Right… tomorrow morning I’ll be setting off for London on my Bike. One of the other riders will be updating twitter as we go so you can follow our progress here: http://www.twitter.com/bristolwaveride Must go to bed now, as I have to be up at 6 tomorrow to get ready for the ride…
My visa extension in Mongolia occupied the last free page in my passport, so its time to get a new one. Flicking through the current one, even if I do say so myself, it’s pretty damn impressive full of weird and wonderful stamps and visas. I did wonder when finishing my round the world trip whether it would fill up before it expired. Working for Tom, I should have guessed that would have been pretty much a dead cert. Rather well timed, was an email from Philippe mentioning www.PassportStamp.com. A new website designed for sados like me to show off…
What can I say? I love mountains, I love mountain biking, and I’m starting to get into this personal fitness thing. So, based on that, this holiday could only be a great thing. Despite all the training I threw myself at, the trip was physically very very tough. Quite possibly toughest physical exercise I’ve ever done. Rubbed in by the fact that everyone around me was much fitter. Still, I feel pretty proud of what I achieved. We covered over 534km in total, with a cumulative elevation gain of 11,096 metres. This was the third trip for Christian and some…
95km to Auer in 7 hour 55 mins. Killer 1730m altitude gain, 2454m loss ruined by an up valley wind. Number of falls, 1 (yup, me this time).
41km to Caprile in 5 hours 46 mins. 1422m up, 1913m down. Accidents, 2 (not me – touch wood). I think Rafi’s accident deserves a little explanation. He had, as we all have, a little trouble getting his foot unclipped. He managed it in time though and went to put his foot down. Unfortunately he chose to put his foot where there was no ground… Result; Rafi and bike tumbled down a good 1.5 metre drop.
It gets better. The hotel has a sauna & jacuzzi, which we took full advantage of, followed by a splendid 3 course meal. 1 more weissbier before I collapse.