Rode some of the route last weekend with Mac who was in good form and regaling me with various tales. Said that he'd ridden to Borobridge to celebrate his morning flu jab with lunch in Morrisons. This made me chuckle and he told me that he once bumped into the late, great Ray (Ironman) Thompson in town when Ray was about 79. Mac asked him if was still getting out on his bike much. Ray replied that he'd ridden to Bedale the day before to have his haircut! "Couldn't you find a barber a little closer?" asked Mac. "I didn't see any..." came Ray's dry laconic reply!
In a similar vain, word in the lanes is that Pete Lumb has passed the 400,000 mile mark since he retired 20 years ago. That's an astonishing average of 55 miles per day. He told me recently that the last day he missed his ride was in about 2001 for his daughters graduation, and before that it was in the mid 90's when he was convalescing after colliding with a pheasant descending Garrowby Hill
You know, this sport is full of heros.
Tales from the Saddle
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