Articles from the Newsletter January/February 2008

Neville’s Green Argos tests the new valve

I knew something was wrong when I didn't get taken out for six weeks in early spring, especially with April being so warm and sunny, The Berlingo stood motionless too. As you know a new heart valve was fitted and I had my first ride after six weeks. Early May I went to see the Tour of Picardie - his 37th visit, then soon followed his 36th trip to the Annual Dieppe Raid and he managed 143 kms on the Sunday. I knew he had been a regular watching the Tour de France stages and he had arranged his 48th trip to the Pyrennean stages this year. Thus on 7 July I found myself in the comfy trailer of the Bike Express where I don't get scratched or damaged, heading for Montpellier. We only did 32 kms the first day as he visited a former girl friend in Sete, so I had a long rest. Then came two days of Mistral strong winds along the Mediterranean coast till we turned inland to visit a former Evesham Wheeler in the mountain foothills. Then I remember crossing a small col but with a very fast descent into Spain for 7 days and six cols there. It was hot with temperatures ranging from 27 to 35 degrees. Luckily he had fitted new tyres and tubes on me so I was confident of giving him a trouble free ride. At one hotel in Boncompte he had to pay 10 euros to park me in their garage, but at least he had cleaned me that evening. The road he'd chosen back into France was over the Puerto de Bonaigua and that's 2072 metres high although I've been over it several times before. He took three and a quarter hours to pedal me the final 23 kms to the summit, but there were a lot of road works. The following day as we dropped through Vielha the temperature was 14 degrees compared with 30 degrees the other side in Sort! His plan was to take me over the very steep col d'Artigascou which was real rough- stuff when he attempted it with John Haigh many years ago, then down the col de Mente. It began drizzling and the summit could not even be seen so he stopped at a small Auberge in Melles and I spent the night in the corner of the restaurant. Even though he delayed the next day's start till 11am it was still raining and I had to get wet and I hate that! He took the flat route to Luchon calling at an excellent bike shop to put more air in my tyres - I go much more easily then. LEtape du Tour in 2007 climbed a recently surfaced Port de Bales 1755 metres and it was new to us both so it had to be ridden next day. There's 1280 metres of climbing and the final 3 kms are about 10% through trees. Luckily 1 have a 22-tooth inner ring, but even so those 19 kms took 3 hours - but he did have a few short stops. He decided to see Le Tour on a descent this time, a new venture, so while he ate a good lunch at Estarvielle I stood in the sun near the bottom of the col de Peyresourde - we'd been over it. When the riders came down - Vinokourov was first - the speed was amazing - I've never been anything like as fast. The next day we had to miss the Tourmalet as the 2115 m summit was well in the clouds and some Americans who had just descended told us how cold it was up there and they could not see. Luckily it was hot and sunny the next day for we were both on the Aubisque summit for the finish. Oh, the crowds! He had to wheel me through fields to get through the summit finish. He needed - well we both did really - more warm sun, so up the 1794m col du Portalet we toiled and stayed in Jaca - I was allowed inside the hotel. He said it was so hot that night he had difficulty sleeping! So we went up the col du Somport with lunch at the 1763 metre summit - bit what a super descent! A few more cols and we were soon heading to Pergueux for the Semaine Federale. He'd been taking me there for several years now, as it's always well organised and one meets so many friendly cyclos. It fits in well with my return from Alpine or Pyrenean trips. He brings me back either on the Bike Express or rides me back. This time the Bike Express did a special route to and from Perigueux so we returned on that. We weren't home for long because a 10-day spin in Britanny awaited as we were going to see the Grand Prix of Plouay. Our initial trip here was in 2000 for the World Championships - the year Nicole Cook won the Junior title. This time she was a good second in the ladies world cup event adding more valuable points to her leading championship position. He took me on the fast craft from Portsmouth to Cherbourg returning to Poole. Our final trip out of UK in 2007 was to be in Spain with a comfortable start on board Pride of Bilbao. He was going to visit a friend in Granada, not seen for 37 years. He'd drawn a line on the map from Bilbao to Granada and planned a route as close to the straight line as practicable. Spain is a mountainous country and many Sierras needed to be crossed, in fact, as soon as we left the port of Santurzi we were climbing but the sun shone on the trip, becoming hotter as we neared Granada. The only two flat days were in the Rioja grape growing regions where folk were busy picking and tractors were pulling loaded trucks to a wine factory in Manzanares. He stopped at bars midday for tapas - I know he found tortillas espanola very nourishing because he invariably sat outside, and I could see cafe con leche or Cocacola with crisps or nuts made a mid-afteinoon snack. The Spanish road surfaces were mostly superb, updated with absence of potholes and we often noted the old road on bends. On one occasion the main road - and we only used these on small stretches - just became an Autovia, which made him ride me on the hard shoulder. One such section was 30 krns, crossing the Sierra Morena and the two carriageways divided as they passed through the Parque Natural de Despenaperros. On the return ride there were two tunnels, one 543 metres long, on this section, with no shoulder. He had to dismount and push me along the narrow pavement and I could see the trucks whizzing past his left elbow. He has told people "never that way again", We reached Granada in nine-and-a-half days with 1044 kms and stayed four days at his friend's flat. This meant a rest for me whilst he was taken round the town on foot. I did get fitted with two new tyres for the return though. We both had good views of the Sierra Nevada and the Pico di Veleta at 3398 metres, the highest surfaced road in Europe. He told people the last time he was at the summit was 2004, but with the green Allin, not me. We regained Bilbao by the same route, even staying at several of the same hotels. The owners were extremely surprised to see us and even pleased! Altogether I spent three nights in the bedroom - very cosy. The highest we climbed was 1140 metres and I did 2200 kms without a spot of moisture failing on us during the month. The Bay of Biscay was so calm for the 34 hour return to Portsmouth it was hardly noticeable we were moving! That completed 82 days abroad for me in 2007 and I'm already looking forward to 2008!

