A NIGHT TO FORGET

Thursday 19th May

Planned a 3 hour cycle with my friend Bill, and the bad luck started straight away when Bill turned up with a puncture. We got everything set up just before 7pm and headed down Byres Rd towards the River. Now I use toe straps/buckles on my pedals for extra grip, and keep one foot slacker in case I need to stop quickly. Usually it's the right but on this occasion I loosened my left foot. Bad choice- I reached the lights on Byres Rd and undertook a few cars, and stopped on the Red. Went to put my right foot down and realised I couldn't as it was strapped in - so I fell to my right onto the ground! Right in front of a row of cars and onlookers which was very embarrassing especially when the lights turned to green and I was trying to untie my foot! Not a great start.

The fall also had an effect on my bike as a couple of the gears were slipping but I continued anyway. We headed West and ended up in Erskine where we travelled over the Erskine Bridge which was very windy. From there we cycled across nice country roads to Bridge of Weir and eventually to Lochwinnoch. At one point when going up a steep hill, my gears popped out and I was peddling but started moving backwards! You can guess what happened next, yes, I fell off! This fall was a bit worse as I landed awkwardly and have the bruises to prove it! Still soldiered on and the best part of the day was the long downhill stretch to Lochwinnoch, which was just as well as it was getting dark.

We celebrated a hard cycle with a pint in the Brown Bull pub and Bill checked the train times. We then realised the last train was in 8 minutes and we were a mile from the station! Had to leave the pint and dash to the train station where we just made the train!

A short cycle back to the west end and I was home (at 22:40) safe in the knowledge that I will never need to use those bloody toe straps again! Entertaining night, and a really good workout :-)