Day 7 Recovery day

Wow Day 7 already doesn't it fly by?

Brilliant sunny day today, light winds and a 90 minute recovery ride to do.

But first of all I had to go and pick up my new "Lightweight' wheels, choice of the Pro Tour peleton, allegedly. They are wickedly expensive but I managed to get a 400 Euro discount and a pair of Conti's glued on for me. 16 spoke front, 20 spoke rear, stiff as anything and weigh 1030 grams (I think), it is my intention to save them for the championship but I still have to reconnoitre that course and in the meantime if I come across a course like I raced yesterday I may just 'try' them out, can't wait.

Mind you after that the day was a bit downhill, 20 minutes into my ride happily spinning along then bang! bang! two punctures! Now I've always carried two spares, sometimes more in the 'wilds' of Gippsland, so I new could at least get back to the hotel. I wasn't game to try my hand at completing the ride without any further reserves. Now I need 60mm valve stems on the wheels that I am using so I headed to the nearest bike shop to replenish my stock and then finish my planned ride, well that was plan A. However shops shut here at lunch time for at least an hour, sometimes two, so back to the hotel for me, make myself a drink and chill for a bit.

Two o'clock arrives and I have choices as to where to go, bike shops catering for 'racers' are quite plentiful and I could think of four within the riding range that I wanted to do. One is the mega shop in Aalst but that is a ride that's all built up without and parking, bike or car is always difficult but I was sure that they would have them; or I could head in the other direction, nicer riding and take my chances at smaller shops.

I opted for the other direction checking in the bike shops as I went. I should have gone to Aalst! Absolutely no 60mm valve inner tubes, I managed to get one 80mm in two of the shops so that at least I could cope with a puncture. I have never seen an 80mm valve stem before, its so long it looks a bit fragile but I only need them in an emergency and I guess I still need to go into Aalst.

In the process I think I've gone off Michelin Pro 3's, that's 3 punctures I've had now, plus a spate before I left home. I had absolutely no punctures when I was here last year but I was riding Conti's, perhaps I should have stuck with them?

I'm going to race tomorrow with OWVF (I think), I believe they are new into the ICF and apparently the largest of the Belgian Vets organisations. So I've never raced with them before, can't imagine there will be a problem and I hope there won't.

The race is a relatively long way for Belgium it's over by Oostende on the North Sea coast but it will be an extremely easy drive since 90% is on the freeway and even I can't get lost on the freeway. Famous last words! I hope that Satnav disk I need turns up soon, it might have been easier to buy a new one with European maps loaded.

The road I have to take tomorrow should bring back memories of when we had the team and the late night dashes to get to ferries after racing forays into Belgium or more commonly Holland. Those drives were always frantic affairs to try and get the last ferry or whatever to avoid a long wait at a deserted ferry terminal. Happy days bombing along in the team van we had or the Mercedes estate team car festooned with bikes and wheels or on occasions both of them in convoy. Happy (if very tiring) days.