"This is not a story about last place" - superbly written piece by Jason Gay about Taylor Phinney's gargantuan effort in the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race, inspired by thoughts of his father to finish the race. I defy anyone not to be moved by it, please follow the link to read.
It reminded me of a similiar, but not quite so heroic event the Tour de Nock 2011.
3 CCCP members, Glen "the Little Bear"Curley, Young Jack, and myself had entered along with a CCCP wanna be who shall be known as "DG" .
Its probably fair to say that DG was a bit over weight. New to cycling but massively enthusiastic about it, new lycra (stretched to its limits) all the gear and frankly, then, no idea.
Lining up in freezing conditions the conversation revolved around "well is everyone waiting for each other? Do we ride together?" Now The tour de Nock isnt a race, but its 63 miles of undulating Staffordshire countryside with a beast of a climb 4 miles from the end called "Cemetery Hill", it was a reliability ride, but myself and Young Jack were not going to be hanging around. Not when everyone else in the 200+ field seemed up for it.
That left The Little Bear (who's a kind hearted soul) to chaperone DG around his first ever ride over 10 miles long.
"Check these Apples" We sped off and joined a fairly spirited group who were keeping a good pace. A group of 3, myself included, tried to up the pace and proptly took a wrong turning and to cut a long story short got lost. This is something which I have been gaining a reputation for, and was bitterly disappointed in once more adding fuel to the fires. We eventually got back on the tail after going 3 miles out of the way, but our overall time was never going to be impressive.
Young Jack had only summer gear on and even with the brisk tempo he was starting to go hypothermic at about 50 mile and dropped out when he realised the route went past his house. I plugged on, being dropped by old men and young children at Cemetery Hill and arrived back in Hednesford for a well deserved hot chocolate and cake. A bit of post ride banter with some of the other cyclists and a browse over the store erected by the local bike shop who had sponsored and organised the event, I decided to pop home for a shower. I only lived about 2 mile away, so I peddled home, showered and changed, and drove back to the finish line.
Still no sign of the Little Bear or DG. Everyone had finished at this stage (or so I thought), the crowds started to dwindle as everyone went home for Sunday lunch, so I decided to drive back down the route and see where the were. 4 miles out I looked down the sweeping Cemetery Hill to see two stationery figures at the foot of the climb. I drove down to find the pair of them sitting on an embankment, DG gorging on jelly babies. "need this for the final push" exclaimed a weak looking DG. The little Bear smiled and said, all things considered, DG was doing ok on the climbs and flat, but went down hills slower than he went up em, wouldn't let go of the brakes! The Little Bear wouldn't leave him on his own, so sacrificed himself for the good of encouraging a newby into the cycling fraternity.
I drove back to an ever emptying start/finish line and started reading the paper. An hour later as the bike shop were packing up the last of their assorted goodies, as the last box went into the back of the van parked on the abandoned car park, the Little Bear and DG arrived. The sponsors were so amazed that they'd just finished that they insisted on a photo shoot with the pair of them, which they used in post event marketing material.
They, like Taylor Phinney got more publicity for their determined effort than the first homers!
I am pleased to say that DG jumped into cycling feet first and lost 3 stone due to an completely unhealthy obsession with cycling - Cycling at 12 at night around the local park for 20 miles with high beam lights, then again in the morning before work, while eating just 600 calories a day. Spent a small fortune on bike upgrades and even more gear... still got no idea though!
Foot note - DG has been kept in cognito to protect the innocent and the fact that he's piled the pounds back on - last report was he's resuming pre season training and the diet
Love this story even if it isn't as emotive as the story that inspired it! It is, however, reminiscent of an event which occurred in my past in half marathon which I will not divulge in print! PS you still spelt hypothermia wrong!
ReplyDeleteI can honestly say that although I'm not the quickest on two wheels, I too almost went hypothermic that day. It is incredibly hard to stay warm if you are pedalling at half the rate you would normally want to on a day when the air temperature never went above 3 degrees Celcius. That said, I believe that if you're with someone who hasn't tried 50 mile plus distances before then staying with them and bringing them through goes a long way.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I was out with 'DG' he left me standing!
It is very much the CCCP tradition to ride to the pace of the rider who is the most hung-over. It's not about how fast you can go, it's about how much fun you're having.
Now the weather's warming up a little, be prepared to see the CCCP out on the roads of Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Shropshire and West Midlands, but perhaps not all on the same day.
Cccp rocks
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