“Cosa” in Italian means “girl” and their are lots of songs about girls in Italian. Unfortunately, this sounds the same as the Polish “kosa” which means “goat”.

I finally got my shit together and joined a Willesden Cycling Club bunch ride, establishing myself (as I did at Blackburn) as someone with a foul mouth and habit of under-dressing for the weather. It’s okay, they didn’t get a load of potty mouth, I just thought I’d warn them in advance. 🙂

The ride to Stoke Mandeville left from Denham. On the way from Ealing to Denham the thought of packing it in crossed my mind quite a lot – it was well windy!!

The first person I introduced myself to.. turns out to be a first timer as well! It gets better though when she asks where I’m from.. “Melbourne” I say. “Me too” she says! Fark.. small worl.. etc. What sucks so much about Melbourne that makes us all leave?!? 🙂

I think her name was Linda – but I’d forget my own name if it wasn’t tattooed to my arm, so I could be wrong. She was a semi-pro tennis player who’s been here for 11 years and now coaches the racquet sport but prefers cycling to knocking balls back and forth. Good choice says I. She’s fit (grr.. jealous) and I’m sure she’ll be winning stuff very soon. Brian was the club chairman and a pretty good ad for the club in his own right. He was very friendly and welcoming. This bunch also has a ‘no drop’ policy unlike the faster Quest (shop team) bunch which makes it nicer for slackers like me who aren’t even sure they can climb out of bed these days let alone climb hills.

I think the bunch was 11 strong and we rode a fairly easy 60k to the Stoke Mandeville Goat Centre where we finally find our link to the introductory statement! The Aussies had coffee and a banana or oatmeal slice while the locals had tea and beans on toast (“aww bless”). I can’t say much about the ride because I have no idea where we went and I was concentrating, it being the first “bunch” I’ve done for 2 years. I know it involved the Chilterns and Ed from One More Cup of Coffee has mentioned this ride before. I recall chatting to Sas(?), another IT dude who also plays some football.

Leaving the cafe was interesting – I was only wearing summer kit and a CCW windvest, the wind was howling and 5min later it was snowing. Snow I tells ya! (Tough Aussie was mentioned but I know they’re thinking Stupid Aussie ;)). 5min later it was blue skies again and I’d warmed up so no stress! 🙂 The return journey was done with the pace up a notch. I approved of this. The expected tail-wind didn’t really eventuate until after I’d left the final rider, Mike, at Uxbridge and powered home to Ealing. I was feeling pretty happy with myself.

Thanks to the others on the ride – ’twas fun!

In other white powder news, I’ve started messing around with the local energy drinks. I prefer the taste of the cheaper Boots own-brand powder to the Lucozade stuff but I’ve not looked closely at what they each contain. Given the snow collected on my jumper after dumping the recycling tonight, hydration isn’t going to be a primary concern for a while yet..

Out:

Duration: 2h 46s

Distance: 60k

HR: 133/169 (avg/max)

Speed 23/54 (avg/max)

Ascent: 480m

Back:

Duration: 2h 05s

Distance: 56k

HR: 140/180 (avg/max)

Speed 29/56 (avg/max)

Ascent: 315m