Sometimes, you read something done by humble cyclists and it fills you with joy... and on Sunday Paul Balfe's D-ride to Hillers showed this perfectly. You may have read this from Paul Balfe already, but it deserves repeating more widely...
On the way back from Hillers, we saw an elderly gent walking his E Bike by Ragley Hall so I asked if he was ok, he said his chain had broke and he only had 2 miles to walk and we must carry on. I stopped and said we would help him, and Chris (Anckorn) got his chain tool out, and within 10 mins it was fixed even though this gent kept saying don't bother. When Chris finished, this older gent was overjoyed and smiling and shook all our hands profusely with a big smile on his face and then told us he was going thro a very bad time over the last 2 weeks as his best friend had just passed away and he really missed him and he became quite emotional and teary, we all patted him on the shoulder and told him he would be fine and keep going.
So, the moral of story is, please stop and help people, you have no idea what they are going through and just that one act of kindness from 4 strangers made that elderly gents day, it really got to me as we cycled off and I couldn't stop thinking about him, so glad we stopped
So Paul and the other D-Riders get the top kudos of the week!
Pushing them ridiculously close is Karl Walton and John Williams who rode the 422kms (that's over 260 miles!) Moors and Wolds Audax on Saturday, going into Sunday.. Fantastic work, guys - and prepares them nicely for the One-Day Weston run in just five weeks time, as well as a 600kms ride they have planned in a couple of weeks! I have now accepted that I won't win the audax trophy this year, as these two beasts are popping out 400kms+ rides like shelling peas.
Thanks as usual to the ride leaders at the weekend, namely the aforementioned Paul Balfe, Mick Stanford, Jonathan Turner and Stuart Jones...Note to ALL LEADERS - please don't forget to list who was on your ride on a Sunday evening after your ride, and pat yourself on the back if that list is in alphabetical order, as this makes it much easier to me when totting up the club run scores! A tidy mind and all that....
It's the first of the Earlswood TT's on Tuesday (14th May), and this is on a 9-mile course due to ongoing road closure at the end of the 10-miloe course, but they are great events and open to all, so why not round up a few buddies and give it a blast!
Watch out for May's Beacon Bulletin that will be emailed to all members early this week, which contains all upcoming Beacon plans and reports on what has been done over the last few weeks. It's always a good read!
See you out on the road, I'll probably be walking my bike with a broken chain, so please stop to help.
Phil