20160512 1/2 Ironman, Punctures, Exploring

The diary said a few restful days, nothing major – uneventful days maybe?

It started with watching the front runners of the Ironman 70.3 Mallorca go past. Now it didn’t look like much fun to me as they went past, dark, cold, raining and with the descent of Coll de sa Batalla in the wet ahead of them – careful! Not conducive to fast time splits!  It was great to see local GBR entrant, Nick Kinsey was 2nd in his age group with a time of 5:01:45 – well done Nick!

Once the roads were  re-opend, I was off to Palma to meet up with special friends and also one of my business mentors Rod and Jackie Bowden.  Really great to catch up with them and it reminded me how important it is to always make time for the special people in your lives, business and personal! After catching up and discussing future strategies and plans, it was time to say goodbyes until next time.

The quick journey back became extended with the rental car suffering a sidewall blow out, so I became familiarised with the ‘thankfully fully intact’ toolkit and fitted the spare wheel with the emergency size tyre.  Umm, white car, cream interior and no hand wipes in the toolkit… This then later led to close inspection of the wheel and tyre and to sum it up – the tyre should have been replaced before the rental had started!  The previous drivers had curbed it, scrubbed it and the sidewall was not in pristine condition to put it mildly! A few photos for evidence, the rental car was returned to “RecordGo” and they quickly supplied me with a replacement. Great service and nothing like you expect rental companies to be based on general feedbacks and horror stories.  So far, I have to say “Record” have always been excellent, with generally great cars and first class service.

Sundays bike ride was to be a gentle affair as I had picked up a chill/cold and was coughing rather a lot and of course my friends told me that it would be a nice easy ride.  Hammering back along the road by Sa Pobla, I’m sure my Garmin indicating 38.2 km/h would tend to suggest it wasn’t that easy!  

All smiles afterwards and a good excuse for me to have 3 cakes for refuelling that day!

The next few rides were spent exploring new and old lanes not ridden down for a while and I found some great ones to use in the future, some perfect for anyone who misbehaves. Dead end at the top of a steep hill anyone?