Another Turn of The Wheel

Hey everyone! After a very long period of silence I decided it was time to pick up the proverbial pen again and get this blog back on track. The main thing that led to this decision is that in six weeks time we’re packing up the house….again….and moving to Italy….again! This time we’ll be in Rome. A few people have expressed the wish to keep up to date with our Italian adventures again so here we are!

What has the last couple of years involved? At the risk of sounding like one of those annoying round robin Christmas letters…since my last post back in April 2022, we’ve moved house twice, spent a year living in Paris, had a trip of a lifetime to Canada and had many fun filled adventures. Living in Paris was an experience. It was a busy year filled with history, culture, visits from family and friends, making new pals, cycling, eating and drinking. I worked as a cycle tour guide for a Dutch Tour Company, so I was paid to take groups of tourists around the sights of Paris on a bike….could there be a more perfect job! Needless to say I loved it. I loved learning about the place in which we were living, I loved meeting people from all walks of life and I loved being part of a great team. If an opportunity like that comes up in Rome I’ll be grabbing it with both hands…so watch this space.

Our two wheel adventures have of course continued, we’ve bikepacked through the Dordogne region, around the Champagne region, along the Loire, cycled up Alpe d’Huez and Allan completed an epic 327km gravel ride to Angers. After being back in the UK for a little while we decided another challenge was in order, so I found a 400km Audax for us to enter…in Wales.

The June weekend seemed a very long way off when we signed up but needless to say the weeks ran away from us and before we knew it there were no more training opportunities left. We’d some how convinced our friend Nigel to join us too. An Audax is the understated, unassuming, superior (in my opinion) cousin of the popular Sportive in the cycling world. It is the antithesis of the commercial, expensive, highly organised rides that have boomed in the UK in recent years; events that are often run by companies solely to generate profit. Instead the Audax is usually organised by a local cycling club, is often unsupported and has a much smaller entry list. This one in particular was called the Tenby 400km and was organised by Richard and Pembrokeshire Velo. The route took us from Tenby, a quaint seaside town in the South of Wales, to Tywyn and back to Tenby. 413km with just under 20,000 ft of climbing. If you said it quickly it didn’t seem so bad!

Sadly, our team of three was reduced to two at the last minute due to an injury incurred by Allan, something which any cyclist, runner or athlete I’m sure can agree is one of the most frustrating things in the world! But luckily for Nigel and I our support crew/cheer leading team had doubled!

So after a painfully long day filled with a feeling of impending doom, we finally rolled away (along with only four other riders!) from the pretty little harbour at 9pm on Saturday. The official cut off time was something like 11.30pm the following day, but I had my sights set on a 9pm arrival; within 24 hours seemed more poetic but mainly because the last fish and chip shop in the town closed at that time! I’m not going to lie, the hours that followed seemed to have melded in to a blur. Highlights include: admiring the sunset at the top of a ridge, whizzing through the calm, cool dusk air on empty, smooth roads, the most beautiful star studded sky, the 24 hour service station looming in to sight at 3.23 am and then coming out to find the seemingly never ending darkness had in fact given way to an inevitable slither of light. In a beautiful but strange mirroring of emotions and nature this triumphant, spirit-lifting moment was topped off with a barn owl fly past. He glided over our heads from one side of the road to the other before disappearing, probably to hunt for breakfast. It’s incredible how the smallest improvement in circumstance can have an unparalleled positive impact on your morale. Countless number of times I was on the verge of slipping in to a dark place, either from the burning pain in my muscles as we hit another hill, as I lost all feeling in my fingers, when there seemed no end to the darkness or thanks to the block headwind we were trying to drag ourselves through. However, after only a minute or two off the bike, a crack of daylight, a bite of a pork pie and the feeling back in fingers and toes I felt rejuvenated and raring to go again…every time!

The stand out moment for me, however, ironically also coincided with probably the toughest climb of the ride. We were a long way off the half way point, and we hit about a four mile climb from Llanidloes with sections of 15%+. It was one of those hills where you thought you were nearly at the top only to round a corner to see it continued on and on. But at this point the wind hadn’t picked up, the clouds hadn’t closed in and instead the sky was filled with gorgeous pinks, oranges and reds as the sun lazily made it’s way over the horizon. It was a beautiful and welcome distraction from the pain. The fast, cold descent followed and then the probably most soul destroying part of the ride. There was a stretch of the route from Machynlleth to Tywyn which was an out and back and mentally was hard for me. Grinding up yet another hill and freewheeling down the other side knowing that we had to return via the same roads was so hard. But we finally arrived at Tywyn….not that it was worth it all! No offence to residents of Tywyn but it really wasn’t worth cycling all that way to. The weather had closed in by then and it appeared to be a depressing, grey, sad seaside town. This was probably exaggerated by the fact that due to the early hour nothing was open except the petrol station. The chap working there personified the town atmosphere, he was miserable as sin, didn’t have a toilet we could use and wouldn’t give us any tap water! I’d never been so pleased to escape a place. From this point on, the order of the day was just to keep turning the pedals, luckily our low points deconflicted and we helped each other when needed. We were very pleased to see Allan and Caroline (Nigel’s wife) at the top of another long climb. Despite the drizzle and cloud it was still an absolutely beautiful climb which I’d actually like to go back and do again. Being greeted by friendly faces at the top was a very welcome boost and it helped in believing that the remaining 150 km was achievable. The afternoon passed with few words, it was a case of just keeping going. The sentence we uttered most was “No…..not another bloody hill!” Despite my cycling computer saying there were no more climbs the hills just kept coming, they were unrelenting and seemed to get steeper the nearer to the end we got. I’ve never been so pleased to see a ‘Welcome to….’ town sign! We rolled through the town and arrived back at the pretty harbour where it all started what felt like a lifetime ago. The time was 8.17pm. We’d done it! Under 24 hours. The beer which awaited us tasted so very good! I was very happy. Happy to have done it and happy not to have to cycle up any more hills for a while. Even the news that the only Fish and Chip Shop left open uses peanut oil (I have a peanut allergy!) couldn’t wipe the smile from my face…..I’ll admit it did wobble for a moment!

This event was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done and as such it was a fitting way to mark five years since my Breast Cancer diagnosis. 1,825 days ago I was sat in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy treatment, to then complete something like this five years on makes it all seem like a bad dream. I couldn’t miss the opportunity to raise some money for charity so with the help of Caroline’s ninja fund raising skills we’ve raised over £2,500 for Cancer Research. (The page is still open so if you’d like to donate please click here.)

I’d like to thank everyone that donated, it honestly makes such a difference whilst trying to dig deep and drag myself up another hill. I’m so very grateful. Also thank you to Richard and Pembrokeshire Velo for hosting this crazy event and finally the biggest thank you goes to Allan and Caroline who did everything all weekend to ensure all we had to do was pedal. I’m not sure how to top this challenge, something will crop up, but for now I might have a little rest. Ciao for now!

If you’d like to see the evidence you can see my Strava activity here.