8th July 2013

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A typically Danish roadside sculpture to celebrate an important birthday. Usually dumped overnight or when the person is at work. This one is unusually tame compared with the many male sculptures.

8th 60-71F, 16-22C, light winds, sunny. Max 23C/73F forecast. Two days in a row? Is summer here at last? I rode to Assens to do some shopping. No obvious after-effects from yesterday's ride. Warm and breezy. Two kids from the local cycling club slowly caught up with me. One young idiot overtook me and then stopped right in the middle of the road to wait of his slower mate. Then he overtook me again and cut across my path to turn right! Get over yourself, matey! That's not how we do it. ;-) 19 miles.

9th 62-74F, 17-23C, breezy, full sun. Like an idiot I rode to Nyborg to look for new MTB shoes.  A gentle tailwind helped. I had a surprise when I stopped at a village cycle shop in Årslev. I was going to go past but saw some tasty products in the window. Dave, the owner, turnout out to be British. He has marked himself out from the other cycle shops by stocking some very nice kit. Some of it unique to his shop. He has the Lake range of shoes, amongst other, including Mavic and North Wave. Sadly he had nothing wide enough to fit my big, flat feet. He has some very tasty frames and bikes on display. Road and MTB. He's also very competitive on prices. Says he sells a lot of racing wheels. Really knows his stuff too. We had a good long chat before I left him in peace to get on with his repair work.

 Cykelposten - Din cykelekspert på Midtfyn.

A headwind all the way home. I really cannot recommend the Nyborgvej cycle paths! Rough as hell with lots of camber changes, raised ridges, very narrow in places, with even rougher white lines, huge cracks and sinkholes. The latter cost me my lunch just outside Nyborg! Right in the middle of the path just after the detour round the back of the picnic layby. My front wheel dropped like a stone, hit the opposite wall of the hole and my cheese roll shot out of my hand and scattered along the path! I never even saw the hole. Not well pleased!

Husflids translates as handicrafts. For some reason I have always assumed that this was a school for girls to learn domestic skills but may be totally mistaken.

Am I supposed to carry a marker spray can so the council workers can get up of off their designer furniture, put down their mobile phones and do something about these lethal cycle paths? The roadway alongside is always billiard smooth for mile after mile after mile.  Encouraging most drivers to speed at well above the legal limit. Including screaming 6-axle lorries overtaking strings of traffic which were already speeding! The cycle paths right alongside obviously often haven't been looked at for, quite literally, many decades. A couple of speed cameras would pay for miles of cycle path resurfacing in only a day or two. Or, far more likely, more Danish designer furniture, lampshades, Danish modern art and sculpture for their latest council offices.

I returned dead on 8 hours since leaving. Hot and very tired. Shower and a nap before dinner. Achy legs and knees, hands and wrists with a bit of saddle soreness towards the end. It was too soon for such a long ride after Sunday's similar effort. Though I was still quite fresh after that jaunt. Not this time. I couldn't eat when I got home after sinking several pints of water on an almost empty stomach. I couldn't bring myself to buy a Coke nor sweets. Moral issues. I was daft not to buy a cake on my way though Odense. I just never seem to learn, do I? 83 miles.

A couple of minutes of massage solved the muscle pain. The quads always recover better when I massage them while sitting on a low step with my legs stretched out flat. The calves need bent knees from the same, low sitting position. The knees are much more difficult. Requiring several doses of a circular motion of the finger pads to move the knee caps. I feel much better now after a hot meal and a rest. Though my legs are still feeling heavy.

10th 57-73F, 14-23C, already windy and sunny at 7.30am. Supposedly much cooler today with only 18C/64F forecast and a lot windier. Repeat after me: There will be no more heroics today! Well nearly: An old codger cut across my bow to get into a petrol station. Either he was drunk (very likely) prescription drugged (just as likely) or he failed to judge my speed accurately enough. (Okay then, all three!)

Lest you think I'm moaning again there was never any great danger except from the following car if I badly misjudged my outward swerve. Fortunately such incidents are extremely rare in Denmark. Cyclists and pedestrians enjoy infinitely more respect from drivers than those in the UK.

