No riding

Nothing. None. Zero. Zipp. Zilch. That’s the amount of riding I did this glorious weekend. The first weekend of full-on sunshine, low winds and dry roads saw me malingering in bed suffering the effects of gastric ‘flu (or as I call it, a touch of the chucks). I don’t think my health has ever been so bad as in the past month – I still have a lingering cough and sniffle and now feel totally depleted of energy. I guess I need to be careful not to overdo the rush back to training and build it up slowly again to avoid any further problems.

In my de-energised state I was able to catch up on the Amstel Gold race on Eurosport on Sunday. I always take an interest in this race as I've cycled so many of the roads during trips to Limburg. It never ceases to amaze me how the road furniture and cyclepaths that make leisure cycling such a pleasure in the region make pro races such a nightmare. The sight of the peloton in full charge dodging lamp posts and badly parked cars meant I had a firm grip on the arm of the sofa at all times! A great power surge up the Cauberg by Gilbert to cap off an interesting final 30km or so of racing.

Still no bloody seatpost clamp for my Isaac (the old one, which wasn’t an Isaac one, cracked the original seatpost when tightened to 4Nm) so I’m stuck on the Tifosi with full-length mudguards! Which means I can’t race until next week – given my health and limited training that’s probably no bad thing though. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch either Palace or Eelmore next week and reaquaint myself with some serious suffering!