Tales from the Rivington, Damsel in distress.

Tale from 'The Rivington'

Damsel in distress.

Out today on my 26 mile circuit of Coppull and Rivington, fixed gear again, my steed of choice today was my superlight Viscount Aerospace retro bike.

After a fortnight of stagnation designated by dreary grey wet weather during which I have been on a spree of thick toasty loaves and crumpets spread generously with Anchor butter, broke only by a brief spell of the dry stuff when I managed to fit in a ride to Red house farm for a delicious cream tea. I was out to jack myself into the real world of cycling masochism by doing a programme of all out sprints, ok, so a 78 year old can't sprint, but I can try can't I?

On my circuit are a number of climbs, some short and sharp, some a bit longer, so I utilise these on my low to medium fixed gear for short all efforts. Pitiful as these efforts are my heart rate monitor either lies or tells the truth, one maximum effort today brought a reading of 192, once described by a friend as 'directory enquiries'. With lots and lots of recovery time taken between these sprints, alright, efforts, my average speed reads as something less that average for the 'average' cyclist.

A well earned pot of tea is welcome as I reach The Rivington tea room, which as I arrive full to capacity with cyclists from the Tuesday/Thursday gang, otherwise know as 'the old lags'. The place is a hubub of noisy chatter which will miraculously subside at the stroke of 12 pm as most will arise without order and troop out the door.

Today there was a damsel in distress event whereby the uniform exit from the tearoom stalled. Karen, a very able young lady, discovered a puncture in her front wheel and began a lengthy repair job. Finding she needed tyre levers she came back in the room where a gentleman cyclist handed her the requisite levers from his kit then resumes his coffee and conversation on the table. Karen soon had an audience gazing on through the window as she wrestled with tyre and tube but help was soon at hand as the old lags left the tearoom en masse. At once she was surrounded by five willing helpers, old lags are nothing if not helpful at the plight of a lady in distress. Odd as it may sound it seemed many hands did not make light work as ten of them all wanted to fondle the tyre and errant and new innertubes but eventually all worked out and all were on their way home.

Just as this event was ending I saw the arrival of a Bury clarion member, John Yates, father of the now famous twins Simon and Adam, now of the Orica Greenedge pro team. Sparkling conversation was now a certainty.

The twins are much of an aside when John and I get together and straight away the craic starts. Funny stories and dark humour keep us entertained for some while, just a bit of serious stuff now and again keeps things on an even keel. The twins, grown up as they are are still giving John the runaround, perhaps more so than ever but he is loving it.

As we left the cafe for home the higher than seasonal temperature was dropping quite sharply, just as forecast, perhaps winter is finally on the way.