Laura Kenny on a bike.

Must say I wouldn't have expected her recreational bike to be one of those.

Another warm, sunny day. I left work shamelessly early with the intention of doing about 45 miles. A light wind was blowing from the south again but I've done the southbound a few times in the last week or two so I wanted to do something a bit different.

I devised a route that would go south down the "old" southbound route through Desford, but cut across to the "new" southbound route before Enderby. It looked easy enough on the map but (of course) I cocked it up and ended up on Coventry Road, a very busy road that sprouts south-westward out of Leicester. I have been on it before but the Friday afternoon traffic made it a bit hairy. So I took an opportunistic left.



Quite a nice stretch of road after that, nice to do something new. The bit of road I did before arriving on Coventry Road was quite pleasant as well. Always good to do new roads for a change. I stopped for a sandwich and a Bounty bar at a village shop at Huncote. Hadn't been there before.

Eventually I found myself at a place called Cosby where I took the pic. Saw a sign to Broughton Astley from there. From Broughton I came back pretty much the usual way, except that I attempted to hit the Earl Shilton bypass, took a wrong turn and ended up looping back on myself.

I really must learn to make better use of the eTrex. Too idle to upload the routes, that's the trouble.

Lovely out there and I dressed appropriately this time, minimal clothing. Listened mostly to 5 Live.

About two years ago I bought a cheap Chinese wireless "bike computer" off Amazon and I got round to fitting it to the Boardman today. The idea, if I remember correctly, was that for short rides I'd be able to use my phone to record the ride directly via the Strava app. I calibrated the computer using notes I'd made last time I fitted a speedo to similar-sized wheels and seem to have got it spot on. 49.32 acording to the Garmin watch, 49.3 according to the speedo (it only does one decimal place).

https://www.strava.com/activities/11379644436

I'm in a French town, somewhere near the coast. It's either near the end of the war, or the beginning. It's about to be overrun by the Allies, or by the Germans. Everywhere is still, very quiet but there's a foreboding tension in the air.

I hear a song on the radio, by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. It's called Paedophilia Blue.

Weird one. In real life I'm fond of an artist called Puma Blue. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Stepdaughter 1 is in New Zealand where she captured this image of a Starlink train over the South Island.

Wordle 1,056 4/6*

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Another pleasantly diverting one, about six minutes.

Yep, and at the same time, the foilers have managed to discredit the whole idea of vaccination among the more intellectually disabled part of the population, so much so that people are refusing measles vaccines for their kids, for example.

Ah well - that's how natural selection works, I guess.

Wordle 1,055 4/6*

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Quite an interesting diversion. About seven minutes. I had three greens in effect from the third word, by elimination.

Wordle 1,054 3/6*

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Two mins this morning and another minute this evening.

Heard a brilliant contribution to 5 Live Drive this evening about this by a professor of immunology. The AZ vaccine is estimated to have saved 6.5 million lives in its first 12 months alone, and the Oxford University team did an amazing job ensuring it was safe and ready for use in ten months.

Stand down, hero. Job done.

With a beautiful day forecast and plenty of rain on the way later in the month, I decided I'd take the afternoon off work and do a longish ride.

I set off at about 1110. My vague plan was to go down to Welford and possibly a bit further south, but by the time I got to Stoney Stanton I decided I'd go down Fosse Way instead. So I did. I kept on keepin' on right down to Princethorpe, which is further than I usually go down that way. Then I bought a sandwich and a Magnum ice cream at a petrol station there, and turned back.

I intended to come back the same way but I took a wrong turn at High Cross somehow. But I found my way to Broughton Astley, which is on my usual Welford route, and came back (mostly) the usual way from there.

I trialled a detour that goes round the hill at Earl Shilton while avoiding the little cycle path that goes down from Thurlaston Lane. It involves a couple of miles of fast road, but it was quiet.



