January 2019.

2nd Jan: I was feeling a bit partied out today after all the festivities so I took Awesom-O out for a spin to clear my head. It was overcast and pretty cold so I donned the stolen goat and headed out. Weirdly, despite being hungover and not having eaten, my legs felt better than they have for years and I absolutely flew the whole ride. I had a couple of very cool wild life encounters on the ride as well. At one point, I was cycling along watching a flock of at least 30 goldfinches swarming up to land on a telephone wire when they changed their minds because there was a kestrel already sitting on the wire, cool! At a later stage of the ride, I was cycling back down the track when a flock of 4- to 500 starlings lifted into the air ahead of me and could decided which side of the path to alight on so I was cycling along with a massive half torus of starlings in front of me. That was extremely cool and it happened again on a subsequent 'down'. Anyhow, a fun, fast ride and 25.1 miles to kick the ride off with.

6th Jan: Awesom-O was absolutely filthy before today's ride, virtually every square centimetre was covered in dried mud, so I gave him a good wash. I also t-shirted the cassette, gave the chain a really good wipe to get any grit and excess oil off and treated all the pivots on the rear mech to a drop of Purple Extreme. That done, we headed off to the farm track. There was barely any wind and it was around 8 °C so not particularly cold and quite a fun ride. There were a lot of corvids around for some reason, there was a murder of maybe 5- or 600 hundred crows on one of the fields because the farmer was tilling it as I rode and most of them lifted into the air each time I went past. After two ups and downs, I headed to Holt Green and there was freshly tilled field on the right hand side there with 2- or 300 rooks mixed in with a few crows so a very corvid rich ride! Anyhow, it was a fun ride and another 25.2 miles.

20th January: It's been a mad couple of weeks recently which meant I haven't been out on the bike for ages. I had a crazy week at work including a lot of travel and an overnight stay and then we had a week of windy, rainy weather afterwards. Anyhow, I managed to take Awesom-O out for a ride today. Because he has mudguards, it isn't easy to see what state his tyres are in so I flipped him upside down and took a look. The front was fine but the back tyre was quite flat and fairly cut up with a couple of holes where you could clearly see the anti-puncture belt under the tread. Coincidentally, the next morning I was sitting in the car looking at Instagram on my phone when I saw an ad showing Sigma Sports were doing the same tyres for thirty quid each so I ordered a couple.

I fitted them yesterday and boy were they a pig! Anyhow, I used lots of talc on everything and managed to get them fitted without sacrificing any inner tubes and was looking forward to the riding the smooth new rubber today. It was an OK day, overcast but bright and not too cold at around 5 °C and barely any wind, so I did a lap of the fishing pond followed by the usual. I saw quite an odd thing bolted to a telephone pole on the last 'down' so I stopped and took a pic. It had a laser warning sticker on so I guess it's something to do with broadband? Anyhow, a quite enjoyable 26.0 miles.

28th January: I read an article on road.cc a while back about dealing with smelly cycling clothing. One of the things they mentioned was gloves. This bamboozled me slightly because I thought 'How can gloves stink'? As it turns out, my gloves do stink. The odour is rather reminiscent of smelly feet so they're definitely going in the wash after this ride! Anyhow, It's been another long break from the bike, we've had some snow and a couple of really freezing nights and yesterday was incredibly windy, but I managed to take Awesom-O out for a spin today. By happy coincidence I'd booked the day off and it was a beautiful day, around 4 °C with clear blue skies and not too much wind. I only did the usual but, apart from a close pass by a prat in a Range Rover who'd obviously taken umbrage with me moving to the centre of the road to turn right at a t-junction, it was a very enjoyable ride. I felt a bit meh initially but I soon perked up and it was another 25.1 miles.

Well, another poor month. It snowed on Wednesday which made getting to work an adventure! They hadn't gritted the village, the bypass or the East Lancs so every traffic lights was 'am I going to be able to get moving again?' which was nerve racking. It's been around freezing since and there's still snow remnants everywhere so I've been stuck indoors. Anyhow, the monthly total was a poor 101.4 miles. Here's hoping it warms up soon...