I've been organising a charity bike ride with my work, and today was the day of truth. I was really nervous that my volunteer marshalls and first aiders, as well as any riders, would not show up, but as it turned out, there were already folk waiting for me at Rumbles cafe when it arrived, and after a long nervous wait, lots of very properly dressed cyclists on very expensive bikes began to appear.
I say lots, there were 17 of us in the end, plus our excellent support teams. Which was 17 more than I was expecting. All of whom had bikes way more expensive than my £40 rattletrap, there were some carbon fibre sportive bikes with a value in the thousands.
I've never been very confident of my abilities in running events, but as it turned out everything went find and we had a really good day. I was half expecting us to be mown down by a drunken tractor driver or navigate over a cliff edge, but as it turned out, we all got round with only a couple of small navigation errors.
Apart from the two guys on racing bikes who disappeared and were never seen again. We won't mention them.
I was a very good boy, and helped our slowest group find their way home and nurse a very plucky Polish girl who was riding a ladies town bike that weighed about 15 tons with a seat set far too low and a basket acting like a break when she rode into the wind. I wouldn't have ridden to the corner shop on it, let alone a 40km event, so she was brilliant. It was great how everyone waited for her to finish.
Everyone seemed to be very happy with how the event was run, and want me to do it again with a big BBQ thrown in at the finish.
I am sighing with relief tonight.
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 25.09.16