The Dithering Cyclist

Any runners or cyclists reading this blog will know that the hardest step in training is the first one... out the door. It's always easy to find a reason to delay departure, even when the sun is shining gloriously. So it has been with me these last few days. Take for example Sunday: the weather was perfect for a bike ride, I got myself ready, shoes on, helmet on , track-mitts on, but just as I was leaving I made the mistake of turning on the television to see what was happening in the Paris-Roubaix. We can get French television, which covers the Enfer du Nord in its entirety. I was immediately drawn into a very exciting race taking place in conditions not normally associated with this event, sunny, and dry, which made it incredibly dusty and added a new dimension to a race noted for foul weather, lots of mud and gore aplenty.

The first time I moved was some 6 hours later – and then only to the edge of my seat – to cheer on to victory Johan Van Summeren, an unfancied domestique. The action on screen certainly raised my pulse rate from time to time but I don't think this will have added a great deal to my fitness level. Had we had visitors they could have been forgiven for thinking they had stumbled upon the ultimate armchair sports fan sat there, as I was, all day wearing all the gear, including helmet, and drinking from a bidon filled with orange juice and designer water which I had in my hand when I made that fateful move to turn on the TV.

If I am going to get anywhere near successfully completing my own personal Hell of the North coming up this summer I am really going to have to find a way of overcoming this dithering and lack of focus. By the way, do you know what to dither, shilly-shally, prevaricate, is in French? No? Tut tut ... I thought everybody knew that. You ignoramus! It's tergiverser - je tergiverse, tu tergiverses, il/elle tergiverse, nous tergiversons, vous tergiversez, ils/elles tergiversent. It is said, though, that the definition of an ignoramus is somebody who doesn't know something you learnt yesterday: as here of course. Laurent Jalabert, one time superstar bike rider himself, commentating on the Paris-Roubaix for the French TV, went on at some length about the apparent inability of many of the star riders to make firm decisions about when to attack which led to the surprise result. So at least I got something out of the day – a new French verb, which you can rest assured I shall endeavour use at every opportunity whenever I find myself across the Channel or am trying to chat up Annie McDonough.

Although today has been cloudier and the temperatures significantly lower, I did manage to show a bit of resoluteness this afternoon and drew myself away from the computer and actually went out for a ride around the hilly lanes of the North Downs – through Otford, Ightham, Ivyhatch, Hildenborough, Leigh, Bough Beech, Four Elms, Ide Hill, Sundridge, Polhill and home. I clocked 48 miles and was going reasonably well averaging just under 16mph and I didn't fall off: quite an achievement for me. Knowing my capacity for involuntary dismounting and leaving lumps of myself on the tarmac, Hannah usually sends me on my way with the bidding "try to stay on your bike today," which is an apt choice of words because as a rule I only end up on the deck when I stop. Today I kept riding but I did trip over the rowing machine in the garage. Plus ca change ...