Lifecycle spring summer 2019

I have always loved bikes. My earliest memories of
cycling are of my Father and Grandfather’s
push-bikes as they headed of to work in the
morning. Or of a Sunday afternoon on the “bar” of
the bike as we headed off on our weekly family
outing. I remember clearly my first bike. It had a red
frame and black wheels and this really awesome
blue basket on front. I remember even more fondly
my black BMX that resembled that of the 1983
Honda XL500 trail bike featured in the tv series
Street Hawk. My favourite tv show as a kid. Oh how
I loved that bike.
As I return to my evening ride, I see on Strava that
I have managed to raise my average speed a to just
under 20 miles an hour (19.8 to be exact) not bad
for a 35 year old amateur I guess. I think of the
route along the River Bann and I imagine this was
my Paris-Roubaix. Every bump, every vibration and
grind on the roughed up road surface like the
cobbled stones through Carrefour de l’Arbre. Every
road here in the North coast of Ireland, I have come
to realise, has a head wind and at times tonight I
felt like there is no gas in the tank. Yet somehow
the strength was there to push through. Perhaps
those winter nights cycling 30 miles on the turbo
trainer is beginning to pay off.