Kat A

@phdcycles.bsky.social

233 Followers 252 Following

All kinds of cycling, climbing, mountains, cats and skiing. Learning French, working in active travel.

A view of the summit tower on Mont Ventoux, with the Tour de France Femmes barriers lining the road. It looks quiet. It’s hot - there are people in the shade behinds those barriers!
Information board for the VoieVerte. It’s in French, so I’m not going to try and translate it. The cycling and walking route runs from Chamonix to Geneva and is almost entirely traffic free
A very large ginger cat (Jack cat) sprawls on a wooden bench. He’s looking at the photographer with a faint air of one that has been disturbed from lounging.
A Paris Roubaix sportive commemorative cobble stone. The date coincides with the date of the first women’s edition. My plan was to get an official souvenir to commemorate the milestone of the professional women finally being able to do what the sportive had allowed any old woman to do for years. Reader, if you know ASO, it will not surprise you that there were no such souvenirs available. The first edition was won by Lizzie Deignan. The base of the sportive cobble now bears her signature. I treasure and am depressed by this most wonderful thing in equal measure! Recognise women’s sports!!
A large queue for buses that aren’t there.
A dish of South Tyrolean favourites all in one place. A big curly sausage (not a euphemism) sits atop cabbage salad goulash and roast potatoes, with a bread dumpling nestled in the centre. Delicious!
The book “Life after Cars” lying on a multicoloured rug.
Screenshot of the UCI Instagram interactive prompt for today’s races Question: what would you like to see? Answer: some women’s youth races Context - today’s World Cup in Namur has three categories and men’s youth racing and none for the women…
Jack the ginger cat lies on the bed, his head and right legs draped casually over the bump that is my leg. He is at peace with the world. We’ll make sure his social media use is limited to keep it that way :-)
A photo of the départ area of the Tour de l’Avenir, with the start arch and some official vehicles visible.
Jack the ginger cat sits on a timber fence looking like king of his surroundings. In the background, the late summer sun is low in the sky behind stone terraced houses.
A ginger Jack-cat sleeps at the foot of a shady tree on a hot day.
Four purple alliums in the foreground with a bench and a bird feeder behind them.
A downward view of a wooden slatted bench, with my hand and coffee mug in view above the slats, and a flooped ginger cat underneath the bench.
Extract of a map showing NCN 72 and NCN 10 north of Hexham
Jack cat sat on my lap watching the women’s cyclocross world championship race
Screenshot of cancellation notice for discovery plus.
Screenshot of the Bluesky Velogames league table with my team in third position with 521 points. The leading team has 653 points, with second place on 572.
Extract from an article about the closure of discovery plus. “TNT sports plans to provide race highlights packages and other content free through social media such as YouTube TikTok and Instagram.”
Jack the ginger tom lying on his side in a pathetic pose, with a facial expression that says “I’m wasting away human”.
A ranking of many of the World Tour cycling jerseys - men’s and women’s. Bright busy colours at the top, white backed nonsense at the bottom.
Cockpit of my turbo set up with a random bit of wood clamped by two clamps to raise the handlebar height a good 20cms.
A snowy garden with partially filled snowy footsteps.
The weir at the River Wharfe in Otley.
The river Wharfe in spate. Fast flowing brown water runs over what is usually a gentle weir. The river has engulfed the riverside path.
Zach the ginger Tom cat snuggled on a lap upside down having belly rubs.
Jack cat sits on the table in exactly the space made for writing Christmas cards.
Two ginger cats curled up in their favourite places. Zach sits on an Ercol chair, while Jack is nested in a beanbag.
Extract from Strava year in review, showing a modest start to the year, followed by a grand total of 21 hours of activity between June and December
Picture of jigsaw pieces in a box. All of them are navy blue with no distinguishing features.
Paper with a work in progress for the cycling teams by sponsors only game.
Jack cat (a bit ginger Tom-cat) giving his human the best death-stare he can muster. While snuggled on her lap…
Handwritten list trying to solve Lucas’ puzzle.
View of a very calm River Wharfe with houses and trees in the background and an overhanging tree and reflection in the foreground.
Graph showing a steady progression in step count from almost zero to nearly 4000 per day over the course of a week after a back operation.
A small sleeping cat curled up like a croissant, made with modelling clay. The cat is very orange, partly due to my skill, and partly due to the paint available. The cat’s model is currently in the same pose, and entirely unaware of my efforts to recreate him. Which is lucky, else I’d be having to paint while he tried to bite the paintbrush.
Zach the ginger Tom cat curls up against his human on his side in a puppy paws pose, ironically for a cat.
Wizbit: a British 80s kids Tv show character. A yellow cone-shaped alien magician with stripes arms and legs, pointy shoes, and a slightly creepy side-eyed expression.