Listened to LBC, Talk Radio and 5 Live. Plenty of people talking nonsense from both sides of the political divide, bloody irritating. I also listened to Jerry Paper's Like a Baby.

I had a shocking case of hot foot on the Earl Shilton bypass, in both feet. A couple of miles from Kirkby Mallory, I stopped to sit in the shade of a tree. I took off my shoes and socks and cooled my feet in the grass. I gave them a bit of a massage before putting the shoes and socks back on and they were fine after that.

Back on 76.52 miles and I should have done more really. But I'd cooked myself slightly by overdressing (I'm always too cautious at this time of year). Also, I'm on call for the penultimate time. Furthermore, Fosse Way is a bit hilly and I couldn't think of anywhere particularly interesting to go after Princethorpe. But at least I've topped up my tanlines.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11362889865

That's 2039 done this year now. 190 done this month, and hopefully I can get another 250 or so in before July.

Wordle 1,053 3/6*

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Probably lucky to get it on the third go. Five mins.

This was my favourite part of the Tommy film, because I was a big Clapton fan as a teenager. Only the 1970s could have given birth to a film like this, and only Ken Russell could have directed it.

4. Tommy [May 1969]

I have long held this album to be a masterpiece, but I do have ambivalent feelings about it. First of all - to call it a classic would be an understatement; it's a landmark in the history of popular music. I don't think Townshend's achievement here can be overstated. He came up with a idea of huge scope and ambition, conceptually and musically, and it works. It's worth noting here that Entwistle contributes a couple of songs as well. One of the tunes is a Sonny Boy Williamson cover (The Hawker) that conveniently fits the theme perfectly. But this is Pete's brainchild.

The quasi-orchestral format, with recurring musical motifs and themes, the way it's paced, the light and shade, the tension and release - it all works really well. It's all played, arranged and produced really nicely. Townshend makes a lot of use of his own voice, which I like. He plays some fantastic acoustic guitar on this record as well.

But - I think it's overlong, and that's probably why I've only ever played it four or five times. I really appreciate it for what it is, and its place in 20th century popular culture. But it sags a bit here and there, especially during Underture and I think that's why I've only rarely had the necessary attention span for it. Also - I have to say, taken as a rock album, it doesn't have that many really powerful, memorable songs. Yes, Pinball Wizard is brilliant and timeless, so is I'm Free . The "See Me, Feel Me / Listening to You" part of We're Not Gonna Take It is positively anthemic as well but really, while the rest of it works in context, we're a bit low on powerful rock bangers.

Even so, if this album had never existed, I'm pretty sure 2112 wouldn't have either. I can hear future echoes of Rush in a lot of the material here. Before and After from the first album definitely borrows from Go to the Mirror! and I can hear Red Barchetta in one of the tunes as well.

I hadn't planned to go cycling today because the forecast for the afternoon was for rain. But when I checked again at lunchtime, the threat of precipitation had been withdrawn.

Ironically, my first thought was disappointment. Because despite all my complaining about rainy weather this last few months, I'd planned to spend an idle bank holiday indoors. But clearly, having bemoaned the absence of suitable cycling conditions so many times, the only decent thing to do was to go out and ride a bike.



I thought I'd do at least 40 miles. A light wind was coming from the east. I did the eastbound route as far as Narrow Lane, then I came back a different way through Wymeswold and Rempstone, then Diseworth. I took a bit of a detour into East Leake as well, hoping to navigate from there to Sutton Bonington, but I missed a turn and was back on the usual road back from Rempstone within a couple of miles.

I listened to LBC. Then a Donny Hathaway compilation. Then The Who's Tommy.

It was actually warm and sunny out there. I forgot to bring a bidon out of the house with me, but I bought a bottle of Lucozade at the petrol station at Burton on the Wolds.

Back on 44.10, glad to have got the May tally up to 113 already.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11346594858

The contact lens I put in my right eye on Saturday, and which subsequently hid itself behind my eyelid has just plopped out.