Sunday Cycle 2nd Feb 2014
Sunday Cycle 2nd Feb
2014
Even though the wind and cold were not conducive to a nice
cycle, I was determined to be on the
Sunday Cycle today for two reasons.
The first reason is that I was well carbed-up and energy-loaded
following an excellent and delicious meal at the Shepherd’s Rest on Friday
night, and I was sure I’d be fit for a good ride.
The second reason is that I had missed last week – the rain
and wind were that severe that I was sure no-one would be out. Missing the Sunday cycle was bad enough, but, as it turned out, I had also missed to opportunity to play my
part in an absolute epic tale of cycling heroism.
Let me explain. On
Sunday evening of last week Jim posted up on the social broadcasting interweb
that 7 cyclists had braved their way up to Greencastle and back. Hardy blokes I thought. Then on Friday night, when we all met up at the Shepherd’s Rest (for the annual Carn Wheeler’s club dinner
and presentation night), there were people
congratulating Jim on his intrepid cycle run.
I formed the image in my head of Jim being a good champion for the cause
of the local cycling enthusiast.
The word soon spread, and as we sat down at the tables for
our meal, folks would come around wanting
to speak to Jim and hear directly how he had led the team on that day, and soldiered his way up over the Six Towns
with the rest of the team in tow. In my
mind, Jim was now no longer just a champion, but more like a returning hero who
had just conquered Everest.
The evening wore on and even more people congratulating Jim
and shaking his hand and asking about training schedules that they needed to be
following in order to keep astride of great man himself in the weeks ahead. By the time I had finished my tea, Jim was a legend.
Throughout the whole evening though, Jim stayed modest "Boys, aah was just out for a wee spin on may
bike, nawhin wyle epic about it atall”, he said.
And so onto today’s cycle.
The wind was coming from the south.
Now normally we would start off into the wind, and so give ourselves an
easy peddle on the homeward leg, but
that usually means suffering the pain of a shock kick-start to the lungs and
legs (and the humiliation of not being
able to talk for lack of puff for the first 10 miles). So instead,
someone suggested that we would
try something different – ride with the wind for a bit first so we get
warmed up gently.
And so with the bold Anthony
(hold on to I just check my spelling, yes, I have spelt it right, b-O-l-d), with the bold Anthony on the whistle, we set
off, with a peloton of 19 riders.
Our route took us out to Swatragh (passing Jimmy’s house, and for the second or two it took him to ride past the end of his lane, Jimmy was the vice-chairman), Garvagh, Kilrea and Portglenone. Then crossing over into County Antrim, down the Largy Road and then turning off down the Loughbeg Road to Toome. From there it was onto Magherafelt, Tobermore and home to Maghera.
Well done to all.
