1 week to go
No ride this weekend. Woke up sick on Sunday, and spent the whole day napping. Started feeling a bit more human at 9pm, ate something, then went back to bed. Was back to normal on Monday though, I'm happy to say.
All of my new warm cycling gear has arrived this week, including a few pairs of warm socks. I accidentally left most of my black cycling socks back in NZ at Christmas. I'd like more some more, but I can't find where I got them ... but my regular biking gear website had an end-of-season discount on red winter socks so I got four pairs. Not sure how the red socks will go with the rest of my outfit but if the fashion police try to pull me over, they'll have to chase me down.
I've also sorted out rescue insurance. This is needed in the event I need to hit the rescue button on the Garmin GPS tracker: the bill can be tens of thousands so insurance is wise. I've been using Garmin's own insurance in the past, but in mid-2025 they quietly discontinued it everywhere except the US.
The competition seems to consist of exactly one company, called Overwatch x Rescue. The "x" brings to mind Adidas x Kanye West or Uber x Spotify, which is not good company to be in. Especially with the second one of the pair being the one we could happily do without.
I've been experiencing a carefully scheduled tasting menu of increasingly spicy spam from them ever since I visited their website. No limits, no hidden fees! We've got you covered! Take another look! 48 hours to save on smarter protection! Final 24 hours, your $10 discount ends tonight! (Artificial urgency is a hallmark of scammers, so these emails are not a good look.) Last chance, $10 off ends at midnight! (Maybe this is the last one?) 72 hours to save $10 on OxR! (Setting a new deadline after I ignored the first one is a weak move, guys.) He hit SOS in a canyon, here's what happened next! (If I could find another rescue insurance company who shared my views on cliches, I'd go with them.) Your $10 off is about to expire! (If I had any other option, I would already have reported as spam and blocked you.)
Nevertheless, they're the only option I can find, so I've signed up with them.
I've worked through the signup process and it's a massive step down. The Garmin has a simple red SOS button under a protective cover. With Overwatch x Rescue you need to compose and send a (pre-prepared) text message to them. Which is seven (!) steps. Also the Garmin is ruggedized and has only three buttons, so each step means pressing something like right-right-right-ok.
It all looks a bit shady, and I'm not 100% sure that if I need it they'll respond promptly, organize a rescue and cover the costs afterwards.
From left to right: the actual steps to take to request a rescue after an accident. In comparison, the UI of the Iceland emergency app. Amsterdam Centraal. Random tree.
Happily, Iceland has an actual emergency app: "Neyðarlínan". This connects to the usual 112 emergency callcenter: it's got a menu of options, selecting one sends that info plus GPS location which seems like a very efficient way to get the vital info out. If I do need emergency services I'll try this one first.
One week to go. Should try to fit a ride in somewhere but it needs a lot of hours and there aren't that many left.
