picture of the whole urban-track biking experience. Nevertheless there is one more, of which I only thought yesterday: less bike parts also translate in less chances of being forced to walk home...As you can see in the picture, someone had the brilliant idea of locking his/her bike to the bike rack...and to the brake cable of my CX bike.

Now, I am sure that he/she did it without realizing. He/she surely was in a rush and did not really see what he/she was doing. No harm done, it was just a bit annoying to walk home. Yes, I could have easily undone the brake cable, but I was in a rush myself and I did not have the right allen key with me. I maybe would have liked him/her to realize his/her mistake and leave an apologetic message on my bike...it did not happen and I am not going to complain. I only wanted to share this new good reason for riding a simple bike to work.

Now you will ask: "so, why were you riding your CX bike and not your track bike?". Gelatina, is stuck at home without wheels as I am rebuilding them. But this will be the topic for another post...

Stay tuned

Bicycle rack

Recently I moved to a new house. My housemates and I have 5 bicycles, plus plenty of spare parts, and a wide range of kit for more sports. This could become a problem, as the house did not have a shed in the garden, nor a garage to contain all this material. We then decided to use the front room on our ground floor as a sort of storage area, and I proposed to built a bicycle rack to easily bring in and out of the room our valuable means of transportation without having to move everything else all the time. This is a quick description of the rack, and of its construction. It is not a fully detailed tutorial. If you are interested in more detailed drawings or pictures, or if you want to suggest ways to improve the design, you can contact me leaving a comment.

First of all our rack needed to be free standing, as we are not allowed to drill the walls. While this makes the structural design more critical, it also means that the rack itself leaves a storage space behind, where we can put the things that we certainly do not need (i.e. the rolled up carpet that used to be in the storage room and which we do not want to ruin.

The rack itself is built with
 -3 square-section wooden posts on the floor
 -3 square-section wooden posts placed vertically on top
 -2 square-section wooden posts placed laterally on the floor to link the bottom section of the rack
 -2 boards at the top, to link the top section and hold the metal hooks of the bike rack
 -6 diagonal boards to link the vertical posts to the ones on the floor, providing stability ans stiffness
 -the posts are linked with L-shaped metal links and bolts
 -boards and posts are linked together with simple bolts
 -and the hooks are bolted to the top boards

The top boards are bolted to the back side of the vertical posts, to gain some space, to bring back the center of balance of the whole structure, and so that they work in compression, not in traction. The hooks are attached via two bolts, one for each board, reducing the load on each board. the load on each board. The position of the hooks is alternated, allowing to put them closer to each other and to fit more bikes on the rack (potentially we can fit 9). The down side of this is that it might be difficult for a week person with a heavy bike to reach the higher hooks. When stored all the bikes are completely lifted from the ground, allowing to store flat boxes underneath.

Our rack has been standing for two months now without any problem. It daily holds two really heavy steel MTBs, a lite MTB, my track bike, my CX bike and my set of road wheels, plus the bikes of occasional visitors. I think it has proven to be quite a versatile and simple solution for our situation, alleviating the problems connected with the lack of a shed. It has also been really fun to design it and build it.

Well, what to say, coma and visit us with your bike, and she will have a safe and comfortable place to stay!

Purbecks coast path - from Lullworth to Winspit

A while back, almost a month, I went with my housemate Robin to explore the coast path on the Jurassic Coast. I had already been there many times, but always hiking, or just to get to the many climbing spots that can be found on the sea cliffs. This time instead we wanted to cycle along, starting from Lullworth and proceeding eastwards to ideally get to Swanage.

We catch the train at 9am, directed to Wareham, while we wake up with a take away coffee and some brownies baked the previous evening. It is a lovely sunny day and we can't wait to get started. From Wareham we head south past the A351, and then right on Holme Lane where we take some layers off. The road is nice and quiet, the legs are warming up and we can't stop smiling. We get to West Lullworth quite quickly, but from there onwards it is all going to be a struggle. This section of the coast path, which I have never walked before, is much more hilly then the eastern bit (between Swanage and Winspit). From the beginning we already have to dismount and walk the bikes, both uphill and downhill. The view is gorgeous, and luckily we manage to find here and there ways to avoid the steepest bits. The only real fear is to end up in a closed road: a large shooting range for tanks occupies most of this areas and visitors are not allowed everywhere. It would not be nice to end this trip blown up into pieces.

