Cycling, skiing, food & photography
About 250 riders started the Transcontinental. Most I only saw on the startline as they charged on ahead findishing days ahead of me. I was surprised by the number I saw along the way; I'd guessed our routes would be very different but as it turned out many were ploughing a similar course. I decided … Continue reading #facestodots
It’s about 8pm on the 13th day of the Transcontinental - a Friday night. I’ve just crossed into Bosnia, leaving the EU for the first time on the ride. It’s Matthieu’s birthday and I find him and Thomas sharing a beer at a gas station on the edge of Gradiška the scrubby border town with … Continue reading Review
I'm not a big fan of blow-by-blow accounts. They can be pretty tedious and unless you're a better writer than me they don't really convey the feelings and sights of a big day on a bike. So this post is more for my benefit than to read by others: an aide memoire for what happened on a … Continue reading Quotidian
This Christmas my Mum gave me her signet ring. In the last year her fingers have swollen up meaning it no longer fitted. The swelling was caused by problems with her lymphatic system and ultimately the return of her cancer which she is now fighting with chemotherapy. The ring has the Mackenzie insignia of a … Continue reading Perseverance
When I started this blog I made a promise to myself: I wasn't going to start another journal where some middle-aged guy gives you a blow-by-blow account of his "epic" day on the bike. We all know what it is like to suffer on the bike, to bonk, to be wowed by the views, have … Continue reading Lessons
Wednesday moring. I'd just finished my turbo session, cooled down, had some breakfast and showered. There wasn't a sudden creak, crack or snap. I just realised I could no longer move my neck freely or without pain. I took the day off work and - frankly - panicked. Visions of the dreaded Shermer's Neck before I'd … Continue reading Setbacks
That's me up there, pretty physically and mentally distraught at the end of Rapha's Hell of the North a year ago today. It wasn't an especially tough ride at a little over 100km and 1,000m of climbing albeit with quite a lot of bridleways and terrain not normally suited to road bikes. It was the punctures that … Continue reading Suffering
The Domestiquated Animal 