Today I completed my first sprint-triathlon. The location was the picturesque rowing lake at Eton which will be used for the for the rowing at the 2012 Olympics in London. The triathlon was a short one with shorter distances called a sprint triathlon. To make it even easier the race was run in sequence so each team member had to complete each discipline before the first team member could start the next discipline.

The whole race was a 400 meter swim followed by a 15 kilometre cycle and finally a 5 kms run.

On the whole I am very happy with my times although my right calf exploded in pain about a third of the way into the run. At the time the only thing keeping me from quitting was the fact that I would have let Grant and Bill down. Five hours later it’s still quite sore so, at Cam’s suggestion, I have two ice packs strapped to it. I’m not 100% I can fully trust Cam as after imparting his medical advice he told me he is training towards an ultra-marathon in the Sahara so he is clearly mad.

Full results here

The Tames Path ride isn’t really what I expected. At several places along the Thames, apartments have been built right up to the edge of the river so you have to cycle back to a road to keep heading in the same direction. Sometimes when travelling on one of these back roads the Thames Path is signposted back towards the river and when you get there the path only goes for fifty meters or so before another apartment block forces you back on to the road you just came from. The net effect is that you end up with the feeling that you are zigzagging down the river and sometimes you end up a bit lost or on a main road.

A bit frustrating and not really what I expected from a quite cycle down the Thames.

Yesterday the intersection was surrounded by police who had a white tent set up and were filming the intersection. Rather ominously a large white lorry parked half way around the corner of Southampton Row and High Holborn. I chatted with another cyclist about what the likely reason for the white tent was. He suggested it was probably another stabbing as the UK is having an epidemic of them at the moment.

I forgot about it until today when I saw this newspaper banner outside my office in Holborn.

This is the full article form the Evening Standard. Cyclist killed in lorry collision is the second victim in a week

Respect to the people who did it with little or no preparation. Masha didn’t get her bike until the day before the ride and Karim and Alexia were “not told” that the ride would be 40 miles long and very hilly. As Alexia put it “Amongst our French friends we are considered the fit ones. But when we go out with you Kiwis …”

Tonight the usual one or two man protest was slightly larger as about a hundred people turned up to protest the deaths of a number of protesters in Tibet. Naturally there was a much larger number of police with automatic weapons. The good news is that we live in a democracy where civil rights are protected by the law and the police don’t gun people down in the street who disagree with the government.

They did have this link to bikeability who can general teach riding skills and how do avoid door ambush.

While I was riding to work around Regents Park I saw a cyclist on the other side of the side of the road passing a parked car when the driver of the parked car opened the door without looking and knock the cyclist off his bike. From where I was it looked like the rider hit the door with his thigh and not his hand/handle bars. Luckily he wasn’t riding too fast but it still looked very painful.

I also found out today that the Transport for London website suggests that cyclists should look out for car doors being opened into your path. They should also suggest that cyclist should have reflexes of a cobra and the ability to read minds of other road users who don’t think looking is important.

• Black cabs swerving to the kerb to pick up/drop off passengers
• Pedestrians stepping out into the road without looking (and most of us do it on occasion)
• Passengers hopping off or on Routemaster buses without looking
• Vehicles turning left across you – even more serious if it is a bus or truck
• Car doors being opened into your path
• Vehicle creepage at junctions
• Delivery vehicles parked in cycle lanes
• Drivers failing to indicate properly leaving everyone guessing
• Vehicles doing impromptu U-turns.

If this is the case then it is a real bummer because it is likely that more roadworks will be done in the summer when there are more cyclist on the road creating dangerous situations like the one in this photo.

This made me think of my great new idea for cycle safety. What if roadworkers were only allowed to dig up cycle lanes in the winter when they are significantly less busy? And during the summer they can dig up the regular roads. This way there would be less intrusion during the busy cycle months and therefore statistically the roads should be safer for cycles.

They (you know the they people who control everything) already do other common sense things (no seriously) like fix the tube at night when no one is using it. Why not only dig up cycle lanes in the winter when all the softer riders bikes are collecting dust?