Orienteer wrote:
> The Beeb wants cyclists!
Here's what I sent:
I have heard a rumour that you are looking for cyclists with an interesting story to tell.
Sadly, I have to report that my story is entirely mundane: I get up in the morning, I hop on my
bike, I ride 7 1/2 miles to Henley, I work as an IT consultant, I hop back on my bike and I ride
home. For the most part the journey passes without incident in both directions.
I've tried to make it more interesting by buying a recumbent bicycle and riding down hills at
ludicrous speeds, but ultimately "cyclist rides to work, rides home, gets a bit damp because it
rained slightly" is hardly likely to make the Nine O'clock News. And I would be quite pleased if it
remained that way - cyclists who make the news tend not to live to enjoy the attention.
My whole family has taken up the challenge; during the spring and summer the boys and their Mum ride
the three and a bit miles to school along a narrow country road infested with man-eating 4x4's, but
happily the same dull result arises: family rides to school, rides home, no deaths or injuries
recorded. Thank God.
OK, I happen to think cycling is pretty special. For a start it's often quicker than when I used to
drive to Henley. On a good day I pass the same cars in the queue in Reading as I do in the queue in
Henley. And the time which I used to spend fuming in my car (can I call it a mobile death
greenhouse, as I do on Usenet? Is that naughty?) is now spent doing healthy exercise. I am a shade
over 6ft tall and used to weigh over 15 stone; I'm now about 13 stone and nearly 8" smaller in the
waist. I drink beer, eat pizza, and ride a bike.
I don't do it to save money, although of course you have to work hard not to. I saved the £2000 cost
of my new bike in a single year by selling the second car. This year is cash in the bank. I do it
for fun and for my health - cycling is also my favourite pastime; I have ridden from St Albans to
Reading in under two hours, and ridden a hundred miles in a day more than once. This is not
impressive, I'm not a racer, just a relatively fast "trundly tourist." I know people who've done the
Paris-Brest-Paris and London-Edinburgh audaxes, the longest schedules audax events in Europe, but
not me - 1,400km is a bit far for a weekend run, if you ask me.
And you know something? In just short of two years of daily cycling to work and back, I can only
recall a handful of times when riding has been unenjoyable. And sometimes it's fantastic. The joy of
riding in a summer thunderstorm stands out as one great moment, reaching 42mph down my favourite
short bit of hill is another. When was the last time you heard a driver come in and say "wow, that
was a great drive home!"
So I wish you good luck finding interesting cyclists, and I fervently hope that you don't make
cycling out to be some mad, dangerous, soggy, horrible activity. It's a great way to travel, and
regular cyclists live up to a decade longer than the average so it can't be that dengerous either.
--
Guy
===
I wonder if you wouldn't mind piecing out our imperfections with your thoughts; and while you're
about it perhaps you could think when we talk of bicycles, that you see them printing their proud
wheels i' the receiving earth; thanks awfully.
http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/09.shtml#103 http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/09.shtml#104
