Bike: Il Pompino
Distance: 1 hour 13 minutes
Playlist: Unplayed last four months*
Wildlife: one deer, two courting buzzards, two hares**

There was supposed to be a 24 hour ride entry for last weekend. A day trip to Bristol and back plus a dose of lurgy put paid to that.

It was more than time to get back on the road. Took the Il Pompino out tonight.

The gravel paths of Bedfordshire are a long way from the epic roads of L’Eroica, but as you’re skimming over them and drifting round the corners in evening sunlight you could almost be there. If you ignore all the combine harvesters about at the moment.

.

Not l’eroica.

Turns out those big wheels are smoother than 26″, but 23mm tyres more than compensate. 44:16 is also too big a gear for me and for the first ride in a long time I finished with cramp. Other niggles include the stem the “right way up” which raises the handlebars way too high. Means I can ride in the drops most of the time though I then get lower back ache when riding off-road. Gotta love the hurt.

I had intended to measure my route using my new Endomondo app. Unfortunately it couldn’t get a GPS signal so ate through iPhone battery only to provide me with ride time. Something I normally get from looking at my last.fm logs or a simple watch.

* Which reminded me that I must listen to Low Life again.

** hares being my favourite