Not sure about the year of this trip - 1996 I think. Around the Isle of Wight in a day to try and raise money for the (then Esso) Fawley rugby club. Basically a bunch of people who were all the wrong shape for distance cycling on a range of poorly maintained and ill-fitting bikes.
But this time I had a plan.
Pete Legate asked if I was coming on the trip and I knew that he had a tandem - twice the power, not on a crap bike etc, so I said yes - if I could go on the two-seater. Pete agreed and asked me to pick up the bike from the shop where it was being serviced - I didn't even know that you could get bike serviced! Result!
Come the day and Bud McGrane has managed to borrow one of those new fangled mobile phone thingies, as his wife, Caroline, was pregnant and due anytime. Bud was very tight-lipped about the phone number, as he knew that he'd get stitched up by the boys.
Somehow Pete had acquired the number and had a mobile too. Every steep hill, Bud's phone would ring. He'd get off to answer, Pete would hang up, Bud's phone would stop ringing and he'd curse his way up the rest of the slope. Pete didn't tire of this sport all morning and neither did the rest of us.
Anyhow, speaking of slopes, I was on the front seat of the tandem, really struggling, getting to the top all sweaty and breathless. Pete giving me a slap on the back and saying "Well done, Dan" every time we hit a summit. I remember thinking how Pete kept me going with encouragement and thinking how unfit I was and how fit he must be.
It turned out later that Pete had dodgy knees and stopped pedalling every time we hit a hill. I was so knackered because I was cycling both of us up most of the hills. So much for my cunning plan! (or perhaps Pete just had a better one?)
Back at Yarmouth, the hills and aches faded with time (spent in the pub) - what better way to spend a warm summers day with friends?
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