Billy-no-mates is off again – this time he is cycling from the UK to Africa, apparently it is in his “bucket”. He is vague about what the bucket is, other than it is sort of “things to do before you die” list. His came about because he turned 50 and his mid-life crisis drove him to don gaudy lycra outfits and pedal furiously around the Vale of Belvoir on a racing bike. Others afflicted with this bucket problem include Mick McQuilllan who is due to run a marathon and Rich Newsome who is going to cycle the West Coast of America, so watch this space!
You can see Martin's blog of his John O'Groats to Lands End cycle trip with Mick at http://steve33.tripod.com/cycle.
You can see Martin's blog of his John O'Groats to Lands End cycle trip with Mick at http://steve33.tripod.com/cycle.
Friday 23 September 2011
Our intrepid pedaller saddled up and left Coventry at 5.00pm - why Coventry we have no idea - waved on his way by well wishing workmates Big Boss Gavin, Will the General Manager and HR managerTracey, the huskie racing chum. She doesn’t race against the huskies, but attaches them to a sled and shouts “mush” a lot.
Cycling hard, and en route to Wantage and his pre-booked hotel, a distance of 60 miles, he reached Long Itchington before his chain fell off and broke. He had covered about 8 miles. Undaunted he enlisted the help of a man at the coach company in Long Itchington who turned out to be no use at all so he got in a taxi and went to Halfords in Banbury.
We understand the cycling hard men among you are very dismissive of Halfords and prefer individual, idiosyncratic cycle shops, however, Martin says the Halfords man was great. Here comes the technical bit: he straightened the derailleur, shaped some cogs, changed the chain on the gears at the back of the bike and did some other stuff we don’t understand.
Once sorted he rode to Frilford at Wantage, arriving about 9.30pm and fell into bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment