Another final straw arrives!

Back at HQ things are generally starting to come off the rails. The riders are trying to train as much as possible and to do day jobs too, meanwhile Michelle is up to her neck in "The Gardens of Eaton". The gardens on display will be absolutely lovely in 2 weeks time but it probably wasn't ideal for her to arrange the Christ Church open gardens event, for the same period in which the riders are about to start the biggest challenge either will ever have faced, but that's the way it is.

The garden at HQ is looking very lush and will be one of those on the trail but with only a few weekends left to trim the hedges, power hose the patio and cut the grass the under gardener (Nick) is running into difficulty finding time to ride and do other essentials. Then the next final straw arrived!  Michelle's PC with all the Open Gardens files on it finally expired. It was rather old and had been making a bit of a racket for a while, however, after quite a lot of huffing and puffing and a heck of a lot of swearing the under gardener has re-established internet access and printing capabilities for the gardens project.

Matt has not been having it easy either although his knee does appear to be settling down. It is not swollen, it hurts less than it did and he has managed to keep riding but with low loads at high frequency. Unfortunately, he has not been able to match the distances that Nick has been doing (averaging 200 miles a weekend) but he has been trying to build and maintain his cardiovascular fitness. He has changed the cleats on his shoes to give his feet more room for rotation and he thinks this has been helpful.
 Knee problems seem to be a real issue for the TdF riders. When Nick did the Tour of Wessex a few of the other riders met up to ride together and the only other East Anglian - Phil said he had developed a knee problem straight after having a bike fit which is a bit of a co-incidence but it was a different bike fitter. It could be that any change in riding geometry needs to be evaluated gently before putting a lot of power down. On Facebook another TdF rider has reported he too has developed patella tendonitis and has been asking other riders for tips so quite an informative discussion has been developing. On the LEJoG trip Nick had problems with his right knee and on day 4 he thought he might need to stop riding completely. He managed to continue with regular dosing of alternate ibuprofen and paracetamol which were quite good but he strongly recommends Voltarol gel which Matt has been using too. Both riders will definitely have this in their medicine chests in a few weeks time.