This time two years ago we were in Beijing getting ready for our first day riding tomorrow. Adam and I had had an enjoyable few days being tourist, my bike was all set up, my bags were packed and I wasn’t sleeping very much in anticipation of tomorrow.
Ready to ride!
Interestingly the 2018 version of the Silk Route kicked off yesterday with Andreas, who was our tour leader back in charge this time too! If you’re interested in following along this time round it looks like the TDA instagram account’s going to be the best way, as it doesn’t look like any of the riders have a blog (very poor form I say!)
Training has been coming along reasonably well. The sportive that I was doing just after my last post went well, other than the weather! By half way round it had started raining and continued to do so for the rest of the ride. By the second feed station I was cold and wet and not unsurprisingly given how much riding I’d done I had a sore bum! I was heard to say that I would have preferred to be at home doing my VAT (GST to antipodean’s) return, and I was only half joking!
The last couple of weekends have been much improved and I’ve been managing to get some distance under my (borrowed) wheels. At current rate of progress I should be reunited with my bike at the end of June.
And by then I really need to decide what bike I’m going to ride this year. The talk in the bulletins from TDA suggest that a cyclocross bike is a good choice for ‘stronger’ riders (which I would number myself amongst) so maybe I can take my trusty Kings Cross and head off into Africa.
Into the sand (photo from TDA route scouting)
It is however a bit of a balancing act – everything on that bike currently is pretty worn after the Silk Route, and replacing all the moving parts on a bike is potentially more expensive than just buying a new bike… decisions, decisions…!
The next few weeks are looking pretty good for training, but then June hits a bit of a bump, with lots of time away (including two weeks sailing) which will be great fun, but not so good for getting into shape!
Dude, you are awesome and crazy in equal measures! The TDA Insta account looks interesting already. I take it the West Africa en Velo adventure will be documented there too. Good luck with your training.