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(Credit: BBC News)

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It makes perfect sense… ;-)

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Ian, aka @coffeehopper of Atkinsons tea and coffee fame tells me that the best coffee place around Lancaster and surroundings now opens on Sundays. It has made my day.

GO THERE. It’s on Sun Street. 

http://themusicroomcafe.com/

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please let this not be in vain… donate to Dan and Dave Mo(hawk)vember pages. They are are growing the proper lip fluff to support men’s health.

http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1801544/ 

http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1494222/

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Did the Mo last year, even kept it for two months. All good fun to raise money for a good cause. I am not growing a fluffy upper lip again thisyear but in the spirit of things I’ll be keeping a mohican Travis Bickle style for November.

Mates Dan and Dave are growing the proper stuff so head to their fundraising page and support their facial hair:

http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1801544/  http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1494222/

Teamwork… 

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Photo by Andy Holden

Many accounts of this year’s 3 Peaks Cyclocross race are coming out left, right and centre. Dave Haygarth is doing a superb job at linking to the many blogs, videos and photo galleries covering the event. Check out http://3pcx.blogspot.com/ for getting inspired. 

There is even a report compiled by John covering the Peaks from the team’s perspective. See http://www.biketreksracing.com/biketreks-racing-team-tackle-the-3-peaks

But, how was it for me? TOUGH. The results don’t lie. 5h11min. I was slow, very slow. However, off-road riding has never been my forte. The lack of experience was obvious. To be quite honest, I can’t imagine completing his without having put some hours of Peaks specific training. 

Road sections: Brilliant. In my element.  Ridable Off-road sections : Not too bad. Grovelling up unridable sections up the fells? VERY VERY SLOW. Descents: VERY VERY SLOW.  

Difficult to comprehend this race really. It’s unique. Did I enjoy myself? mmm… I’d say enjoyment is a strong word. It was an interesting journey in discovering new sets of aching muscles. The question is will I do it again? most definitely. I am eating my words as I was adamant that it would be a one-off.

The 3 Peaks bug has been caught. Ingleborough, Whernside, Pen-Y-Ghent: See you all next year. 

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Good rides in Provence borrowing my dad’s Cannondale CAAD9. I tried to get on the bike every day and starting to incorporate some running and carrying of bikes in preparation for the 3 peaks. No idea how that will translate into race fitness for CDNW Dolphinholme and Oakenclough. Nonetheless riding was good and enjoyable. I improvised routes incorporated some new roads each time. One regret is running out of days to get on with cycling over Grand Luberon.

Ventoux was on the menu. 5 ascents of the Géant in total. four on in a little less that 9 hours (REPORT). Another time was to see how fast I could climb from Bédoin. Strange ascent. No wind / little wind pushing clouds from the South West at Bédoin then wind turned and MIstral got in the way. Anyhow, I completed the climb in 1h25. I hoped to have gone faster but it wasn’t to be! I enjoyed riding at a good tempo spinning a nice gear.

On the same day of the “fast” climb, I got up at 3:30am to take some pictures from the top of Ventoux at dawn. The result is a set of pictures: 

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One piece of good news in this Novermber-like Summer’s day: “Velocast Scott” is back - Back on twitter and in the guise of a Tumblr blog appropriately entitled The Velocat Journal.

http://velocast.tumblr.com/

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Here is a review submitted to Louise McCall (McCake?)’s site Patisserie Cyclisme

See the full gallery on Posterous

 Description: 

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A plug for Lancastrian / sustainable transport thinker / uni lecturer / cyclist / nice guy Dave Horton’s blog: http://thinkingaboutcycling.wordpress.com/

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