A shopping ride for 18 miles and to get some more desperately needed snaps for the blog. Otherwise not much to report except that it was much warmer and sunnier than promised. My legs were tired but not painful. Except for my knees. The lower kneecap pain is slowly subsiding.

The decision to encourage lunatics to openly attend the T de F seems to have escalated out of control. Lunatics will always find an excuse for their behaviour. Whether it be sport, religion, wife beating, animal cruelty or politics: It all comes down to the simple fact that they are mentally ill. i.e. Unfit to be allowed the privilege of Western society's hard earned freedoms. A word of advice to the urine throwing loser and all the other freaks. Piss off back to your asylum before you hurt yourself. The race is not about you. No matter how empty and utterly pointless your own life your attention seeking is just sickening.

11th 56-72F, 13-22C, still, sunny. The toes on my other foot are hurting now. As well as those on the left foot. My two longer rides in the Specialized shoes must have done some serious damage. I've spent a couple of hours wielding an extended hedge clipper before it became too hot and the sun was glaring straight into my eyes. So I am already tired with an aching back and a swollen, purple thumb. Those 8' long electric hedge clippers weigh a ton. Particularly if you have to lift them repeatedly above your head! The ladderwork to trim the tops off didn't help.

I'll probably go out after lunch now. But didn't. My hip, knees, toes and thumb are hurting too much to ride today. I just hope that my body realises that this is gross insubordination. It is supposed to accept the demands I place on it without hesitation. Who does it think it is? Without my leadership it would be a floppy... er.. um.. zombie.

Dinner was unusually interesting: My wife was having pasta. Which I know to be a rubbery, floppy sort of tasteless stuff. Best described as something like dead octopus which had been left out too long in the sun. A barely consumable nothingness completely without culinary or nutritional merit in my own version of the universe. I was cajoled into trying two screwy squiggles, with menaces. It tasted delicious and the texture had obviously been upgraded from jellyfish entrails. Does this mean I have to become a hippy? I tried it once and didn't like it. Apart from the long hair, the flares, the corduroy and the music of course.

12th 63-71F, 17-22C, sunny, almost still becoming breezy and very warm. My knees feel better, as do my toes. My hip is still very painful but my purple thumb is quite numb. I'm planning on a gentle ride to see how it goes. Back on with the old and stretched Bontragers. My hip hurt when I pedalled and was agony when I climbed on and off. Toes, knees and thumb uncomplaining. 13 miles.

13th 56-72F, 13-22C, bright and windy at times. My hip was excruciating so I shopped in the car. Rest day.

14th 58F, 14C, windy and cloudy. Expected to be much cooler today. Will he go out or won't he? Still in pain. Only 7 miles to clear the cobwebs. Wore my old Bontrager MTB shoes but still some toe pain.

15th 58-67F, 14-20C, breezy and sunny. My hip was hurting badly in the night so I went for a brisk walk in my sandals this morning to see if it helped. There was no pain while I walked and now it doesn't hurt so much to get up from my computer chair. I'm sure it isn't the hip joint. Just muscular strain from hedge clipping with a very heavy pole electric clipper. Plus all the ladder work. There is an echo here of the terrible pain I suffered just before I was finally made redundant. I never saw the quack about it but have always assumed it was the sciatic nerve.

My legs felt strangely remote and achy as if they had forgotten something. My hip complained but I still did a detour with a long climb. Rather grey and windy. A heavy load of shopping. 19 miles.

Warning to all contacts within the triking scene: It looks as if somebody's hotmail account has been hacked. I received a very suspicious email from a friend within the triking scene. A long list of his cycling contacts was enclosed and were very likely more forwarding targets. The Tricycle Association and "on3wheels" trike forum are both suddenly unavailable. I hope it's just a coincidence but fear the worst. If you receive an email from anybody you know, but which contains even a slightly suspicious link then delete the email immediately and run a virus scan. Do NOT click on the link! I have even read that hovering your cursor over such a link can be dangerous. Though I cannot confirm this.

PS. The Tricycle Association website is back up but not the triking forum. Still an odd coincidence.
Later the on3wheels forum reappeared as if nothing had happened. Probably just maintenance.

16th 60-71F, 16-22C, windy, overcast. Forecast to reach 20C, 68F later. Assens shopping, Turned sunny and warm. 22 miles.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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