There had been talk of a bunch of folk from the club going out for a
'fast' ride this morning, but I hadn't been very keen. I don't rate
myself as fast enough to stay with the fast boys. When I woke up this
morning I was even less keen: raining steadily out of half a gale. So I
sat down at my desk, indulged in a little mischief on Usenet, and then
got down to work on the book I'm trying to write.
At about ten thirty came a chap at the door, and there's three guys on
bikes.
Ye cannae say 'no', can ye? And the rain was through, although the wind
was still as strong. So quick change into cycling gear, grab the Dolan,
and go. We rode out rapidly through Palnackie, and I foolishly
suggested we do the hill up past Glowero'erem to Buittle. Guess who was
last to the top... From Buittle we went over the hill to Gelston. I
didn't remember that as being much of a hill, but again I was dropped.
And then we went on into Castle Douglas and scrounged a coffee at our
LBS.
From the way I've written it it sounds as if I was a poor little thing
tagging off the back all the time, but it wasn't really like that. I
kept up fine on the flat, did a couple of sprinting duels with Big
Dougie (which, needless to say, I didn't win, but wasn't embarrassed
in) and generally had a great time.
So we stood around in the LBS and blethered for a while and a couple of
other club members came in, getting ready for tomorrows Hard Rock
Challenge duathlon. Eventually I felt we ought to go to let our hosts
get on with selling some bikes, and the party broke up.
Well, I could have just come directly home, but that felt a bit feeble.
After all, the others had been more than half way round their loop when
they picked me up, so I decided to complete their loop. The wind was
still exceeding blustery and light showers were scudding through as I
spun down through Threave to Rhonehouse and out on the road toward
Winnieligate. That meant straight into the wind, but it wasn't really a
struggle, just a matter of getting into the right gear and taking it
steady. At the Marks road end I turned south to cross the ridge, but by
that time you've already got enough height that it isn't much of a
climb, and turning south brought the wind broad on my starboard bow, so
not so bad. The Marks road takes you through onto the Bombie Glen road,
where I made another left to bring the wind behind me, and thus very
quickly by Kirkcarswell to the top of Hazelfield.
And go for it.
Click, click, click up through the gears, get down on the drops, gie it
laldie. It's only about the third time I've taken the Dolan down
Hazelfield, and the first time since I fitted the computer. Top gear,
and freakishly the wind (which ought to be behind) doesn't seem to be
helping. I'm doing thirty down hill and there doesn't seem to be any
more.
OK, this is _not_ good enough. Click down two gears, spin like crazy,
put everything into it. And the speed jumps up. Not edging up to 31 but
34, 35, 36... I click back up through the gears but at 37 I feel I'm
spinning out and I'd be better just tucking in tight. So elbows into
the sides, crouch, and watch that speed continue to creep up... 38...
39... steady at 39... The bike feels rock steady and everything feels
fine. I spin hard again to get just a little more energy in: forty. The
big four oh. And not just touching it, but holding it, steady, even as
I get back into my crouch. Down off the hill onto the flat and pedal,
and I hold the speed for a good way: a mile from the bottom of the hill
I'm still holding thirty five. Blast back into the village just over
the speed limit, startling the Saturday lunchtime dog-walkers, and then
brake, brake, brake down through the hairpin by the kirk and back into
the square.
OK, so to a lot of you fast guys 40 ain't much. Big Dougie claimed he'd
done 47 down that same hill just this morning, and I don't disbelieve
him. And, indeed, I probably have been faster on a bike before now, I
just did not have the instrumentation to record it. This time I did. OK
the hill helped (a lot). OK, the wind helped (a bit). But I still did
40mph on my bike and I'm still kid enough to be pleased about it.
--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
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