The past month has been an interesting time, with lots of plans rewritten as a result of a spell of illness and not the best of weather for this time of year. It’s been far from a bad month, just one that hasn’t gone to plan.

Tour of Flanders

A lads weekend away to watch the Ronde van Vlaanderan. What could go wrong? At the last minute, our driver and organiser and all round legend Jordan, had to drop out at the last minute to look after work commitments, which mean that we had a last minute call to fill the space, and I needed to drive the van and bike to Ghent.

It was a great weekend, and Jordan turned up late on the first night after driving separately once the work commitments were sorted. We were all basically wasted by this point, but ended up going out again…!

The Sunday was spent watching the Tour of Flanders while I (not so quietly suffered). Watching both the men’s and women’s pro teams battle up the Oude Kwaermont is one of my favouite places to watch bike racing.

We stayed over on a much more subdued Sunday night (I’d only managed to keep anything down till late in the afternoon…) and went for a ride on some of the best cobbled sectors on Monday. Early morning rain, followed by some steady winds and strong sun made for a really awesome day out on the bike.

Audax UK Heart of England 300

My First Audax in the fabulous English countryside was a lot shorter than advertised. I really enjoyed the whole vibe, but shortly after we left the church hall in Cirencester snow started to fall. Gradually, this snow got worse and worse, and even though we added layers and layers, the cold got into our fingers and legs. The pain from this cold is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. The snow began to settle, and with the lack of braking and finger dexterity, James and I decided to call it a day and headed to the nearest town where we hugged radiators while waiting for the taxi to arrive to take us back to the car

Hills Hills Hills!

Making people suffer, or at least making them enjoy suffering and giving a sense of achievement is something that I enjoy. What started with a couple of friends taking on lots of hills turned into a large group ride with 12 showing up.

It was a great opportunity to find new climbs and join them up together with some of the old favourites. 140 km in the Surrey hills with 2,000 m of elevation in some fantastic weather made for a great day out with some great mates – old and new, and was good training to boot.

London to Paris 24 Hours… and back again!

Finding inspiration when I was just going for a bike ride (well, a really long one) – the people you meet through cycling always never fails to make me happy.

300 km to Paris in 24 hours, a short break and 260 km back home. I’ve written up a separate photo blog over here: http://b1rdmn.exposure.co/

Whats next?

May is promising to be a fairly epic month, following hotly on the heels of London-Paris-London

• Racing – Time Trial series with Westerley CC 10 Mile Time Trial at Hillingdon & Race Training with G!RO Prestige Racing
• All night long – overnight ride with some crazy mates: 225 km over 9 hours
• London Revolution – A clockwise circuit of London
• … Some more hilly epics to come. Watch this space!