Back in the early 80s i used to cycle many miles a week when i was a young whipper snapper. Because i was young and recovered quickly i never gave it a second thought as to how many miles or how fit I actually was. After my parents split up i became a bit of a loner and would simply disappear for hours on end covering countless miles on my bike. One summer day whilst walking my mad vicious corgi dog, this bloke came jogging by and my dog gave chase after him. After i gave him a big oppollogy for my dog nearly ripping his calf muscles out we became great friends and i would cycle with him whilst he trained for his up coming triathlon. I was only 13/14 at the time and in my eyes he came my sarogate dad.
One day he was running up this 1000 metre incline and as i paced him on my bike , When we got to the top he commented on that i didn't stop talking all the way up. I thought for a moment he was a tad peed off with me for it ,but what he was getting at was the fact i could manage to talk normally and not be out of breath whilst climbing this grueling hill.
Come with me to the next 10 time trail at the cycling club. I think you'll do really well he said.
It took a bit of persuading on his behalf because i had no self confidence and the fact my bike was a bog standard steel framed Peugeot..I had no proper cycling clothing either to make matters worse.
Anyway the following Thursday i turned up at the local cycling clubs 10 TT with this heavy bike and dressed in my PE kit from school.
The cycling snobs were having a right old field day with my presence.They all had the good bikes laced with campag gear and dressed to look the part and all smelling of relgex ,and there was me on a
Halfords racer with chrome bars and simplex gears wearing a baggy pair on shorts two sizes to big for me. There were all looking down there noses at me but my new best friend just kept on giving me encouragement and told me to take no notice. We all set off in one minute intervals and i was about the tenth to go of around 20 .
I was half expecting the guys who set off behind me to eventually catch me up as the miles clicked by, but to my surprise no one did. In fact i caught up with a couple of riders and passed them.
When i crossed the line and our times were read out ,to everyone's surprisement i came 5th..The faces on some of these cycle snobs was like thunder and my mate was trying to contain his joy. You could see them and hear quiet mutterings amongst themselves about me. One guy even insinuated I cheated by turning back sooner on the course but a marshal quickly told him i was logged at all the key points. I will never forget that evening. After the race we stopped off at a local pub and he bought me my first ever pint of lager to celebrate ( it was the 80s lol).
If there was ever a classic case of cycling snobbery ,this was my story of it :-)
Johnny .
