Le Tour de Fitness...

Hey all

I know it's been a long time since i blogged last, so i thought i'd better blog! Mainly to ensure my 2 followers that i'm still alive :) So what have i been doing instead of blogging? Well mainly working, being out on my bike, fixing bikes or watching bike related stuff.

 For the past week its been Crankworks Les Deux Alps, basically the worlds biggest mountain biking festival Crankworks has spread across from Canada to france for a week. The second Crankworks is mainly aimed at the European mountain bikers who can't get to the mecca of mountain biking which is Whistler Canada. The other more popular cycling event taking part in France this month is the Tour de France. Finally the Brits have a reason to watch this spectacular portable circus with two Brits fighting for top honors, the highly coveted Yellow Jersey. At the moment Bradley Wiggins is holding on to the Yellow Jersey, and barring no major incidents is set to win the tour. The reason i say this is that the second place rider, Chris Froome is riding on the same team, Team Sky. Team Sky have been the dominant force this year and look set to make Wiggins the first English rider to win the tour. however if Wiggins does have an upset and losses the Yellow Jersey, the second place rider Froome is also English, so this year the the Brits have a strong hold on the tour! Which is good news considering road cycling is an Olympic sport and at the moment the three top road cyclists are British! "Three? but Lawrence you have only mentioned two..." i hear you cry! Well the third man is the current world cycling world champion Mark Cavendish, last years sports personality of the year! Cavendish has had a rather disappointing tour so far, after his stage win on stage two Cavendish has been a rather ghost of his last years self, where he was a driving force in the race for the sprint title and won the Green Jersey. Whilst this is very worrying news one of the greatest British cyclists of all time is having a bad run in to the to the Olympics. But he has a injury sustained from a fall on a stage and is resting for the Olympics, which is good news :D and whilst talking about the Olympic team currently 4 out of 5 of the British cycling team have won a stage of the tour, which i see as a good sign :D

Now, i've seen many people catching Tour de France fever and the amount of Road Cyclists has definitely doubled this week! I also have caught Tour fever and wanted to get out and crank some miles on a road bike. Unfortunately for me, i don't own a road bike... however i know some one who does :D However,  it was in a bit of a rough state... queue before photo...

so i decided to rebuild it, and return it to its former glory :) it needed practically needed a new rear end, i had to rebuild the rear wheel, replace the gear cable and the jockey wheels, got a new chain and fitted it, set up the saddle so it suits me and fit some new pedals. today i bought some new brake blocks and brake cables to make sure stopping ain't a problem :D  queue after photo... 

I'm thinking i might re spray it and make it look a bit less tired... but it is in one piece XD

My final plans for it are after my ride tomorrow, to make sure everything works, are to use it to improve my fitness :D get rid of my beer belly, or as my older brother pointed out my "success ballast" like in the touring cars :D I simply pointed out that i have a six pack but I prefer to protect it with a layer of fat... so i thought it was about time i got rid of the layer of fat... its just a matter of time...

Anyway i shall get out tomorrow in my new roadie frame of mind and let you know how the bike works :)

ta ta for now