Matyevka – Past Pugachev 123km

The BIG 10

25.07.2012

Today was a day I'd been looking forward to for a while now. Coming from England we are obviously brought up using miles as a way of measuring distance but my mindset has changed somewhat since living in China and I now more often than not think in terms of kilometers. From a cycling point of view it's a simple numbers thing, 123 kilometers sounds better than 76 miles.

It was today that I passed the magical figure of 10,000 kilometers. When I did so I remembered back to the day in China when I passed my first 1,000 and thought at the time 'that was easy enough, just another nine more of those'

Keep going, just one more.....

Get in!

In many respects I'm now almost unable to comprehend distance. When I set out from Xiamen on that rainy March morning and after my experience of numerous punctures on the very first day I think if you'd have asked me at the end of that day I'd have been happy just to have made 100 kilometers let alone 10,000.

When I passed the 'big ten' I had thought about how to celebrate this moment, I always mean to prepare some small 'treat' to pull out at this time but always forget to do so. It was simply a case of pulling over to the side of the road, taking a quick snap of the cycle computer, giving myself a quick pat on the back and of course giving thanks for having safely got this far.

My small milestone came near the end of the day, it was a day of little else to report to be honest. When I write I often feel the need to give updates on the state of the roads in much the same way as a weather forecaster. I suppose you could say this is my 'road reporter' segment.

The road, bike and I are intrinsically linked and therefore it's only natural I suppose for me to offer up my opinion. I'm sorry to say that the surface took a turn for the worse today, plenty of cracks and bumps to contend with and very little room to manoeuvre thrown in for good measure.

Campsite for the night.