Lily white legs

The first signs of Spring? The Snow Drops are in bloom and my lily white legs on display.

Temperatures have been hovering around the 4 degrees during the week but it began to warm up this weekend and I made the decision to go for a 'short' pedal today wearing bib shorts. I didn't regret choosing to bare the knees but I noticed that I was the only shorts-wearing cyclist out today.  Is this the start of Spring and can the bib tights be pushed to the back of the drawer?

I refrained from going on a long distance cycle ride to focus on next weekend's race. My knees and hips are aching a little; a gentle reminder that I have been pushing myself hard and that I ought to ease up a bit ahead of the race (tapering?).  Despite taking it easy I still surprised myself by completing the hilly 50km in a good average speed and getting close to the leaders on a lot of Strava segments.

I put the good speed down to riding my Wilier Izoard. I finished servicing it on Saturday and used today's pedal to check for niggles.  Everything appears fine, so no mechanical excuses next weekend.

The Wilier is now firmly my race bike.  I say this because I bought and fitted a new KMC X10-SL chain with only 105 links.  I bought it online and didn't appreciate that it was two links shorter than I really needed, so I'm restricted to using an 11-23 cassette (or an 11-25 providing I don't run the 53 big ring to the 25 sprocket).  It is a bit lighter though!