Threee is the magic number

Reasons to be cheerful, wishes granted by the lamp's genie, lives in Family Fortunes (ahem) wherever you turn it's all about three isn't it. Well guess what, I'm going to tell you about my three. That's right, since we last met not one, not two but three important things have happened - all in a cycling context you understand. None is more or less important than the other but all are significant and all have put a smile on my face. So here we go in chronological order.

Capital to coast
My dad is tops. He taught me the way of the Hammers, he's run numerous London Marathons and he's an all round top bloke. A couple of weeks ago he called me to let me know he's doing this year's London to Brighton, having never really cycled much before - and did I want to join him. Oh yes was the only answer I could give. A chance to do such a famous ride with my dad....and on Father's Day, of course I wanted to do it. So on Sunday 17 June you'll see me on the various roads and tracks from L2B along with my dad and one or two others. More details to follow once I know for sure who's in  but needless to say a couple of friends have shown a keen interest in coming along for the ride.

Sunday's ride
As promised and documented on this site, I've been loyally keeping up the turbo sessions since the start of the year. Nothing drastic - 35, 45, 55 minutes at a time but with incremental improvements in all dimensions - speed, gearing, time etc.  Sunday was the first team ride for a while and once I'd weathered the gentle ear bending and ribbing about where I'd been since last year (!) we were on and a quick glance around told me I was probably looking to hang on from the very start.  Apparently not!  I felt great. I was up with group from the off, hills no problem, change of pace no problem - the work had paid off. By the end my thighs were telling me the end was in sight but it was by far the best ride for a long time.  All the incentive I needed to keep up the training and look forward to June 17.

Spanish break
So now Dad's got a vested interest in all things cycling and being the friendly, chatty bloke he is, he took the first opportunity to talk to some cycling chaps while walking round the hills and valleys near his Spanish home in Jalon last week.

Stone me! It only turns out to be the BMC and Astana training camps.Quickly he established that they were in early season training for the major tours including TDF!!! So I start to investigate on the tinterweb and a quick look at George Hincapie's Twitter feed confirms that indeed he and the rest of the team - Hushovd, Gilbert, Evans et al - were in Denia thanks to the geo tags on his tweets. Then, what do I see as I scroll down.

It's only George and Cadel at a cafe in Jalon.....where my parents live out there. It's the tiniest village but beautiful and there they are two absolute legends enjoying a break in the sunshine - unbelievable.

Oh and for good measure, here's my Dad's pic of the Astana boys, check out those bikes

So all in all, not a bad few weeks and plenty to look forward to in the coming weeks and months. I'll be keeping you posted on training (and team mates @samknowles) for London to Brighton and perhaps looking for a sponsor or two no doubt.

See you soon