Sunday Cycle 2nd March 2014
Sunday Cycle 2nd March
2014
19 cyclists turned out for the Sunday cycle today, on a bright, dry and cool morning. Unfortunately the weather was to turn very
wet for most of us before we had completed our run. In one way I was glad because this means I
did not have to wash the insides of my mudguards when I got home.
Our whistler failed to turn up. We need to put some processes in place to
avoid this sort of disaster in the future.
For example, if the whistler
cannot go out on the Sunday cycle, he
should still turn up at the rec so that the whistle can be passed on to someone
else. And if the person taking over the
whistling duties has not whistled before,
then the current whistler needs to ride with the team so that the new
whistler can observe the old whistler first,
then the new whistler will take over and be closely monitored by the old
whistler. Later, as the new whistler’s confidence grows, the old whistler can take a slightly more
rear seat view of things before finally signing off on the new whistler
training programme, and the old whistler
can return home. Now I would not expect
any new whistler to have really grasped the ropes in under 50 miles (I guess it all depends on the expertise of
the old whistler and his training techniques).
Anyways, off we set
heading out the way of Tamneymullan. The
clutch on George’s back wheel gave up at the very start and as he has an old
model with no differential lock, he had
to retire early.
Now us Sunday cyclists have gotton ourselves into a real bad
habit lately, and that is we are starting
off at a wyle pace, before people’s legs
have got properly warmed up.
Ronan refers to this as not so much a warm-up,
more of a boil-up.
In fact, we started off at such a pace
today that Tommie very nearly had to put her into the big ring to keep up.
So let’s be careful out there next time
(and I suppose my kettle is as black here as anybody’s pot).
Off we went to Garvagh, Kilrea, Portglenone, Bellaghy, The
Elk, the Newbridge,Magherafelt and Desertmartin. Then most folks went home via Tobermore, while others took in a few extra miles with a
diversion to Draperstown.
Tommy Evans was out with us today. Now Tommy is a great man to go for a cycle
with. See when you stop for a wee break,
and you start of again, I would always be looking around me to make sure the
rider behind is on their bike and properly seated and ready for the go. No need to do this with Tommy. You see Tommy, even though he’s a fresh enough
young man yet (only middle aged), he still makes that old man "eeuuch” sound
when he sits down. It does not matter if
he is sitting down to his dinner, or
sitting down to watch TV, or sitting down to drive or cycle. When you hear the
"eeuuch” sound, you know Tommy is in the seat and pedalling away.
I must say us Carn Wheelers are brave and good at disposing
of our rubbish when on the road. In fact
I would say that for 90% of cases, we
Leave No Trace 100% of the time. Of
course, some people go that little bit further wrt environmental
friendliness. Take Jimmy for
instance. You won’t catch him throwing
his fig-roll wrappers into the same public bin as his banana skin. Oh no.
Jimmy takes a self addressed envelope with him and puts all his rubbish
in there, and when he gets to a post
box, he posts the rubbish home. By doing so,
he can make sure his organic waste goes into the brown bin, and papers get into the blue bin, and the plastic sweetie wrappers are disposed
off properly in the black bin.
For the past two or three weeks, a few of us have been
baffled by the figures that Strava had been recording for our rides. In addition, Anthony has become very frustrated,
because, if he and I went on an
identical cycle run, Strava always ended
up showing me as having climbed more than him.
Well, it has now dawned on me why
this would be so. Simple really. You see, Anthony’s bike is a small frame and
mine is a medium. This means that when
we are at the top of a hill together, I
am sitting at a higher elevation.
Folks, keep your
responses coming in for the "You know you are too addicted to cycling…”
collection, so that we can get them published soon.
"You know you’re too addicted to cycling when
you go out for a drive in the car, by yourself, and you start shouting
"Hole!!”, "Water on the left!”, etc.
Adrian Glass
Send me your experiences by text on 07989400672, or email, barney.mulholland@btinternet.com