themanfromicon
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Wander Wye
Friday Sitting on the train to London a small amount of trepidation floats around my mind. I’ve yet to complete a 600 kilometre audax having failed to complete the Hailsham 600 and the DIY in France last year for different reasons. I know I can do the distance but it’s been a while since I’ve…
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Dolomiti
Last year I took part in the fifth edition of the Transcontinental Race but unfortunately didn’t finish the race, making it across parts of Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy before stopping short of Control Point 3 in the High Tatras mountain range in northern Slovakia. After recuperating in Poprad for 36 hours we rode…
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Sussex Spring Classic 2018
The Sussex Spring Classic 2018. 120km of stupid fun on the lanes, farm tracks, and bridleways of Sussex in homage to the spring classics of northern Europe (more Tro Bro Leon than Flanders). A bit late this year due to being disorganised and shit weather. The annual email to the usual suspects ended with… *disclaimer:…
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Controlling
Almost half past 4, officially open. We wait. Stroll up the street to cable tie AUK Control signs to lamp posts. Wander back to the sports club… and wait. Scan the start list for familiar names, a few. Stare out of the window… and wait. The first rider pulls into the car park, wheels his…
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May Day
Awake before the alarm and sun rise. Fall out of bed, flick on the radio. The World Service, still too early for Radio 4. Thick black coffee, teaspoon of sugar. The Shipping Forecast, the long version, inshore waters included. It’s still early but light outside as I bounce the bike down the steps. Freewheel down…
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Out of the Shadows
Paths past garden gates, those neglected places where stinging nettles and wild flowers thrive. Next to a railway line and over a stream that is obscured from view throughout town; behind the houses, buried under streets, channeled through concrete, feeding into the Ouse somewhere in the Railway Land. It’s running high and fast now…
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Seven hundred
Orange-pink cracks of light in the murky grey sky to the east contradict the weather forecast I saw the day before. This is good. If it lasts. The predicted headwind is present though. By 35km I’m cowering in a bus stop on a junction, 5km later when I spot an open café I’m wringing water…
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Reliability
From the regularity of the straight lines between the fields of the flatlands around Ripe into the twisting roller coaster of ancient ways of the High Weald. Rolling over sandstone ridges into river valleys deeply cut into the clay. Following ancient ways scratched and scraped into the soft rock by water and footfall between the…
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Turn Turn Turn
Sneaking out of and into the city in the dark and half light. Looking for gloves and the right route. Lights plugged into wall sockets and USB ports. An increased interest in the weather forecast. The rush of starlings overhead as they head for the fields. A change in wind direction. Chilled air snatching at…
the man from icon 