The pink Pinarello

"First time I've ever seen a pink Pinarello"

This is my beautiful new bike. In a week and a half, my Pinarello and I will head off on an adventure - going from Lands End to John O Groats in 12 days.  It's about 90 miles a day, with lots of up and down, and the furthest I've ever ridden in my life is just over 100 miles in a day. That was one day. I'm going to be riding almost that far - sometimes further - every single day for nearly a fortnight. Interesting way of spending a holiday, you might say.
You may also be asking why I'm describing a bike that is almost all sleek matt black as a pink Pinarello. You have a point. But a few days ago, we were near the end of a long and very hilly ride in North Yorkshire and County Durham (is there any other type of ride in that part of the world?) when we were overtaken by a bunch of Darlington guys. Knowing that Matt always considers being overtaken as a challenge to be risen too, I decided to follow his lead, put my foot down and jumped on their wheel in true roadie style (i.e. - for non roadies reading this - stuck very close behind them in the hope of benefitting from their tailwind.) That prompted this comment from the leading Darlington roadie: "First time I've ever seen a pink Pinarello" (You have to imagine the NE accent). I almost NEVER get compliments about my bike, because until now I haven't ridden one worthy of comment. I felt like a proper roadie.
This is my first post in what I hope will be a regular blog about our end to end adventure.