pu***u*es

don't say the word... don't say it! the bane of the cyclist... speaking the name is inviting doom upon yourself. or so we think anyways.

but it happened... and verily it did suck as it happened at the worst time.
picture the scene... a sunny sunday afternoon... the tour of the mournes.... the race started fast and it started well for me... I was feeling good... didn't take long for me to settle in, for a change, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and cats scurried out of the way of the fast approaching peleton as we rolled out of newry and towards warrenpoint.... the pace was fast.... we had a police escort and it was going well.

We rolled on round the coast in the nice sunshine at a nice high speed, going through rostrevor etc... all good. A few guys tried to break, including myself, but it wasn't happening, the bunch were too quick....

All going well. Then we hit the descent from Kilkeel in towards newcastle... I'm about 4 off the front and riding well and feeling strong... about 35 miles in at this point.
Bang. No.... thats not me... is it?
Hand up... try to control a wildy juddering bike as the rear wheel bounces on a rough surface... stop stop stop.... noooooooo. Blowout.

On of the mechanics got me a wheel quick... and then told me to draft a motorbike dude... but the motorbike dude rode away... leaving me on my todd, with a 7speed shimano wheel running on 10 speed campag. argh.

Anyways... I tired to get back onto the bunch... but not a hope in hell... they were moving too quick.... I followed the course on round, did the climb at bryansford... passed a few guys who got dropped... and then just went straight back to newry cutting out the last climb at rathriland... got there about 5 mins before the main group... so seen the finish too.

Basically terribly disappointed as I was feeling good, the legs felt good and I reckon I could have had a chance! :-) Although its easy to say that when I didn't finish....

Anyhoo... got home... got a beer.... tried to fix the problem and it turned into the nightmare.... pulled the tyre off and there was a hole aboud 2-3mm wide in the tube.... seemed to be on where it was contacting the rim too... checked the tyre for anything embedded but didn't seem to be anything.... put a new tube in, inflated... bang. popped again... this time it was on the tyre side... checked again.. nothing there... but what i did notice this time was a bit of the bead has detached itself a touch from the sidewall.

tyre in the bin, two tubes down.... doh.

I consoled myself with a beer and steak and chips, cooked superbly by Cathy.