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Cycling's back on the box!
3 hours of uninterrupted cycling on the TV last night covering the Track World Cup from Manchester. The first cycling on the box this year. It was great to watch the British team take some wins on their home track. The Keirin final was pretty scary, four riders were taken out in a huge crash and for a moment it looked pretty nasty. Thankfully all the riders, including GB's Jamie Staff, got up and walked away.
Not long now until Paris-Nice and despite the potential lack of ProTour teams I can't wait, it's always a great race to watch.
Mechanical frustration
Up to Sheffield to catch up with some friends this weekend, and an opportunity to get some more hills into the legs out in the Peak District. When I was seven years younger (and about ten pounds lighter) I lived in Sheffield and was riding in the Peak District almost daily, so I was itching to get out and try one of my old routes.
Friday night's reunion didn't help Saturday's early start but that was forgotten on the climb up to Fox House Inn. The route was a loop round through Curbar, Baslow, Great Longstone, Monsal Dale, Cressbrook , and on to Hope and Castleton.
Things were going great for two hours until I lost a spoke on my back wheel, I heard the crack as the head sheared of the nipple and rim started rubbing the brake pad. Luckily I managed to loosen the opposing spokes off enough to straighten the rim and allow me to ride for another hour to get back, all the time cursing myself for not bringing my spare wheels for the weekend.
I was lucky that the spoke key on the multitool fitted the wheels I was using. If had been using my other wheels (Ksyriums) I would have had to be carrying a special plastic key to adjust the tension. I thought that industrial standards would be converging but it seems that more and more kit needs its specific tools and complimentary components to work correctly. Don't get me wrong, I not getting all UCI on you, I'm all for innovation, but repairs are more often than not becoming complete replacements and on-the-road fixes are less achievable without a support car.
So, on the road repairs might have to get more and more innovative. I haven't had to perform feats of mechanical skill up there with Eugene Christophe's repairs. He ran to the local blacksmith during the 1913 Tour de France to fix his broken forks and having successfully executed a repair was subsequently penalised for getting assistance from the boy who was working the bellows. I think the best I can offer is using grass to stuff a deflated tyre, which incidentally is not much use at all.
What's your most innovative on-the-road repair?
Archives
09/14/03, 09/21/03, 09/28/03, 10/05/03, 10/12/03, 12/07/03, 12/14/03, 12/21/03, 12/28/03, 01/04/04, 01/11/04, 01/18/04, 02/15/04, 04/25/04, 05/09/04, 07/25/04, 08/01/04, 09/12/04, 10/03/04, 10/31/04, 11/21/04, 12/12/04, 01/09/05, 01/16/05, 01/23/05, 01/30/05, 02/13/05, 03/13/05, 03/27/05, 04/03/05, 04/10/05, 04/17/05, 04/24/05, 05/01/05, 05/15/05, 05/22/05, 05/29/05, 06/05/05, 06/12/05, 08/07/05, 09/04/05, 09/18/05, 10/30/05, 11/20/05, 11/27/05, 12/04/05, 12/11/05, 12/18/05, 12/25/05, 01/01/06, 01/08/06, 01/15/06, 01/29/06, 02/05/06, 02/12/06, 02/19/06, 02/26/06, 03/05/06, 03/12/06, 03/19/06, 03/26/06, 04/09/06, 04/16/06, 04/30/06, 05/21/06, 05/28/06, 07/09/06, 07/23/06, 08/06/06, 08/13/06, 09/03/06, 09/10/06, 10/15/06, 10/29/06, 11/05/06, 11/12/06, 11/19/06, 11/26/06, 12/10/06, 12/17/06, 12/24/06, 12/31/06, 01/07/07, 01/14/07, 01/21/07, 01/28/07, 02/04/07, 02/11/07, 02/18/07, 02/25/07, 03/04/07, 03/25/07, 04/01/07, 04/15/07, 04/22/07, 04/29/07, 07/15/07, 07/22/07, 07/29/07, 09/16/07, 12/23/07, 12/30/07, 01/06/08, 01/13/08, 01/20/08, 03/23/08, 03/30/08, 04/27/08,
