Today is the last day of the half-term holiday… Back to work tomorrow. But skipping over five days back at the interactive whiteboard, next weekend looks interesting. If you remember a few weeks back, I had Kate Clabby staying here in Reading after she contacted me via Warmshowers.org. You can catch up on her travels on her website which is a little bit behind where she actually is; she should now be in Ireland working on the organic farm she was aiming for. Since Kate’s overnight stop, I’ve been contacted by a couple of other touring cyclists who are passing through Reading. On Saturday, a guy called Matt Krog from South Africa is in town. Just like Kate, he is en route to Oxford and then Wales & Ireland before moving down to France to cycle the Eurovelo 6 from Nantes to Budapest. I may ask him if he is interested in being a guest blogger for CyclingEurope.org. With my Olympic endeavours this summer, my back side will spend much of its time in the comfort of a BMW rather than on a bicycle saddle so it would be good to follow a trans-European adventure, especially one which follows one of the Eurovelos. I don’t know much about Matt apart from what he has posted on his own website, Matt’s Big Cycle Tour. He is not an experienced cyclist – only three days in Mauritius – but he has posted the video below on his website which is simply stunning. It does make me wonder why he isn’t staying put in South Africa to do his first long cycle rather than brave a potentially cold, wet summer that he could experience in Europe. I suppose he’ll get the chance to explain himself next Saturday…

I’ll be kicking Matt out of the flat very early on Sunday (I have warned him) as I need to attend my final Olympic training session in Grosvenor Square (the place where I will be based for the during of the games) which starts at 8am. It’s a long day – up to ten hours – and when I get back to Reading, I’ll be welcoming the second of the visiting touring cyclists. This time it will be a couple from Norway although he is British; Ross & Pirkko are their names and they are travelling from Bath (via Hungerford) before heading north to Oxford and that great cycling destination of err… Birmingham. The most intriguing thing about this Scandinavian couple is the variety of names they go by. So far, I’ve been scratching my head over ‘Torridon Ferret’ (Ross’ Warmshowers profile name), ‘Kivikettu’ & ‘Hamish McTibble’. Are those their bikes? Whatever else, it should keep us chatting.