C&DCYCLES Saturday Shopride

Once again the highlight of my cycling week was this 30ish mile loop with my good friends from the C&DCYCLES club. Of late Big Steve Major has led a lot and he's doing a great job. On the ride. Today we had a bit of an issue. One of our biking brothers, a newbie called Gary, was knocked off his bike by an inpatient van driver. For those of you who know it, there's a bridge over the Nene at Woodford Mill narrows to only allow one vehicle. People travelling towards Ringstead have right of way and that's what we were doing. Unfortunately red van man valued the next ten seconds of his life so highly that with disregard to us lycra clad loonies he decided to cross the bridge at the same time. Someone in front of Gary had to take evasive action. Gary slammed on the anchors, locked up and bounced off the vans wing mirror. Gary was battered bruised cut and his jacket was wrecked. The van nan did the right thing and took him home and I hope Gary is ok. This isn't a cyclist v motorists rant. I'm both and I've made plenty if mistakes on bikes and in cars. The thing is our sport can be dangerous. It doesn't have to be and this us one of those times where it was totally unnecessary. As someone once said to me: it's better to arrive late in this world than early in the next. The rest of us continued and the the ride concluded without further incident.

The ride itself was typical Northamptonshire rolling scenery. For those following you'll know about my relationship with certain hills. Another PR on the hill out of Thrapston suggests to me I might be starting to win some of the gravity resistant battles. 14 other PRs is a great return and whilst the shop ride isn't about personal goals I'm pleased with that. Roll on next week and hopefully incident free cycling.