Most Unpleasant Ride Ever

[Navrig]

Does getting knocked off your bike when doing your paper round count?

I was about 14, early on a very dark winter's day in Scotland. I had a heavy bag of papers hanging from one shoulder and the classic Ever Ready bike lamp on the front (nothing on the back). The grey lamp which had one candle output when the battery was new and the battery didn't last much longer than an hour. Effectively I was unlit. I was pushing on towards the start of my round and was passing a Reliant Robin van when the door flew open and I hit it full tilt. I pushed the door flush with the front wing as I went over the handlebars. The driver was delivering milk and was furious. He ranted at me threatening all sorts of damage and legal process. These were the days when 14 year olds did not challenge or give lip to adults.

I jumped back on my bike and sped off the deliver my papers.

That ride was my first miserable ride. I was $hitting myself about what my dad was going to do or say and how I was going to pay for the damage.

I failed to pick up the fact that the driver did not get my name or other details (newsagent etc). However I 'fessed up to dad just in case. He was more concerned that the driver just opened his door without looking pointing out that there was streetlights and that my paper bag was big and white.

Never heard any more about it.

I hated delivery papers.

[pete75]

When I was about 14. Pedalling a grocery delivery bike for four miles along a dead straight road against a fen blow. Not good. In case you've never seen one, this what a Fen blow looks like - not just wind but loads of soil in the air.

[Cowsham]

When I was about 14. Pedalling a grocery delivery bike for four miles along a dead straight road against a fen blow. Not good. In case you've never seen one, this what a Fen blow looks like - not just wind but loads of soil in the air.

Well Granville that's what's it's like here most of the time only without the blue skies and with heavy sideways rain. Really dangerous some days.

[pete75]

When I was about 14. Pedalling a grocery delivery bike for four miles along a dead straight road against a fen blow. Not good. In case you've never seen one, this what a Fen blow looks like - not just wind but loads of soil in the air.

Well Granville that's what's it's like here most of the time only without the blue skies and with heavy sideways rain. Really dangerous some days.

Rain is preferable to what is effectively a sandblasting.

[Mike Sales]

When I worked in the Spalding Guardian darkroom I found in the archives a photo of a fen road after a blow. It looked like brown snowdrifts, two or three feet deep.

[Cowsham]

When I was about 14. Pedalling a grocery delivery bike for four miles along a dead straight road against a fen blow. Not good. In case you've never seen one, this what a Fen blow looks like - not just wind but loads of soil in the air.

Well Granville that's what's it's like here most of the time only without the blue skies and with heavy sideways rain. Really dangerous some days.

Rain is preferable to what is effectively a sandblasting.

Breathing must be difficult.

[pete75]

Well Granville that's what's it's like here most of the time only without the blue skies and with heavy sideways rain. Really dangerous some days.

Rain is preferable to what is effectively a sandblasting.

Breathing must be difficult.

It's not brilliant, and you breath in a fair bit of crap. Must have been a lot worse in the old days when the soil was covered in horse muck.

[Cowsham]

Rain is preferable to what is effectively a sandblasting.

Breathing must be difficult.

It's not brilliant, and you breath in a fair bit of crap. Must have been a lot worse in the old days when the soil was covered in horse muck.

No masks either.

[pete75]

Breathing must be difficult.

It's not brilliant, and you breath in a fair bit of crap. Must have been a lot worse in the old days when the soil was covered in horse muck.

No masks either.

In 1968?

[Pebble]

not the worst ride by a very long shot (infact most of it was good)

But I got a puncture today - minus 2 - my poor old hands -

[peetee]

not the worst ride by a very long shot (infact most of it was good)

But I got a puncture today - minus 2 - my poor old hands -

Likewise, today’s ride was in temperatures that must have been 15 degrees C colder than the last I did. I was warm enough but the cold air into my lungs was making it very hard going and rather uncomfortable at times.

[Audax67]

This is a bit long...

I just remembered what was really my most unpleasant ride. It was a 600k PBP qualifier in 2011. First leg was Mulhouse to Luxeuil, straight into a wind that was given as 35 kph average gusting 75. I'd planned for lunch in Luxeuil but because of the wind arrived after all the restaurants had closed, so all I had to eat were peanuts, energy gels & munchies in a bar. The next leg turned across the wind and wasn't as bad, but rain had arrived and got steadily heavier as the afternoon wore on. According to my notes we had 5 thunderstorms. I didn't find anywhere that sold real food, so all I had was more energy bars and a sandwich, contributed by a couple of friends who were on a tandem. We rode together thereafter. Night fell as we crossed low uplands. Wind turbines sound weird at night, especially when you don't know they're there and they go whoosh right beside you, making your blood run cold. We got into our overnight lodging in St. Mihiel well after midnight. There was grub waiting there, stone cold and congealed, with bread gone hard. We ate it anyway. We reckoned to kip down for a couple of hours, but after half an hour my guts, blown up hard from fast carbs, began to growl and I spent a good while in the cludge, with little relief. Next "day" I was utterly knackered but set out at 3 am as planned, through Commercy where the madeleines come from. I got separated from my chums there, but continued SE with my guts beginning to act up again.

It was just after I had passed through Domrémy-la-Pucelle, where Jeanne d'Arc was born, that the pressure became too much and I had to dive into a hedgerow a bit off the road. The rain had stopped by then, so from half a k away I could easily see the basilica dedicated to her as I was lightening the load, stripped to the buff and shivering.

Slanting in at 45°, the rain came back.

By then I had done over 2,500 metres of climbing, I had back problems, knee and Achilles tendon pain, and I knew that I no longer had the strength to do the climb over the Vosges mountains to get back to the start. I headed for the nearest largish town, Neufchâteau, and just made it into a hotel room before my guts cut loose again. I can no longer remember eating that evening.

Next day I caught a train for the first time since the 80's, back to the start in Mulhouse where I'd left my car, feeling utterly miserable.

Back then I was still emburdened with blood-pressure drugs and beta-blockers, and every ride was a battle. I had another stab at a 600 in July, out of Luxembourg, teaming up with a Turkish chap I met on the road. The route was tough, though, and in Baccarat we forswore climbing through the mountains at night and turned north for Saarbrücken and the train. We rode through the night, and in the morning my drugs had worn off and I was 500m ahead. We breakfasted at a bakery in Keskastel and, dutiful idiot that I am, I downed my quota of pills. Half an hour later he was half a km ahead of me. The following week the cardiologist gave me a stress ECG without any meds, as a result of which he discontinued them; but of course it was too late to qualify.

Aye well.

[Cowsham]

This is a bit long...

I just remembered what was really my most unpleasant ride.

Why do we put ourselves through this -- is it cos we're cyclists or just mad people who gravitate to cycling?

[Audax67]

This is a bit long...

I just remembered what was really my most unpleasant ride.

Why do we put ourselves through this -- is it cos we're cyclists or just mad people who gravitate to cycling?

I reckon it's an addiction. A benign one, though: the last coronography I had showed the arteries and stents still clear, and the surgeon and I both put it down to cycling.

I still occasionally fume about the beta-blockers, though.

[Cowsham]

This is a bit long...

I just remembered what was really my most unpleasant ride.

Why do we put ourselves through this -- is it cos we're cyclists or just mad people who gravitate to cycling?

I reckon it's an addiction. A benign one, though: the last coronography I had showed the arteries and stents still clear, and the surgeon and I both put it down to cycling.

I still occasionally fume about the beta-blockers, though.

Beta blockers are extremely dangerous for asthmatics -- guess how I know!