Cycling Addiction
By Joe D
Our compact leap of just 4 Leopards – only 50% of us not named Colin - rolled out of Cookham NT car park almost on the dot at 0800, a tidy quorum for what turned out to be a quietly excellent morning. The early start – some of us can never manage to commit to leaving MSC before 0830 – was so we could get a decent ride in and get back in time to hear Phil Cavell, author of The Midlife Cyclist, speak at the Cookham Festival at 11:00
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There was prior form: one of our Colins had shared French tarmac with Phil years ago, tracing a civilised line from the Alps to Provence, I believe. Reassuring pedigree. We left Cookham for Windsor via Eton, skirted Datchet and Windsor itself, before heading towards Blacknest via Bishopsgate at a reasonable pace but able to chat easily. Beggar’s Bush came and went and soon we were passing Ascot racecourse. After Winkfield and White Waltham etc etc, blah route blah. At around 10, and prompted by Patrick we decided we wanted caffeine, which no one thought was a bad call and we deviated slightly to Sip & Spoke for a quick pitstop with a spoilt-for-choice range of goodies. Short stop – ‘just time for a cortado’ was the advice - with chat around our respective learner driver offspring, being harassed to buy them their first cars, and how futile my hope was that I could possibly resist when daughter #2’s pestering level was slowly being cranked up to eleven. Back on the road, the ride sharpened into something memorable: a small group, hushed lanes, the impromptu coffee pep-up, and – crucially - a wise swerve off the A4.
Cavell himself, appearing in a back brace minimally explained as the result of a recent 2-wheeled mishap, was better than advertised. By turns cerebral, self-deprecating, more stimulating than anticipated, and always disarmingly warm. He spoke about the mindset of competitive cyclists, what enables them to blank out excruciating pain – often ending in orthopaedic detriment - and plugged his new book out in July, The Cycling Addiction,through some fascinating excerpts. Colin W and I bought a copy of The Midlife Cyclist as we left, and went our separate ways to enjoy the rest of Saturday
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