SteveCycles

Hello Folks,

Just thought I’d pen a little update on what’s happening. A few weeks ago, as you probably know, I had to call a halt to a ride I was undertaking from Central London to the Mediterranean in Southern France. This was due to a knee injury which left me no choice than to stop after only around 260 miles out of the planned 800 and something. To be brutally frank, it was probably down to not enough training and preparation. My fitness levels were fine and I did feel strong on the bike. My left knee however, had other ideas.

Anyway, the knee recovery is well under way after numerous evening ice packs, support bandages and unsuccessful pleas for sympathy! A fortnight ago, I visited a ‘bikefit’ specialist. For those who are none the wiser,  they clamp your bike onto a stationery trainer,  sit you on it and let you pedal for a wee while. After much scratching of heads, sharp intakes of breath through teeth,  they analyse your technique and then question as to how on earth you ever got past the bit where you took your stabilisers off!

After 3 hours of tweaking both me and the bike, I left and 24 hours later, found myself on a gentle spin in the New Forest on a very different feeling bicycle. Much advice has been sought regarding recovery and over the winter, I’ll be rebuilding stamina and strength in this left knee with the target being to ‘Re-leave’ Central London and head down through Kent bound for the South of France. All being well, kick-off will be at dawn on Monday 29th April 2019.

One good thing is that I’ve learnt a few things from last month’s attempt. One of them being that the route through Kent needs looking at and to keep off the unbelievably crappy cycle routes – namely The Pilgrims Way. I think the person that deals with the classification of cycle routes is actually a 4 wheel drive off-road route planner who just walked in and sat down at the wrong desk one morning.

Anyway, there it is. I just want to say a massive thankyou to all those who have donated to my chosen charity The Brain Tumour Charity. Sorry that I didn’t make it the first time. Nobody was more disappointed than me but all it has served to do is make me more than determined to complete job next April.

Will publish more updates as and when.

Bye for now x