A little about me & cycling .......

 I’m 52 years old & live in Bolton, I’m a long-standing Bolton Wanderers fan & I’ve recently become reacquainted with cycling.

I always liked cycling as a youngster but when I was 13 I went along to an ‘invitation ride’ organised by my local CTC (Cyclist Touring Club) & from that day forward I barely missed a Sunday ride with the club for over 5 years.

Typically we would cycle between 40 – 70 miles each Sunday during the autumn/winter months & 70 – 100 miles during the spring/summer months. The favoured routes usually took us to Yorkshire but occasionally Cheshire, Derbyshire & other parts of Lancashire. The club also organised ‘reliability rides’ during spring/summer which I used to partake in; 50 miles in 3.5 or 4 hours, 100 miles in 7 or 8 hours, 150 miles in 12 hours & the big one…. 225 miles in 24 hours!

I also went on a couple of cycling holidays during this period, the first, when I was 16 in the period between leaving school & starting work, was from Bolton to Tenby on the south coast of Wales then back up the west coast to north Wales (to meet up with my parents for a further 2 weeks holiday). I went with a friend from the cycling club & we stayed in pre-booked youth hostels throughout the one week trip, although my friend was ill at the half-way stage & had to return home by train, so I completed the trip alone.

My 2^nd cycling holiday was to the Provence region in the south of France when I was 17. This time I went with a friend from another local cycling club & approx. 16 others from cycling clubs around the country, all organised by the National CTC. My friend & I travelled to London Victoria train station where we met up with the rest of the group & from there we travelled by train to the coast, got the ferry to France & then trains to Paris then Valence. This is where we commenced our cycling, we were camping & carried all our own equipment for the 2 week trip. We cycled down to the south coast of France (St. Tropez) then back north to Grenoble where we returned to England via trains/ferry.

During the trip we took a detour to watch the Tour de France which was taking place at the time & we rode a section of the route on the day the tour was due to pass along it (we travelled in the reverse direction…. about 2 or 3 hours before they were due to pass through).

Cycling is the No.1 sport in France & as the crowds were building up at the sides of the roads we were made to feel very special as they waved & cheered us along. When we reached a point where we had to wait for the tour to pass by we were all surprised how much entertainment took place, in the form of a procession along the road before the cyclists arrived, it was quite a spectacle although the actual cyclists flashed by very quickly.

We also cycled over Mont Ventoux, a 1,912 metre (6,273 ft.) mountain.

The year was 1976 which was a very hot & long summer so you can probably imagine how hot we felt cycling up this mountain in the south of France, in the height of summer carrying full camping gear in our panniers. The name Mont Ventoux means windy mountain & we found out why when we got above the tree line! It is like a lunar landscape up there & not only was it very windy but, in spite of it being gloriously hot lower down, it was extremely cold when we reached the top so we didn’t hang about too long, besides which we had a fantastic, LONG, ride down the other side to savour.

We stopped briefly on the way down to pay our respects at the Tommy Simpson memorial at the side of the road, Tom was an English cyclist who died on the mountain during the 1967 Tour de France.

I didn’t appreciate it at the time but Mont Ventoux is one of the icons of European, if not world, cycling & I’m retrospectively quite chuffed to have conquered it.

When I was 18 I hung-up my pedals & sold my bike. Apart from purchasing a folding bike a few years ago, which I used for a total of approx. 200 miles over a 15 year period, I haven’t done any cycling at all… until last September when I decided I would purchase a ‘proper’ bike again & proceed to get myself fit(ter). Soon after that I decided I needed a challenge to motivate me to keep using my new bike & not give up at the first signs of pain!

So, after an absence of over 30 years, I’m back in the saddle & I’ve been cycling the miles each weekend in order to build up my fitness & stamina for my forthcoming JOGLE. My first ride on my new bike was 15 miles long & I repeated this distance for a number of weeks, winter was approaching so it wasn’t the best time to restart cycling but I persevered & as the weeks progressed I increased the mileage, 20, 30, 40 miles….. & I’m now comfortably doing over 70 miles per trip (see the  Training & Blog pages for my latest exploits).

I’ve planned my JOGLE route & pre-booked overnight accommodation throughout the 2 week trip, my average daily mileage will be just over 70 miles,  the minimum daily mileage will be 63 miles & the longest 88 miles, although if I find myself struggling there are 2 or 3 days when I will have the option of choosing a slightly shorter route.

They say that cycling requires 40% of the effort of running, I will therefore be cycling the equivelent of a marathon every day.

In my training I’ve been cycling one day per week with the odd exception where I’ve done a few additional miles & one weekend where I cycled 136 miles over 2 days, carrying panniers & staying overnight in a B & B at the half-way point.  I’m therefore unsure how the fatigue will accumulate as a result of cycling every day for 2 weeks (with one day’s rest on my way through Bolton). I’ve also experienced some minor pain at the side of my knees & whilst that has been fairly unobtrusive I’m hoping it won’t be compounded by the daily mileage.