I just saw on the BBC News an article about a road cyclist who has been killed on the A82 in Scotland, near Fort William.
This makes me rather sad. Different things affect people in different ways. Hearing about cyclists being killed in accidents on the road is something which makes me most sad by reading it in the news.
I had never heard of this man before now. He was apparently a very promising racer, having broken Graeme Obree’s 10 mile record time and the won the British time trial Circuit among other titles. He was 34 and had a wife and two young daughters.
There aren’t any details of the accident, beyond that it involved a van. Motor vehicles have their uses, but they do also make the roads they share with cyclists potentially dangerous for the latter (which, of course, is a reason to do more cycling on roads and less driving on them - not to stop cycling on roads). Terrible events like this make that so sad.
The photo above was from our Land’s End to John o’Groats cycle tour in 2005, showing me unicycling on the same A82, near Glencoe south of Fort William. In much of rural Scotland there is only one road going between places, so there is no choice but to cycle on some busy ones.
Edit: I realise that this photo doesn’t illustrate how busy it can be - it was a well-timed Jonathan Greenaway photograph to show pretty things like mountains more than cars.
“We all do stupid things, it’s how we cover them up that maketh the man” - Alun J. Evans 2008
Happy New Year everyone!
The fresh-faced year arrived whimpering and mumbling on Aberystwyth sea front, with revellers just about out-numbering the three pairs of police patrolling the promenade. I’m not complaining - I had a lovely time with some great friends - but it was something of a stark contrast to last year when I saw the fireworks of the London Eye, and the ensuing four hour journey between human tides moving in various directions to get back to Poppy’s house (usually more like a 45 minute journey).
I think I may have one or two resolutions which have not yet been broken, but they don’t quite include:
- Cycling every day
- Eating fruit and vegetables every day
Never mind. I still have those goals in mind. In other news I’ve managed to put on about 6kg (1 stone) since a couple of months ago. Not that I have any need to loose it again. But I want to get much fitter than I am, with the Ride The Lobster race in Canada in June and Unicon world championships Marathon in August to look forward to!
And another new thing for the new year: a puncture. I’ve never had a puncture in my big wheel while riding before, in over 6000 miles. I was having a nice pootle along to Machynlleth this afternoon when the gentle hum of my tyre against the smooth resurfaced road gradually got louder. It became a rather rasping grind - very odd. Then I started having trouble keeping the wheel going in a straight line, until rather like a single-wheeled Bucking Broncho, it forced a swift dismount onto the verge.
Luckily I’d made it about 14 of the 18.5 miles from Aberystwyth. I gave the tyre about a hundred quick blasts of my rather small capacity pump and tried riding again. After another half a mile the tyre was again doing a passable pancake impression.
Right. More pumping this time. I pumped and pumped until my arms wouldn’t take any more, and the tyre had got back to the ‘quite hard’ stage. Like this it lasted over one mile. More pumping. More pedalling. More riding in a less-than-straight line. Eventually it got me to within walking range of the glorious town of Mach, and I gave up with it.
But at least it has exciting new Wellgo MG1 Magnesium pedals (380g/pair - light considering they’re comfy platform pedals which are needed for unicycling) in pimp-tastic white to bling it up. You know what that means… faster, faster!
How someone managed to find this, I don’t know (but it was on a unicycle forum)…
A performer on a unicycle in Munich… look at the shadow in the centre of the square around which the crowd has formed. Also it is a beautiful example of crowd behaviour to see the dense grouping near the marked out performance area and the gradually dispersing crowd further away.
Also note the circus tent elsewhere in Munich (zoom out and move east from the performer). Coincidence?
