In last month’s blog, I wrote a lot about my mileage on the bike, or rather the lack of it. March was not a good month for getting in the miles cycling and it only became clear to me how that had affected me when I wrote it down. All in all, last month’s blog was rather negative, on a downer. So hopefully this month you will feel the positive vibes…

However, the month started on a bit of a downer regarding my stoma. As I was able to increase my cycling Stuart the Stoma was getting increasingly bruised and sore. After an emergency appointment at the hospital, it was decided that it was probably down to wearing tight cycling tops and this was causing abrasions. I am glad to say that it didn’t last too long and when I ditched the baselayers, Stuart became healthy once again.

To start off with, April’s weather was so much improved. I was born in the summer and it is 100% my favourite time of the year. Winter brings the wet and windy weather and I definitely thrive in warmer times. Therefore, when April brought the sun, it also brought a smile to my face.

At 236.5 miles I more than doubled the distance on the bike in March. This brought my total for the year so far up to nearly 600 miles.

Now, with my mileage I do find events help, especially when I’m with friends. In April I managed 2 events: 1 sportive on my road bike and 1 pedal car race. The first event was the New Forest Spring Sportive, Epic route. At ‘only’ 81miles, I don’t think it lived up to the name of ‘Epic’, however I did have an epic time.

4 of us met up in Ringwood the night before to plan a strategy for the ride. It was going to be the first time all 4 of us had ridden together and the one rule we had was to stick together. Over the course of the day we would do over 90 miles as we were going to cycle to the start and then back home at the end too. Our first port of call however, was my bike. In the run up to the sportive I’ve gone on a few shorter rides, all seemed fine until a ride with Dan. We were heading out of town when a creaking noise developed. At first we thought it was his cables, but no, it was definitely coming from my bike. After pulling over a few times to check different parts, we just rode and every time I pedalled a squeal would omit from the bottom bracket.

Therefore our first task as a team was to try and fix my bike, a rather risky thing to do the night before an event, but it needed to be done. There was definitely a joke to be had. How many blokes does it take to change a bike’s bottom bracket – there were 5 of us around 1 bike. After a couple of attempts to smooth the bearings, we swapped the non-drive side crank with one from a spare bike and soon the cranks were spinning silky smooth. All was ready for the morning.

The morning brought damp and foggy conditions. It stayed like that for the first 50 or so miles, until the sun burst through and all the layers came off. Finally, we were able to cycle in our Crohn’s and Colitis UK tops as 3 of us are cycling Ride London-Surrey. It felt great to be riding together and the last part of the ride flew by.

At the end of the ride we chilled out and chatted in the sun. An ‘Epic’ day indeed.

The next challenge for the month was round 2 of the British Pedal Car Championship 2018. I travelled up to Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in Leicestershire to join Team Apollo. I slotted into their 2nd team. Each car has a team of 4 who rotate round in relay style for 6 hours. On the short track the faster cars were completing laps in less than a minute. Bruntingthorpe is based at an airfield which hosts car auctions as well as being home to various aircraft.

The last time I’d pedalled in September at Blackbushe, I had only managed 2 short stints before a 3rd very short stint before my core had given up and I had been in excruciating pain. This time my core was stronger, but the twisty circuit would put it under pressure. To combat this, I created a support pad out of a foam sleeping mat to cradle me when I sat in the car. After much tinkering and fettling it started to work and I enjoyed a cracking 2nd and 3rd stint. However my 4th stint was much shorter as my core gave up when pushing to keep 2nd place.

In the end Wing Racers were clear runaway winners as the main Apollo car (#1) suffered a huge drive failure. After a massive fight back they overtook our team to finish 2nd, whilst we fought off Royce (#4) to finish on the podium.

Looking ahead to May and with the lighter evenings, rides after work may well be a possibility once again.