By lunch time we are back on the path, but way behind where we were hoping to be, so now we know that we will not get all the way to Swanage. In a way it is a relief because now we know that we can take a left at any time and start heading back to Wareham. First though we want to get to Winspit: this is a nice little cove where a quarry used to be, and now the cligg is all bolted for sport climbing (even if the sign says that it is not allowed...). The idea for later on in the season is to come here for the whole weekend to enjoy camping, climbing, cycling and swimming.

From Winspit we head back north. First a big climb, then some tiny country lanes lead us back to the A351 which unfortunately we have to follow past Corfe Castle. From there we cycle on some lovely country roads and paths, through woods and fields. Overall these final kilometers are flat and allow us to quickly get back to the starting point in Wareham.

Here are some photos from the trip. Enjoy :)

Movescount

The road to ECMC: 1 - checklist

So in the end I decided to register  to the ECMC that will take place in Milan from the 28th to the 31st of May.

I am not a courier and this has already raised some complaints. Nevertheless I think that what matter most is the spirit with which everybody takes part. If the idea is to support the couriers, to learn from them, to share the subculture that makes us all urban cyclists, then I think that taking part is not a problem. More on this will follow later on, there is about 5 weeks to the event, plenty of time to discuss these issues.
In the meanwhile I just want to write down a quick check list of what I need and what I already have.

Bike-wise:
- re-build wheels
- fix the fork and change the steering set
- buy and fit front brake
- general checkup and tuning

Registration-wise:
- registration done
- housing done
- flights need to be dealt with soon

I will try to keep a short but frequent update on the ECMC front, like a short diary of this campaign. Stay tuned

Lodi - Lecco - Lodi 2015

UPDATE 21/04/15: Classifica ufficiale

Dovevano essere delle tranquille vacanze di Pasqua...e allora non c'era modo migliore per concluderle che mettersi a gareggiare sui 160 km di argini sterrati della terza edizione della Lodi-Lecco-Lodi.
Ho preso la decisione un po' cosi, perche' in Inghilterra mi mancano le sgambatelle fra amici, la fatica, la competizione sana, il sole, la folla di ciclisti sconosciuti ma amici. Ho deciso di partecipare pur non avendo una bici veramente adatta: a quanto pare nessun negozio di bici di Firenze vende copertoncini da 30 nella settimana dopo pasqua. E cosi, con la vecchia bici da corsa in acciaio, copertoncini da strada, leve del cambio al telaio, e reggisella in fin di vita son partito alla volta di Lodi. Alla partenza si dice fossimo in 115, affluenza record, e mi sono sentito a casa nonostante l'ansietta per quello che stavamo per affrontare.
I primi chilometri sono andati via abbastanza lisci, ma il reggisella ha subito perso colpi: il sellino non stava orizzontale, cosi dopo 20km mi sono fermato per provare a stringero. Inutile, tanto la vite si e' ri-allentata quasi subito ed ho fatto il resto della gara seduto piu indietro possibile, per cercare di stare sulla parte alta della sella.
A parte questo la bici non andava male. Il cambio era preciso (san Campangolo), la tenuta un po' incerta nelle curve con sabbia, ma tutto sommato sopportabile. Dopo la pausa meccanica ero rimasto solo, quindi ho iniziato una lunga cavalcata per riprendere il gruppo di testa. Per strada tanti attardati, Fanino che cercava di sistemarsi i raggi, pescatori, coppie con il cane. Si e' pero' ricerato un gruppetto di 6-8 ciclisti dalle parti di Cassano e ci siamo messi tutti all'opera.
Arrivati in cima al lago abbiamo finalmente avvistato il gruppetto di testa sulla sponda opposta, pensavamo di avercela ormai fatta, bastava spingere un po'. Solo che la stanchezza ha cominciato a farsi sentire, specialmente sulla mia precisione alla guida: capitombolo in una curva a sinistra con sabbia. Riprendo i miei compari dopo una decina di kilometri, stanno facendo una pausa birretta e non posso fare altro che accettare il loro invito (epic win).
Si riparte un po' piu lenti. Abbiamo ripreso alcuni attardati, e a mia volta perdo contatto dal gruppetto: va a finire che rimaniamo in 4, Niccolo', Sitton, Lupin ed io. Non resta che stringere i denti, bere e mangiare regolarmente e seguire la traccia GPS. Per non farmi mancare niente decido di stamparmi contro la ringhiere che separa la ciclabile dal naviglio mentre sto rimettendo la frutta secca in tasca. Ma a parte le ferite non c'e' nessun danno grave.
Cerco di fare la mia parte tirando sui pezzi di asfalto. Sullo sterrato non riesco a stare a ruota: penso che sia una questione di testa, per vedere in anticipo le buche che altrimenti arrivano inaspettate e dolorose. Santa pausa caffe' a Paullo, ormai manca poco.