My favourite cycling books by Andy Bebington

I have a small selection of books on cycling themes and the latest acquisition certainly gets my vote for inclusion in my list of favourites - it's “Two Wheels” by Matt Seaton. It's a bit of a cheat, really, as it comprises the column he's had in the Guardian over the last few years. All he's had to do, having written them already, was to arrange them thematically in different chapters, and go to print. Having said that, it's good to read someone who is in love with cycling, even if he's a bit more sports-orientated than I am and it's in bite-sized pieces, so is ideal for a last bit of reading before putting the light out (or for reading in the morning, in bed, with a cuppa....) The competition from my bookcase? First comes "A Rough Ride" by Paul Kimmage, he who was accused of "spitting in the soup" for writing honestly about his experiences of doping in the pro ranks. I've read the re-released book, to which he has added an appendix, but the impact of the original, read some years ago, fresh from the presses, makes his book the first on my list. Lance Annstrong has, of course, written about this life, starting with 'It's Not About the Bike" but my favourite on the US Postal/Lance Armstrong story is "A Significant Other", by Matt Rendell, in which he follows Victor Hugo Pefia in the 2003 Tour de France. Spoiled, in my view, by a little too much philosophising, it gives an insider's view of team tactics, the control exercised by Joh Bruyneel from the team car and (directly connected with that, and a bugbear of mine) the impact of team radios on the development of a stage or of a race (my view? They should be banned, or, at most, allowed to one team member only). There are only two books which I have read more than once - Stephen Roche's “The Agony and the Ecstasy” on his marvellous season in 1987, his reactions to the tifosi spitting at him on the road in the Giro, and Sean Kelly's and his reactions to the rain which greeted them on the morning of the World Championships; and Jeff Conner's "Wide Eyed and Legless", following the story of the ill-fated ANC Halfords team in the same race. Incidentally, if one of our gentle readers has my copy of Jeff Conner's book on loan, I'd welcome it back sometime, please .... Tim Moore wrote “Trench Revolution” a very funny book in which he records his ride around (most of) the 2000 Tour de France route. Much of what he writes I can relate to - the hills and the response of his family in particular. Finally among racing books, 1 have Graharn Fife's 2001 volume “Inside the Peloton” in which a variety of perspectives is examined in a well-written book which I thoroughly enjoyed, possibly because of the variety. However, my favourite cycling books have nothing to do with racing; they're about touring round the world, and they're by Anne Musto (who, coincidentally, worked with Liz’s aunt in Suffolk). She retired as a head mistress and rode round the world, writing it up in "A Bike Ride"; then she rode around again and wrote that up in "Lone Traveller" (in a very different style from her first book). I recommend them strongly to you; regrettably, her later books haven't quite gripped me as her first two did.