Nightmare

I've been out for a couple of rides this week, but have been limited by the atrocious weather.

I had a bit of a nightmare with my route. About a week ago I started writing up the directions for each stage, so that I don't keep having to stop to get the book or map out. It soon became apparent that the book is very out of date (written in 2003 and updated in 2006). There has been a massive road building programme in Spain over the last few years, and I found that the road used in the book to get out of Madrid has now been turned into a motorway. There are also other places which were not suitable for cyclists, so I've therefore spent loads of time over the past week poring over paper maps, and Google maps/satellite/streetview, putting together a revised route, and I'm now a lot happier with it. I've also googled all of the bike shops en-route in case I get any mechanical problems which I can't fix myself.

My bike has been making an intermittent clicking noise ever since I had it serviced earlier in the year which has been steadily getting worse, driving me nuts. It sounded like the noise was coming from the front mech, but adjusting this didn't work. I'd already taken it back to the shop once and they adjusted it, which seemed to fix it for a while, but I took it back again yesterday and they had a proper look at it, and found that the clicking noise was actually coming from the seat clamp, and was resonating through the frame. They've sorted this so that's hopefully put an end to the clicking noise.

I'm hoping to get out for a ride today, but it's very grey outside so I'll wait to see if it blows over. The forecast is for rain all day today, but good from tomorrow through to Monday, so I'm aiming to get plenty of miles in before I go back to work on Tuesday.