Summer weather! A hosepipe ban is surely not far away?

Firstly thanks to all my sponsors to date, my total stands at £1165, it would be really nice to get to £1500 so if any readers of my blog have been inspired by it or would like to donate to Prostate Cancer UK you can do so on my Virgin Money Giving Website http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AlanFretten

Summer is finally here and its been lovely and hot. The heat doesn't affect me anywhere near as much on the bike as it did when I was running the cooling effect of the wind as I fly through the countryside must be the reason. Making sure I drink enough before, during and after is also so important. I wonder how long it will last? Surely a hosepipe ban is on the horizon?

I love this time of year for sport too, I watched far more of Wimbledon than I have for many many years and it was great to see Andy Murray win. Its also Tour De France time which I have been watching since it first started being televised by C4 in around 1986. The TDF has to be the most extreme endurance event in the sporting calendar, how these guys do it day after day is beyond me and at such speed. I did a 25 mile Time Trial last week on a very flat course where I averaged over 20.5mph I was very pleased with my average until I watched the TDF average over 25mph for 122 miles on a not so flat course! Anyway 20.5 shows progression in my training.


Sunday was another Sportive ride, 85 miles starting and ending in Reigate, quite hilly and VERY hot, my Garmin recorded a high of 33c. It went quite well, I finished a few seconds over 5 hours and was one of only 10% of riders to achieve the Gold Standard time for the ride which I was very happy about.

Yesterday I did a 50 mile ride taking in a number of climbs in the area, I did PB's on 4 out of the 6 biggest climbs which again shows that the training is really bearing fruit, even better was how I felt at the end of the ride.

It's now less than 25 days until the main event, I have my final instructions book, its still a bit of a logistics exercise to get to the start and back at the end. I have a hotel booked near the start and I think what I will do is drive up in the late afternoon/early evening park at Westfield Shopping Centre and then at the end (after 102 miles!) I will have to cycle the additional 9 miles back to Westfield  from the Mall.

So I think I am going to be as ready as I can be for the 4th, a couple more weeks of training and then tapering down before the big day.

And finally I had a starring role as part of the (very small) audience in the recording of The Cycle Show on ITV4 last Monday. It is available on the ITV player and from 39 minutes on is my finest appearance :-) https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/the-cycle-show