Down in Stirling since yesterday, big summer training has commenced!
20 days until my next race and it is up there with the biggest I have ever done, more on that later.
Last few days have had lots going on so plenty to comment about tonight. Wimbledon final yesterday was intense, I've never been a Roddick fan but to see his determination so raw and visibly put out there on centre court Sunday was cool. He fought bloody hard and in my opinion there was nothing between him and Federer out there, he'll come back next year and fight again for sure.
Earlier that day on another TV channel I made a little appearance, some of you may have seen me taking the swim out first at the Windsor triathlon and waving cheekily at the cameras while running into T1. Got some hilarious texts after the show aired, especially after the comments the commentator's made about my "lack of focus" .... mainly due to my apres swim celebrations! Not a lack of focus just an abundance of "having fun", was a really good day and a good race too.
Today I'm in Stirling and have just finished up a 5 hour training day, big ride this afternoon in the rain (will put the pictures up tomorrow), and the visibility was pretty low at some points. Heading back into town and an 18 wheeler pulled out to overtake a slow moving car with both of them coming straight towards me. The 18 wheeler was overtaking with NO speed meaning I had a 20 tonne truck steaming towards me at around 60mph, due to the lack of vis in the rain s/he didn't see me and I had to slam on the brakes, throw my bike onto the side of the road and jump for my life. With seconds to spare the truck blasted past unaware of the cyclist he almost brought to an untimely end! Even though the truck was majorly in the "wrong" in terms of not being aware of oncoming traffic in the end of the day it wouldn't have made a blind bit of difference if I hadn't gotten out of the way. I would have been a goner. Stay aware and remember your always going to come off worse, cars and trucks are big.
LANCE!
OK I can resist no more. Today was stage 3 in the tour. It started off on Saturday with the first stage, a time trial in Monte Carlo. No surprise that Olympic TT Champ Fabian Cancellara took first spot with team Astana """leader""" Alberto Contador in second, Lance looked nervous but keen and firing in 10th. Yesterday was a Cav attack with Isle of Man's Mark Cavendish taking his first of many stage wins in this years tour. His second stage win was today.
With around 25km to go a nasty cross wind hit at just the right moment giving the lead 27 riders a small but vital gap. With Cancellara, Armstrong and the entire Columbia HTC squad in those 27 the gap grew quickly to 20 seconds. Lance had 2 of his boys with him and they worked VERY hard along with the HTC squad bringing the gap up and up to over 40 seconds by the finish. The Cav attack was launched again and there was no contest, Mark got his second win. Lance though moved up to 3rd in the overall GC, I know it's only day 3 but cummon, let me get excited.
Tomorrow is the team time trial and Astana is one of the favourites, if they get 41 seconds on Team Saxo Bank and 8 on Columbia HTC ... if they can do this Lance will be in yellow, maillot jaune, yet again confirming his nickname...mellow johnny :)
He is strong and I'm not saying he will win, but he is a contender all right and today's stage shows all the doubters what a cycling "great" he is. If he can get in that yellow jersey for one day, it will be a big deal!
Pictures to come,
Mike
No comments:
Post a Comment