PGT Day 3 - Say Cheese!

Overnight Finn's cold had passed off but his cough had become considerably worse, turning him into a phlegm producer at industrial levels. An ultra rare day off school to enable loads of rest and recuperation was prescribed by Mom and Dad, but sadly so too was an enforced rest day from The People's Grand Tour. And so it was that I rode into work, came home, got sent off to pick up today's Lego character, made lunch, did some work then made tea for the children before finally heading off to Himley Park for the Fred's Racing Team First Annual Photo Shoot, a long planned event that, as luck would have it, coincided with what felt like the first day of Summer 2012 (or maybe the first lovely day of late Spring) in the West Midlands. The last time I'd been out on the bike without knee or leg warmers was last summer except for one balmy March day during the first People's Grand Tour of 2012 when the temperature freakishly rocketed into the high teens.

This is the first full season that Fred's Racing Team has officially existed, and it's main raison d'etre is to be an apolitical club for all types of cyclists and triathletes. It's a real mixed bag of skills and disciplines but there's an amazing commonality of personality running through the members, and also a refreshing lack of ego or demarcation related to each individual's skills. So we have international level triathletes mingling with ironmen (and women) and potential elite level cyclists mixing it with sportive riders and commuters. We also have a couple of pro cycling gold medallists associated with the club, namely Andy Tennant who snagged gold at this year's Worlds (as well as at junior level in the pursuit in 2005) and also the legend we call El Presidente, Mr Hugh Porter, BBC commentator and raconteur extraordinaire. On the right of the picture above is James Ratcliffe mixing it up in the Lincoln Grand Prix a couple of weeks ago (photo taken by the living, breathing encyclopedia of cycling in Britain, Aussie Larry ) 

Sadly neither of them were available for the photo shoot tonight, and the fact that it was an early evening start in the working week meant that others were absent too. Nevertheless it was a bit of fun, full of the sort of banter that always kicks off when groups of blokes get together - we have lady members who would hold their own in ANY group of men but sadly they all fell victim to unavailableitis. Look forward to seeing the results when our Andy has had chance to process them (they almost certainly need a HUUUUGE amount of Photoshop work).

So that's day 2 of PGT 2. All being well my sidekick will be back on the road again tomorrow, I certainly hope so.

My data on Strava
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