2015 on two wheels
The beginning of this year was dominated by trying to qualify for Paris Brest Paris…
And, frankly, I completely under-estimated the challenge.
Crying in Abergele McDonalds at stupid o’clock on a May morning taught me that. Feeling like a husk, desperately trying to recover over four days, while working, between a 400 and 600 km audax taught me that. Crying, while pedalling along, for about two hours on the way out of Christleton on Windsor Chester Windsor taught me that.
The crying started about an hour after the point where this film ends.
While strength, stubbornness and hardiness will get you a long way on an audax, eventually they won’t compensate for not being fit, light or healthy enough. Though I’m glad I threw myself at the challenge of qualifying, it kind of broke me.
Unfortunately I feel as though that brokenness has over shadowed the rest of the year. After washing out of Windsor Chester Windsor I let a lot of good habits go, and have failed to keep my weight down and my fitness up.
I raced at the Brompton World Championships at the beginning of August... but just wasn't in the mood.
My August tour of Norway and Sweden was the highlight of the summer. Following a rough itinerary, I cycled from Oslo to Malmo, with a day or so in the Hvaler Islands. Camping at Stuevika on Søndre Sandøy is highly recommended for a reason, it’s flipping lovely. I suspect my experience – out of season and one of only two tents at the site – is not typical for what I understand is an incredibly popular site.
On the second day of my tour – from Nes (near Moss) to Friedrikstad – while riding up a short climb, I met an elk. I heard a rustle in the bushes to my right and, startled, came to a halt. An elk, large and without horns but with those distinctive jowls, stepped on the road just a few metres in front of me. I was transfixed, and just as it stepped into the scrub on the other side of the road had the wherewithal to shout “Moose!” I carried on, feeling really blessed and wishing I had just one of the Moose Women with me to see the animal we all idolise. I even had a soppy little cry. I felt as though the cycle touring gods were showing their approval for me and my little adventure. I don’t even care that the first Norwegian I told said “Oh… I have those at the bottom of my garden!”
The tour was 11 days of sea, sun, head wind and mosquitoes. It restored some of the confidence that had been bashed out of me over-audaxing. I’m already looking forward to the 300-odd km dash from Stockholm to my parents’ summer house and back that next summer will probably involve.
The autumn of this year has been pretty uneventful. Apart from the Venetian Nights audax I’ve barely been on a bike ride that wasn’t for utility. I’ve been riding mountain bikes a little bit, tackling some modest bits of the Peaks as well as a night ride with some of the geezers from Single Track, but nothing worth calling a proper adventure.
Off the bike, rather than re-join my local spin class I’ve been going to Crossfit and really enjoying it. It’s a massive challenge, involving so many movements my body is just not used to, and that’s one of the thing I like about it. I’m enjoying feeling strong in ways that I have never felt before, but having lost all my healthy eating mojo months ago I’m still let down by negative feelings about my body. Being a human is fucking difficult sometimes.
Despite having done nothing more than commute for the last few months, I’m set to ride to my parents for Christmas. I suspect covering around 250-winter-miles in two day is going to be a bit of a challenge. Wait and see.
I’ve got lots of plans for 2016, and if half of them come off it should be a better year. Right now, this is my feelings about 2015…
