cycling
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Kent Invicta Grimpeur [Brevet des Grimpeurs du Sud 2016 ride #1]
A quiet, pretty corner of Kent, lanes tucked away between interlocking major roads. Two laps of the same circuit, first clockwise, then anti-clockwise. A tight loop, repeating place names on signposts, never reached and pointed in different directions. Identical roads, the same hills, but dissimilar when approached from the opposite direction. Those fast sweeping drops…
![Kent Invicta Grimpeur [Brevet des Grimpeurs du Sud 2016 ride #1]](https://themanfromicon.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/tweaked-0027.jpg?w=1024)
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DNF
Standing under the heating vent inside Sainsbury’s Local in Crowborough, whilst a puddle of water forms at my feet, I stare at the map on my phone looking for the shortest way back to Lewes. I decided 5 kilometres back that I was going to give up at the next control. Little did I realise the…
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One frame at a time
A craftsman at work, a skill that is second nature: Cut, grind, file, clamp, fit, braze, weld. Repeat. Back and forth, here, there, this bench, that jig. Sparks flying from grinders, the flash and whoosh of the torch being lit, red hot lugs and smoking bottom brackets. A day of turning straight lines into triangles, into frames, a pile of steel…
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Rounds
The final chase. The last race of the night. A madison, an undetermined number of laps. The fug of the previous 40 laps of the dernies hangs in the artificially warmed air, suspended in the noise and the lights. The audible whirrs and whizzes of big, big gears, the rumble of high pressure tubs on…
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Greenwich Mean Climb 300km [Brevet des Grimpeur du Sud ride #6]
04:29, Dyke Road, Brighton, heading for London. Underworld are played on the radio in the car and two men in their mid-forties reminisce about coming home at this time of the morning rather than going out for a bike ride. 05:47, Blackheath, London. Applying chamois cream behind a bush on the edge of Blackheath. There…
![Greenwich Mean Climb 300km [Brevet des Grimpeur du Sud ride #6]](https://themanfromicon.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/tweaked-colour-14.jpg?w=1024)
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Mid Sussex Hilly [Brevet des Grimpeur du Sud ride #7]
Sat in a village hall, with a slices of cake and cups of tea in mismatching china, whilst they tidy up around us, getting ready for the whist drive in later that evening.
![Mid Sussex Hilly [Brevet des Grimpeur du Sud ride #7]](https://themanfromicon.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/msh11.jpg?w=1024)
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Coastal Culture Trail
For ages I’ve been meaning to do a ride from Brighton along the coast to Eastbourne to the Towner Gallery, and then on to Bexhill to the De La Warr Pavilion. Never quite managed to find a free weekend that coincided with exhibitions I really wanted to see. Then recently I discovered the Coastal Culture…
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Rapha Rising 2015
Total Ascent 9371m Ride 4: Thusday 23 July / 203km / 4111m Gagnac-sur-Cere // Camps // >> D14 // >> D1120/D120 // Montvert // Bends, then long straight // << then imm. >> by pottery // D59 Crandelles // D59 Jussac // << D922 briefly // >> D59 Marmanhac // Laroquevielle // St Cirgues-de-Jordanne //…
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Tour de France Sojourn Day 4
Headwind. Headwind. Headwind. Three hour nap on a ferry. Headwind.
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Tour de France Sojourn Day 3
Rest day. A book, a bottle of wine, sitting under a tree.
the man from icon 