Wolverhampton Wheelers - my extended family

Not long ago, during a moment of brotherly love, Alex (that's my brother) proclaimed 'your social life sucks. All you do is ride that stupid bike. You never go out anywhere!' (He can be nice sometimes) And for a very fleeting moment I considered what he said to be true as in all but one respect he is correct. I don't really go out. By out Alex means clubbing or should I say getting that rat arsed he can't remember where he was last night or what he did. And secondly, I do ride my bike a lot.

But it's where I ride my bike that led me to dismiss my brother's claims: Wolverhampton Wheeler's Cycling Club.

I am fortunate enough to have been a member of this club for the last 3 years and whilst to begin with I simply  went to ride my bike, I have come the realise that I now go to surround myself with an amazing group of people who I am fortunate to call friends.

There are far too many people to name in this blog who have enriched my life. But suffice to say there is no place I'd rather be more on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Regardless of where I am at the moment or what team colours I ride in my cycling life will always be tinted black and yellow.

So after careful consideration, I do have a social life and although not as conventional as most, it's a bloomin' good one at that.

Some of the brilliant people I know at the Wheelers

Diabetes and me...

I've been busy updating the 'About Me' page and the 'Diabetes' page so go ahead and take a look.

p.s - break out tools are at the ready and i'll be making a run for freedom in the very near future. Stay tuned.

Trapped in Trexlertown - the woes of American public transport

At some point during this Blog I will get down to the nittty gritty of my cycling tales, however, for the time being I really don't want to bore you with the in's and out's of my training. Suffice to say it hurts.

So, in the mean time, I shall give you all the low down on the place that I'm staying: Trexlertown, PA.

Situated in the Pennsylvanian country side, Trexlertown consists of a velodrome (good) and a bike shop (again good) but unfortunately for the tourist in me bugger else all (bad) ! No problem I hear you say - do your training and get on a bus, take a taxi or catch a train to the plethora of places that my 'Philadelphia and the surrounding country side' guide book praises as the must do/see. Ah, well here in lies my problem. America or perhaps, to avoid the massive generalisation, Trexlertown, has absolutely no public transport. Zip, nahda, nowt.

So here I am 4000 miles across the Atlantic trapped in T-Town.

I do, however, have my escape plan...

It's Like Whatever...

Never have two simple words infuriated me so much as 'like' and 'whatever'. I am fully aware that their incorrect usage has infiltrated the language of the British youth but at least they appear grow out of them, whilst it would appear that our American counterparts have fully embraced these two, what should be, harmless words.

Today, for example, when I enquired about the outside temperature, I was greeted with the following response: 'It's like so totally warm out side' Say what? Seriously, can someone please explain the need for like in that sentence because I'm just not getting it.

'Whatever' is equally as irksome. When asking a question with two possible out comes 'whatever' is not a legitimate response.

However, it's when the two are combined, that you can be sure to see steam rise from my head and my fists clenched at my sides. Under no circumstance should anyone who disagrees with another person finish the conversation with 'It's like, whatever!'

Arrrrggghhhhh!

Rant over.

Is bigger better?

They say that America is the land of the 'super-sized'. Mega trucks, obscenely large cars and of course the morbidly obese. And I can indeed confirm to you that this is all true, yet even the little things are gargantuan in size:

Take for example my first encounter with a vending machine. After forcing the thing to eat my dollar bills (no folded edges and George Washington face up), it deposited a 700ml bottle for my consumption. 700ml!  I know that's only 200ml more than in the UK but you should see the size of the thing!

My first foray into a supermarket left me blown away. Crisps or should I say 'chips' do not come in normal 33g bags. The smallest I could find was 100g. Fruit juice can be bought in gallon cartons and you can get jerry-can sized containers of washing powder.

On my first bike ride, I was waiting at a junction when a car pulled alongside. A quick glance to my left found me face to face with said car's tyre. I had to crane my neck to make out the family of four sat in the monstrosity!

One thing, however, that was disappointingly feeble was my first and only Big Mac of the trip. After watching 'Supersize me' I had been looking forward to a whole beef carcass, a fish and chip shop serving of chips and at least two litres of Coke. However, it wasn't to be. Apparently it's now illegal to 'supersize' - makes people fat don't you know.

So to conclude this post. Bigger is definitely not always better. Give me 330ml cans, 33g of crisps and Mini's. At least that way I really do have to eat a lot to get fat and I think my chances of surviving a bike vs Mini interface are a lot greater than being hit by an American SUV. 

She's like a DD bra - providing support when I absolutely need it the most.

I know, I know - I promised everyone a blog to keep them updated and yet, two weeks into my American adventure, it still lies unused and unloved. That is until now...

But i'm not going to begin with a cheery post on what should be the wonderfulness of my first few weeks as a professional cyclist because it would just be a lie: In all honesty, I'm utterly miserable. Sleep deprivation, training and the general malaise that I have come to call home sickness have all conspired against me.

However, all that changed about ten minutes ago, as with a little help from a very supportive friend, I realised that my proverbial mountain, whilst once unconquerable, is now in fact a mole hill that, with my new found motivation, can be easily side stepped.

Donc - I can begin blogging in earnest.