Up at 5.30am to meet Bono (Odin) for a 6.15 meet. He's just back from Palma and was still on a holiday high. Always the best way to catch up on the bike, we covered everything from the Tour (I am glad to report that he is not a DOUBTER), his hols to retirement plans.
We plan to ride together a lot more over the warmer summer months. Bono is much tougher than me and is renowned for 200km plus rides in freezing temperatures and rain. He actually revels in it. Bono and I climbed Mont Blanc together in 2007 and Christian Trommsdorf (our guide and current head of the French Guide Association) dubbed him the 'Mountain Goat'. I rest my case. I will never forget how it took me 25 mins to put my crampons on whilst leaving the Goûter Hut in the dark of night at 2am. I have never been so cold whereas the Mountain Goat was in his element.
Had the day off of work today and had another day out in central London with my boys riding the top deck of the busses, the mandatory visit to Nike Town, tea at Fortnum & Mason and a couple of hours at Waterstones (picked out some classics: Mark Twain for T, Treasure Island for J, The Jungle Book for L and lego for R).
Grabbed burgers on the way home which made for happy little people. Today being the first day of the holidays, I managed to cajole them to start their books which takes some serious doing. My old boss used to say that there were 3 distinct phases of persuasive parenting as his children got progressively older:
Phase 1. Physiological / intellectual manipulation (long gone)
Phase 2. Physical threat (wearing thin)
Phase 3. Hard cash (have resorted to this 10 years ahead of time)
Phase 2. Physical threat (wearing thin)
Phase 3. Hard cash (have resorted to this 10 years ahead of time)
It would be remiss of me not to congratulate the Aussies. Australia will now take huge confidence into round #3 of the Ashes. And to think it was meant to be England riding on a crest of a wave. The UK press have given then a rightful kicking, from 'heroes to zeroes' springs to mind. Consistent with only watching MOTD when Palace win, I could not bring myself to watch any of it. I've also not bought a newspaper in 4 days.
Man of the day is undoubtedly GT (Geraint Thomas). It seems that not only do Team Sky have to contend with the French chucking urine in their faces (ok it was only one guy) and the French media making the Lance'esque accusations that they are 'riding on another planet', today they had to contend with the Frenchman Baguil knocking them off the road. I watched it live and I swear he was a gonna. The Chapeaux Thomas was though quick to thank the very nice Frenchman who retrieved him from the ditch. It was tension in the extreme and to think he recovered to only lose 40s. Magnifique!
Today's ride: http://strava.com/activities/349954235
Interesting article on my subject of 'balance':
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