All'arrivo, c'e' il fan club di cuginetti e sorella che mi aspetta :) Sono esausto ma l'euforia e' alle stelle mentre mi godo la compagnia di questo fantastico gruppo di Atleti (si, con la A maiuscola). Ogni evento, anche se scelto a caso nel fittissimo calendario, vale tanto quanto una coppa del mondo. Si da sempre il massimo per l'onore e alla fine ci sono una stretta di mano e una birra per tutti.
Davvero non c'e' modo migliore per finire le vacanze.

Un grazie a Dens per l'organizzazione
all'Ura d'Aria per la calda accoglienza e il lauto pranzo
a Sitton, Niccolo' e Lupin per il supporto reciproco negli ultimi 60km
a Max Bigandrews e Emanuele Barbaro per le foto
Un saluto a Fanino e Joanfran, Riccardo, Michele e tutti gli altri che non vedevo da secoli. Spero di rivedervi presto

STATS
dst: 163.2 km
moving time: 6h15'
total time: 6h28'
speed: 26 km/h
HR: 170bpm (!!!!!)


movescount

Around the IOW

It is nice to ride a bicycle. It is even niceer to do it on a sunny day. Even better is to do it with a friend. If on top of this you also add the sense of achievement, than you really have the recipe for an amazing Sunday ride!

Next time we will do more off road though :)

Southampton Alleycat

On Tuesday (10th of February) there has been an alleycat in Southampton. After my last races, all in London, finally I could race in a city that I know quite well. I was super excited, but also not super confident. It is hard to race when you don't know your opponents.

At the Guild Hall at 19:30 there was 10 of us, mostly form Southampton, but with a big group from Bournemouth (http://www.thehubcycleworks.co.uk/). Paul, the organizer, had done a good job at keeping the race simple but exciting. The checkpoints were to be done in sequence, as we got the address of the second one only once we reached the first one, and so on. On one hand this removed the issue of having to decide the order ourselves (one less variable). On the other hand maybe it made it a bit more easy for the outoftowners, who could easily follow the leader.

The list of checkpoints was the following:
1-Big black anchor on High st.
2-Saint Mary's stadium
3-N4 Cafe on Canute road 4-Red Funnel pier
5-Eastgate st. Car Park
6-Starbucks at Marlands shopping Ctr.
7-Central Train Station

8-The Hub cycleworks (http://www.thehubcycleworks.co.uk/)

9-Court of Justice
10-Skate ramp in Hoglands Park
11-FINISH @ Guild Hall

The beginning was quite fast, but smooth. No major problems finding the route, nor the check points. Unfortunately though, at the 5th checkpoint I looked for a car park on East st, instead of Eastgate st! I probably lost about 5 minutes asking around and ended up calling Paul. By the time I found the parking lot I was well behind everybody else! Inside me I knew that there where not many chances anymore, but I did my best. I was alone so I was more free in choosing the trajectories and I think I did a pretty good job: when I arrived at the 10th checkpoint the leading group was just sprinting off towards the finish line! Just a couple more checkpoints and I would have reached them!In the end I arrived 5th, first of the Southampton people, but behind the crew from Bournemouth: they managed to follow Rich, who would have arrived 2nd if he did not have to go back to the first checkpoint, which he missed the first time around.

Overall classification:
1st-Felix Speller 2nd-Jacob Smith
3rd-Ben Ramshaw
4th-Dan Armstrong
5th-Me
6th-Rich Le-Vallee
7th-Jack Buckley
8th-Ashley Robertson
9th-
DNF-Ben Hames ... unlucky man! He got a puncture almost at the start of the race!

Thanks to Paul and Leyton for organizing the event, to the Bournemotuh Crew for coming and racing so well, to everybody for the good spirit, and to The Hub for the sponsorship!

See you all next time!

Here is my track through the race. Unfortunately I started the recording only after the first checkpoint, so the track misses the super fast first part of the race.

Coming back

Coming back from a trip. Coming back from a coma. Coming back rejuvenated. Coming back home. You never know when it is the right time, it is not a resolution that makes it happen. But it is not by chance and it is not easy. You have to be ready, strong, crazy. You need to believe in it and make it real.