La Cycliste

It’s been so good to resurrect my bike these last few weeks when the early mornings are light and warm enough to cycle forth on empty roads and observe the city from on high, returning as people get up and a busy day is dawning.

The one trouble about bikes is the fixing of little things (and I’m not even mentioning mending punctures and broken bloodied nails) but adjusting saddles, brakes, gears and other additions to the basic frame.
Every bolt and screw seems to be in an inaccessible and awkward place where hands and tools seem too large; crying doesn’t have any effect either.
I feel so inadequate when I admit defeat and trudge to the local bike shop for help, where with a twirl of some specially adapted tool, they fix the problem in the twinkling of an eye.

My love of cycling is whetted by watching the Tour of France grind its way over miles and miles of French countryside racing up mountain roads that it would be hard enough to walk up. I find the sinuous movement of the peloton as they ebb and flow at speed along the roads like a colourful ballet.

Unfortunately at the moment cycling, football and tennis are all being televised at the same time, making it difficult to prioritise what to watch. I’m not so interested in football, although these last games in the World Cup are certainly exciting, but I do like watching tennis even though I have no aptitude for it, being short enough to have trouble seeing over the net far less locate the box I have to hit the ball into.

It will be the England v Croatia football match that will be the dominant programme tonight in the Dower House. It is certainly not ‘ETBE’ that we want to win tonight, we will be cheering on the 3 lions.