For a moment let us imagine that us Spinners have
metamorphosed into Road cyclists: In the twinkling of an eye we throw our cheap
plastic water bottles into the hedge rows, we ride up the middle of the road
because after all the roads belong to us don’t they? And if not up the middle
of the road we are part of a peloton that occupies the whole road. We gesticulate at any motorist or tractor
driver who has the temerity to consider passing.
As Spinners, along with many other cyclists we do
not behave quite like this and as such we should be counted as lovers of the
countryside perhaps more than is obvious. For with the road cyclists farmers
and local land users often complain of the large numbers of discarded water
bottles and other debris. Do Spinners
have more respect for the countryside in that it is home for many and the work
place for some?
What is the human cost for those who charge around the
countryside on bicycles? Let us meet
Gladys, newly widowed and well on into her eighties. A short while after the
funeral of her husband of sixty one years the family celebrated the wedding of
Gladys’ grand daughter - a greatly planned and eagerly anticipated occasion
even in the suffering of Gladys’ husband’s final illness. The glorious wedding day passed and Gladys
set out happily one summer afternoon to deliver wedding cake to her neighbours
across the road.
Just down an incline leading into the village hurtled a
vision in Lycra on a racing bike. Unable
to stop in time he hit Gladys leaving her with a fractured pelvis at the road
side. Neighbours rushed to her aid, she
was hospitalised and several weeks later has now returned home with the help of
a Zimmer frame and family support.
Gladys’ case is surely a way of showing the merits of
Spinning?
The cyclist who hit Gladys was in a time trial, the speed of
those competitors entering the village was thirty mph, what chance did she
have?
Gladys daughter in law is in my Spinning Group. Enough said.
