Sadly there’s not much in the way of riding photos. Because we were too busy riding.
Suffice to say it was an awesome day.
Dry trails, sun, warmth, fun singletrack, fantastic riding companions, awesome new bike.
Still recovering from a(nother) cold, early season legs. Still good. It was my first time out on the Giant Lust Advanced 2, and I already love it. Looking forward to a fun summer with lots of biking.
Despite all rumours to the contrary, it’s supposed to be Spring by now. No-one has told the weather yet. They’re worried it will start hitting us with -10oC days to go with the snow.
Anyway, somehow I ended up doing a Winter Triathlon. Sensibly, it involved no swimming. Instead there was a ski leg, which I ended up doing. As a result, there are no photos of that part, so instead I bring to you photos of people trying to bike in 15cm of fresh snow (heh heh), and running through 15cm of fresh snow (heh heh heh).
So, the bike fairy finally came, and I have myself a Giant Anthem X 29er 3 now.
So far it hasn’t been on anything except for snow – including a ride down the main street at the end of the snow-on-the-street festivities. So it’s still shiny and new.
I’m waiting for the snow on the trails to melt now. Impatiently.
Well, it’s nearly time…
Phase One – Japan
31 May – 17 June 2009
Phase One will be undertaken with myself, Alex, and a mysterious character known only as The Boy (who may or may not be my brother). The advantage to this set-up is that Alex and myself speak no Japanese, whereas The Boy has considerable kanji skills. But on the other hand, The Boy has not left Australia since he was 9, and has not done much camping since then either. Whereas Alex and I have spent lots of time travelling round and living in foreign countries. And camping.
We’ll be cycling around Hokkaido, and then Alex and I will go back to Tokyo to jump on a plane to Europe, while The Boy continues cycling around Japan.
Phase Two – Europe
18 June – 7 Nov 2009
Phase Two has Alex and I arriving in Dublin, meeting up with my mother, then travelling around Ireland for the next 10 days or so, hopefully getting a few days of cycling in. Then we’ll somehow catch the ferry over to Wales. Ride through Wales to London then Dover, take the ferry to France, then who knows what will happen! There are friends to meet up with in Europe, and friends who’ve mentioned interest in riding sections with us… so we shall see.
It’s hard to fit in all the places we’d like to go, and things we’d like to do, especially with the strong Euro smiting our plans left, right and centre. Doing a side trip to Iceland would be excellent. So would going from Finland to Estonia via St Petersburg. And drifting further east into Romania. And a trip down south into Greece! And more of Italy! And Spain! And Portugal! And Scotland! But for the sake of time and money these sections will probably be left out.
After Sundays adventure I’m hobbling around on crutches with a knee that is swollen like a water balloon and won’t bear much weight. Thankfully there’s probably nothing broken, fractured, twisted or torn, so I just have to wait for my knee to stop panicking (it has an built-in air bag that doesn’t deploy quickly enough?) and recovery might not take too long. I hope.
Then I shall buy these tyres (Schwalbe Winter Marathons) and laugh in the face of any ice and snow in my path.