Have I Offended the Cycling Gods?

I have been off the bike for about 9 days, a combination of holiday travelling and awful weather. However, whilst away I was very busy playing with my  four grandchildren who range from nearly 2 up to 4 and a bit. This crowd seems to have immense stores of energy which is never exhausted when there is someone to play with them.

 Naturally I assumed that all this playing would not only make up for my lack of cycling, but further, the calories used up in playing would more than compensate for the vast amount of mincepies I have consumed.

I was wrong.

Very wrong.

Weight has hit a peak for the year, and with Ride London100 on the horizon something must be done.

So today I ignored my wife's warnings about the weather, ( does she think I am a wimp?? ) and set off for a short tour of the Derbyshire lanes.  I thought at first  perhaps the brakes must be in need of adjustment my speed was so slow, but the bending trees, the cavorting rubbish, inside out umbrellas made me realize that this trip and cycling into a gale force headwind would be no picnic.  The rest of our OAP peleton had wisely stayed at home so this would be a solo Monday Meander. And then the rains began. Noah must have felt like this when he decided to build an ark. My plan was to explore the newly constructed cycle path at Marston on Dove, but today Marston under Dove would have been a better title. Fortunately the flood water was not deep enough to submerge my bottom bracket but the distance was long enough that I had to do a fair amount of pedalling and I was glad of the overshoes.
With the hills and rivers now behind me I was hoping for a smooth run home and perhaps a bit of tail wind but it was not to be. A few miles further on whilst sympathising with the water sodden sheep now visible since the farmer cut his hedges I got a puncture in my new ( and very inflexible ) rear tyre. .Removing the inner tube was quite straightforward even with cold, soaking wet hands but removing the long thorn took a further 20 minutes despite my imprecations for help from the Almighty. New tube in, back wheel re-installed, all that remained was to just pump it up..which was when my get me home pump broke..into lots of bits which flew off into the thick undergrowth.

And so I had to call for the Broom Wagon

Told you you shouldn't go out in this weather. You are mad.