On the road again

I have a spin (indoors) this morning on Anniemay’s bike. It’s the one on the left in this picture. It was taken in the days before Blip (or at least me and Blip) and retaken this morning.   

The bike on the right is probably the best bike I’ve ever owned.  And I’ve had quite a few.  I bought it on the occasion of my 60th birthday.  

A few years later, when I got the all-clear following surgery for bowel cancer, we decided to mark the occasion by cycling the Hadrian’s Wall cycle route from the Solway Firth to  Tynemouth.  It’s his Wall the bikes are leaning against.  

We took a couple of days staying in B&Bs en route.  In my youth I could have done this in a day. But age and scars tell a different story.

It was the biggest bike challenge Anniemay had ever undertaken - and she rose to the occasion like star she is.  The extra shows her about to reach the summit of the Pennine watershed.  Downhill all the way to Newcastle after that.  Before the sting in the tail at the finish in Tynemouth.

The celebration was short-lived.  Less than a year later I was back in hospital.  The cancer hadn’t gone.  It was simply taking a break.  And it was not happy.

That was 14 years ago and it’s never let me forget.  Cancer is such a poor loser.

I may visit the ‘bikes I have known’ and loved’ archive again sometime.