Sunday Cycle 12-Jan-2014
Sunday Cycle 12th
Jan 2014
There was a good crowd out this morning
- about 20 cyclists. We debated heading out in 2 groups but
concluded that we would stay together for the first half of the ride anyway.
Our route took us to Kilrea, Cullybackey, Ballymena
and out the Whiteside Road. At the
crossroads, we made our split, with those opting for a shorter ride home
heading for Portglenone, while the
others went off down Roguery into Toome,
and then Ballyronan, and into Magherafelt, where another split meant
half going home via Tobermore, and the
rest going via Desertmartin, Draperstown, Tobermore and then back to Maghera.
The weather was gusty, but mostly fine,
until the last half hour or so when it did start to rain accompanied by a
temperature drop. Nevertheless, a pleasant ride was had by all - well done.
My performance was, I thought, a wee bit down today on what it
had been this past couple of weeks. I
mentioned this to my wee wife and she laughed and said that it must be due to
the lack of her home-made Christmas mince-pies, to which I had been partial to
over the festive season. "Oh darlings”,
says I, "You’re such a tease”. But then I cudjuated on this for a while
and thought that she could be right.
Mince-pies are full of fruit
and sugar and carbs and suet, nothing
that you would not find in one of those gels, all the good stuff needed to keep
the front wheel tight to the boy ahead
(and induce the boy behind to
leave a good gap).
So,
I’d be interested in hearing if any other cycle-nators out there
experienced a similar peak in performance recently, induced by mince-pies, or Christmas pudding or
cake.
Now,
given that the Giro is coming here this year, it would be good if we would embrace the
Italian culture and language - say we
learn a new word or two each week. This
week’s word is
A-reeve-a-ditchy
which means good by. Try weaving it into your everyday
conversation, eg:
Tom:
"Hi Fred, is that a new bike you
have?”
Fred: "Tootin right it is Tom, I treated myself to a new one, after all, I have been a good boy recently”.
Tom: "Well Fred, how much did it cost you?”
Fred: "I was lucky, the bike shop was having a clear out of red
bikes, as white is the "in” colour for
2014. When the shop owner said that he
would sell it to me for 300 pounds, I was like, give me that bike”.
Tom:
"Now that was a real good a-reeve-a-ditchy there Fred”.
(I suspect most of us country boys wont be
fit to get the Italian accent quite right).
BM
