Points of Interest

I didn't mention any of this stuff in the last blog because I wanted nothing to take away from the untimely death of Junior Heffernan nor bore you with a Goblet of Fire length book, so here is the sequel to the last post plus a few garnishes.

One of these garnishes is what many believe is the cause of Junior's death, a lack of a rolling road closure meaning in races closing the road off for the peloton to race through, requiring cars to wait at junctions for a couple of minutes tops for at the moment we road racers compete on open roads where we can only stick to the left hand-side of the road and where motorbikes technically do not have the power to stop vechicles, particularly if they are oncoming. It has been proven that a rolling road closure is the safest and most efficient form to allow for road racing so why don't we adopt it? We are the only country in the world that doesn't, o.k. it does not meant the majority is always right nessercarily, but in this case, it does. Please sign the petiton to help us make this a bit more of a reality and make roads safer for all: https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/46709

Talking of politics, I have really got into Jon Stewart recently as well as Bill O'Reilly (not satire, but still an interesting figure and debater) and South Park and it just makes me wish that other then Have I Got News For You there would be more political satire on British T.V. as well as more harder hitting interviews. A recent survey that was revealed on the One Show a couple of weeks ago shows that whilst Americans will talk about sports and politics intially when meeting in a group of more than 3, Brits talk about the weather. With this mindset is it any wonder we just have countless, pointless shows that discuss and display nothing?

Haha to Manchester United

Now is the time of year where road cycling really begins and we have been blessed already with some great racing recently, the Strade Bianche lived up to expectations, luckily for Verity Ockenden it finished in Siena getting some cracking photos, as well as Roma Maxima proving to be a great race with a surprise winner. Now we have Paris-Nice, which is poised perfectly for the next few days and Tirreno-Adriacato where some heavyweight names line-up to do battle. What was really interesting was how slow the Strade Bianche was raced on Saturday, in comparison to La Manche-Atlantique that I raced on Sunday, Moser finished 1.5kph slower than the winner of my race even though the race was only 33km more. Admittedly they had to race over the sterrata of Tuscany, but they are professionals competiting on a nicer day than we did with a lot less wind. I would most compare the races around here mostly to Amstel Gold (even though I have never raced it lol), but with more wind, a still day here is when it is still blowing 15mph+.

The French really do love their guard dogs, especially Boxers and all the dogs constantly bark and will go for anything, couple this with the fact that like I have said previously, though don't really have hedges or fences, this is obviously a recipe for disaster. Yesterday I went for my first club ride, which was great, but I really just how far I have to go if I want to get anywhere near decent in the language, anyway we got set upon by dogs again. On most rides, certainly when you go off the D roads, not matter how short a distance, you will have to face dogs.

Learning French as got my considering the roots of English a bit more I have stumbled upon the fact that when using the greatest invention recently, Google Translate, any, what I would call, posh words in English such as famished or fatigued, they are French words, maybe spelt slightly differently, but pronounced quite a bit differently. However more commonly used words for these two such as hungry and tired are similar or same words in, usually, Dutch or Norwegian, but if this is not the case try German, Swedish or Danish and then you will have a match. Very interesting and I have wasted so much time doing exactly the above, unfortunately I doubt it really does that much to help me improve my French.

My next race is Le Circuit du Morbihan this Sunday and another E/1/2 French Elite race, hopefully I will complete it this time, now that I've got a new saddle for my Pinarello and some other new bits I will be pleased for a top 50 or 40 even, fingers crossed. It's tough mentally getting bent over on such a regular basis, but none of us have hit top form yet and we are still learning how to race here that is pointedly true for me considering my lack of road racing experience.

More news to report is that I will be doing the South East Stage Race and Verity is coming back that weekend from Italy also, all fantastic news.

Stay safe everyone and I wish you all the best.