Losses, repairs and bodily impairments

A pain in the Proverbial:

I'm thankful that nothing too traumatic has befallen me so far and I hope I'm not tempting fate by saying so!

I've made it beyond Madrid so if the journeys ends tomorrow it will still have been worthwhile.  It's not without it's challenges but that's just what I needed and I'm enjoying ride.

Minor niggles are always to be expected:

Repairs:  My brand new Topeak extra large water bottle cage (accommodates a standard Euro 1.5l bottle) broke on day 1.  This was anticipated as the design is suspect so I'd put a 'fix' on standby before I came away (smart arse that I am) so that was no problem.

My lavishly expensive sunglasses bought from Lidl a few days before I departed broke on day 2 but are still usable.

More worryingly I had a broken spoke on the back wheel after a fairly tame off road section on about day five. Fortunately it was on the 'non gear' side of the hub so I was able to replace the spoke without removing the cassette.  I do have a cassette removal tool but not a big spanner to turn it so if a spoke goes on that side it's a bigger problem.  2 days later a 2nd spoke broke, again on the 'non gear' side!

This was a concern so I had a rethink on my packing and shifted some weight from the rear to the front panniers, this makes the steering even more twitchy but I had to reduce the weight on the back wheel.

Amazingly in the small town of Cantalejo I found a big bike shop where I bought 6 more spokes.  I'd brought 4 spares, used 2 so I now have 8 spares.  I haven't had any break 'touch wood' since I shifted the weight around.

'The Tank' after the first spoke repair, fully functional once again (as a washing line and water dispenser).

One problem is pumping the tyre up to a decent pressure after the spoke repairs, The tiny pump I carry takes forever but after a sufficient amount of sweat has been sacrificed it gets there or thereabouts.

Losses:  I left my fancy new washing line behind early on so have resorted to the faithful old spare guy line method.  The day after my warm clothing went home in the camper van (yes, just before the weather turned)  I lost one of my remaining gloves so I'm now down to 1 fingerless glove.  Thankfully it seems the bad weather is over, for now.

Body:  Despite my general decrepitude I seem to able to keep going.  My back is no better or worse, the Facet joint injections I had before I left the UK have had no effect.  

My first issue was sore toes on my right foot, I think my feet swell up in the heat and after a few hours my cycling shoes are crushing my toes.  I almost took a knife to the leather of my right shoe but tried something else which seems to work.  every night I soak my shoe in water and refresh it in the mornings before I start cycling, this allows just enough stretch to ease things.  It does mean I start every day with a wet right foot but it's worth it.

Both of my knees twinge daily, the left one, which still requires further surgery on the cartilege is worse and feels very flakey towards the end of the harder days.  It recovers overnight so it's hopefully just a case of not overdoing it.

I gashed my right calf on the chain ring when I changed down to the granny ring on a steep alley in Toledo, the chain jammed and I almost fell in a heap unable to unclip from the pedals but just about unclipped but not without landing on the chain ring.  Blood and oil everywhere, messy, I had to stop and cleam myself up as I was putting the tourists off their lunchtime tapas.

Other than a bit of sunburn, a few Mozzie bites from the Atlantic coast nothing much else is awry, apart of course from the big one!

I've had a troublesome issue for around 10 days now.  An issue in a place where no cyclist wants to have an issue.  I'll not elaborate further but it really is a pain in the arse.  Daily appliacations of chammy cream and nightly apllications of Savlon are keeping an unhappy medium but if I make the wrong move on the saddle the air turns blue.

Despite numerous requests to local barmaids for a soothing massage, incomprehensibly, none has been forthcoming!  So far?