Wednesday 4 July 2012

Stage 7 ticked off (for now)

A (very small) number of you must be wondering what is happening with my Circuit Ride given the absence of news on this blog over the last few months.

First of all, let me apologise for the dearth of new posts here recently. Since the start of this year I have been extraordinarily busy in the non-cycling, non-blogging department of my life. I simply have not had the time to blog or bike as much as I would like.

But that does not mean I have given up on my attempt to circumcycle the Czech Republic. On the contrary, I had pencilled in the final (5-day) stage for this weekend, as tomorrow and Friday are both national holidays here in the Czech Republic (Saints Cyril and Methodius Day and Jan Hus Day respectively). In fact, if all had gone according to plan, I would now be on a train bound for Břeclav.

But my big plans have been thwarted by a tiny tick. A couple of weeks ago I went for a routine freckle check. The dermatologist spotted a circular rash on my back, immediately diagnosed me with Lyme disease and put me on a three-week course of antibiotics. When I mentioned I’d been planning to do a spot of cycling (actually 250 miles over some pretty mountainous terrain), she told me to forget it and take lots of rest.

To be honest I feel a bit of a fraud, as I’m not suffering from any discernible symptoms at all. But for the time being the closest I can get to cycling is watching the Tour de France on television.

As it turns out, the steamy, stormy weather currently sweeping across the country might have forced me to reconsider anyway, as might the twinging pain that I’ve been experiencing in my right hip recently.

All in all I’m feeling pretty ticked off.

4 comments:

Karen said...

You're down to the very last leg? How exciting is that. What an accomplishment this will be when you finish. Get well soon!

Circuit Rider CZ said...

Thanks, Karen.

sasuri said...

Hey Simon, I've been exploring your blog because we're looking for a cycling holiday destination in Europe. Thanx for all the info you put online on cycling in CZ! I've got one small question, though. Is it possible to cycle the czech boarder on a touring bike or are there legs where you need a mountain bike?
Hope you feel better and don't have any LYme disease symptoms anymore.
Cheers, Sandrina (from Switzerland)

Circuit Rider CZ said...

Hi Sandrina,
Thanks for your question and your kind wishes.
I've been using a mountain bike for all stages of my trip except the first one, as it gives me more flexibility to explore the off-road trails running closest to the border. However, there are plenty of on-road alternatives, so you can explore all the Czech border areas on a touring bike. If you have any more questions, feel free to contact me by e-mail via my profile (top left).

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