Early in the Morning

When I leave the house to ride my bike I am excited, nervous and thankful. Exited to see what will become of the next few hours. Will I be faster than last time? Nervous because I might be slower than last time. If you're like me then you're already making excuses for this eventuality before you even get your shoes on. "I've had a cold all week. I better take it easy...". Thankful because I have two kids and my lovely wife works very hard during the week too. Weekends are precious and the kids are demons. I don't know what I did to deserve them but they are very supportive of me in my mid-life crisis. Always ready with words of encouragement. "You're too skinny. You look like an AIDS patient." I am truly blessed.

The days are getting longer. It was exactly 4 months to Act 2 of the Etape this week. The map is out. Things seem to be going according to plan. Not my plan. I don't really have one. I do about 160 miles a week. Some hill repeats. Some interval. At least one ride over 60 miles. I don't know if it's enough. I've never ridden a bike in the high mountains. All I know is there is no reason I can't do it.

The early morning start to today's ride was bliss. The house was quiet. London was quiet. I swung my leg over the bike and turned down the street pointed West in the direction of Richmond Park. The sun was just sending it's first few rays over the horizon and the only sound was the steady hiss of rubber on tarmac.

I got to the park by 7:20 and did a good warm up distance before Tom and Chris turned up. Chris was first so we set off and met Tom going the other way after half a lap. We met another Etapist Tom S just as we were stopping for coffee. He wanted to do another lap before joining us. We never saw him again.
There are different theories as to what happened to Tom S. We searched the park for him and We went clockwise, anti-clockwise, through the middle. Nothing.

We carried on for a couple more laps. Stopped to fill water bottles and did one more to make 8 laps. The Garmin was at 70 miles by the time I got home.

Happy Mothers Day to the UK moms! A very special thank you to the one that looks after us.