Matt - April 25th

Have you heard that!!?? "Matts been looking daft for some time"!!! Jon and Cleve are just envious that i have the body to pull off the cycle gear and pink helmet!! You will notice that i am getting the stick as the one who looks daft, but Jon will only put his helmet on around a mile from his house in case someone see's him that he knows. Acknowledgement i think that he knows that he also looks equally as daft as me!

I did actually take the plunge and rode to my parents house in the cycle gear (wrestling outfit and all). Amazingly i did the 28 miles in 1 hour and 25 minutes. I think it was a case that i was trying to ride as fast as i could so that nobody would see me. I did notice that as i was heading down a hill that a child in the passenger seat of a car had his head angled at almost 180 degrees trying to look at me!

Last weekend was our second group ride. Jon and I braved the cycle gear and even went out of the house in it!! We needed drink and flapjack for the ride and called at a local garage. I was expecting the Cas foke to stare, but they didnt bat an eyelid. I havent checked YouTube yet to see if the CCTV footage of us has been put on under the title 'What do these 2 think they look like?'.
Cleve turned up at Jons house (an hour late) ready with skull cap on (again someone else who knows how daft he looks as he wont have his picture taken wearing it!!). We planned on a 60 mile ride and headed out, but due to the route being shorter than we expected we ended up at home having done 38. The weather was terrible and we had the cold, wind and rain and i was absolutely soaked. We did do extremely well though. Few stops, conquered hills with little difficulty, each taking the lead throughout the ride. Lesson learnt on this ride: take a mobile phone. All 3 of us left the house without one, noticing after 20 miles that we didnt have one. This is a real mistake for the 3 of us and our past history of issues while riding.
I reached home and each of the 3 layers that i had on were soaked. I have been ill for the past week with a sore throat, sweats and shivers and lack of appetite as a result i expect of the weather. Things are progressing extremely well and we are getting quite good! Cleve thinks our next one should be a biggie of around 80 miles. I pray that the weather improves soon or i am going to be seriously struggling!!