Let's get serious

As well as honouring the memory of fellow Barfordian Graham Lees, I'm fundraising for one of the UK's leading charities, Cancer Research UK.

A charity that Graham himself supported, Cancer Research UK is the world's leading independent organisation dedicated to cancer research.

It supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of more than 4,500 scientists, doctors and nurses.

You can sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/ianwoliver

I won't pretend it will make me pedal any harder, but it's a great cause.

And every pound you contribute will be matched by Barclays. Which is nice.

A long way up

Some people have asked me about the route I'll be taking. Here are the overnight stops:

Date	Overnight	Miles	Cumulative Miles
24-Jul	St Minver (camping)	59	59
25-Jul	Travelodge Barnstaple	68	127
26-Jul	Bristol area	100	227
27-Jul	Travelodge Telford	105	332
28-Jul	Slaidbum YHA (Clitheroe)	110	442
29-Jul	Travelodge Carlisle	88	530
30-Jul	Travelodge Ayr	95	625
31-Jul	Inveraray YHA	77	702
01-Aug	Fort Augustus YHA	104	806
02-Aug	Carbisdale YHA	92	898
03-Aug	Canisby YHA (JOG)	109	1007

The glamour of the undertaking is only hinted at by evocative words such as 'Travelodge' and 'Hostel'...........

If you'd like to join me for a pie and a pint one evening, you'd be most welcome. Can't promise much sparkling conversation though.

Last leg (commute route part 3)

Which, dear reader, goes past some of the most pointless bit of 'cycleway' ever dreamed up by a council officer with a bit of money left in the paint budget at the end of March...Of course, 'goes past' indicates just how useless I think it is.

Just rubbish. So, descending (at speed, inevitably) Coventry Road out of Warwick, just past the BP petrol station (sorry Barack...), when you get to a roundabout you're supposed to leave the road (left). Cycle to the edge of the pavement. Stop. Cross a bit of road. Stop on an island (right). Cross a bit of road. And then carry on.

Needless to say, by this time I'd be at the Saxon Mill, strangely enough, another pub. A great place, even in its 'Are you enjoying your harvester meal?' period.

Then through Leek Wootton, which makes you realise that this commute is mainly uphill - a fact not lost on anyone who's done the Two Castles (Warwick to Kenilworth) 10k run.

And through Kenilworth, my home town, with its eclctic mixture of housing styles. Spirits are raised by going up (it's one-way now) Fieldgate Lane, which, since you ask, is just past the Virgins & Castle. One of the prettiest streets I know, just look at the pics. Then it's into Hollis Lane, Crackley Lane and on to Westwood Park.

Kerb your enthusiasm

Had my first crash yesterday, before I'd even got out of Barford.

Looking to cut the corner at the southern junction of the by-pass I was concentrating on avoiding my cycling companion so that when I reached the lowered kerb it was more kerb than lowered. Horrible feeling in that split second you realise you're 'goin' dahn', as they say in Eastenders. Ironically, one of the reasons I switched from running to cycling was to lessen the effect of impacts on my knees....

On the upside, the bike was relatively undamaged and my choice of lycra shorts meant no damage to cycling kit...

Fortunately the injuries look worse than they are (at least that's what I hope...), and I carried on for a pleasant 60-miler, taking in Shipston-on-Stour, Brailes (tough climb), Banbury, Edge Hill (scary descent...) and Kineton. Interesting sighting s included an Ariel Atom, a pair of yellow vipers, Fezza 559 and 16 Honda S2000s.



Bad news... I got back early enough to watch England v Germany. Good News... Ricky Ponting's face when England beat Aussie and Steveland's set at Glasto almost made up for it....

C'mon Ingerlund!

Cycling through any town at the moment, you can't help noticing the number of St George's cross flags adorning buildings and cars. Closer inspection reveals it's the Sun wot done it....Being England there's a class element at play - I regularly see a chap in an Audi convertible in Leek Wootton, with a more up-market magnetic flag on the bonnet.

It's been a pretty dull World Cup so far, and the star of the show is not Torres, Messi or even our own Roonaldo...it's the vuvuzela! When the TV's on, but I'm in another room, (and to be frank, unless England's involved it's just 22 blokes chasing a pig's bladder round a field) I'm often convinced there's a swarm of bees nesting in the living room.

I think they're great. When I heard complaints about a 'monotonous droning noise' on the BBC, I thought they were talking about Alan Green. However, I'm not sure I'll be so keen when they appear in the Harbury Lane End at Leamington FC's first home game of next season....

Danger - apostrophe's!

There's a great shop sign I pass on my return route, pictured left. In fact, I've been confronted by the proprietor in the past when photographing it, an experience that convinced me the spelling is not ironic.

It's a real worry that directly across the road lies St John's primary school. Nothing to do with the dangers of childhood obesity, but the blatant disregard for punctuation this may engender in young minds.

I can't let Maggie go.....*

This morning I did the ride to work in a record 57 minutes. I'd decided to 'press on', riding faster then the '8-hours-a-day' LE-JOG pace, to build up fitness. More about having the acceleration to climb hills than stamina.

On the return journey, to celebrate England's unconvincing win against tiny Slovenia I detoured to Kenilworth, riding along Woodland Road and Inchbrook Road, where I lived as a kid. Weird how some things have changed, others haven't . Bizarrely, everything looks smaller now.

There's nothing better than riding home in the evening sun with a warm breeze, the aromas of the countryside and the evening sun on your face. Today I saw a hot air balloon over the Avon valley, the epitome of tranquility in a busy world.

For some people, the arrival of spring and summer are charted by the first sightings of birds such as the Swallow. For me, it's the sighting of classic cars.

On recent rides I've spotted a TVR Tuscan, MGB, Lotus Elan (1990s version), Austin Healey and TR6. And even a Hillman Imp.

* Apparently my titles are too oblique for some....this isn't a referrence to the Iron Lady, but to a 60's song by the Honeybus, used in a Nimble bread advert featuring a pleasant young lady rather implausibly taking off in a hot air balloon...