Travels with my Mule

Have you ever taken part in a cycle charity event ?

Are you an International cyclist?

Have you ridden on your own, as teams in their pace lines go whizzing by?

I have, and sometimes when its been really tough going I have longed for the company of a comrade in arms.

To encourage me or to pull me along and visa versa.

After completing this years MS 150 my twin brother Paddy and I decided to put together a website for charity bike riders called Travelwithmymule.com.

The concept was simple to form a group of International or Cross border riders who regularly completed cycling charity events.

Two charity rides in two different countries or states would make them eligible to become an honorary member of 'The Mules' or 'Travel with my Mule Team'.

If you wish to join such esteemed company, its easy and free.

All that is required is that a brief profile is completed similar in length and structure as others on website. This should be sent with information about your rides and a picture of a mule to my e mail address. dragonfly04@dragonfly04.karoo.co.uk

You will then feature in 'The Stable'

Our Aims are outlined within the website but our dream is to have a 'Mule' in charity rides around the world.

You will never have to ride alone, there will always be a Mule to help lighten your load.

A discussion board will be devised for questions and assorted topics and will be updated regularly.

An appropriate team jersey is currently being designed and will be available for all honorary members to purchase. They will be produced and sold on a non profit making basis and the availability will depend on demand. We have some great ideas but welcome input from any prospective Mules.

Weekly Update.

My weekly update has been delayed due to my travelling down to London on Sunday for a weeks course (No Cycling). However my Hotel has a Gym so I have no excuse for not keeping my training going.
This week the weather has been beautiful with warm early summer sunshine.

I am convinced that my skin acts as some sort of solar panel reactor as the warmer it is the more energised I seem to be. Gone are the arm warmers multiple layers, and bootie covers and out comes the sunscreen much to its surprise at such an early introduction.
Although its not quite Texas weather there is genuine heat, with very the sort of air quality you would normally expect on a crisp winters morning. It has still been windy though, but ill take anything that goes with sunshine right now even a plague of locust. One analogy That I can think of is that its like eating Chocolate. Although there is a huge difference between a kit-kat and chocolate eclair, each provide pleasure through their unique chocolate content., its only the measure of pleasure that differs.
Sunshine is my emotional chocolate.

Like an 'on form' baseball slugger, I have also been spreading my hits all around the geographical cycling arena. South to Lincolnshire, West to Broomfleet, North to Scarborough and East on Sunday to Hornsea.

Hornsea contains a Mere (Lake) which was formed after the end of the Ice age. Although its less than a mile from the sea it’s a fresh water lake with no contributory rivers.

Weekly mileage 175
Monthly Mileage 682.

On my virtual Cycle ride from Beverley to Houston, I have finally made landfall at New Brunswick.Next stop Maine and the US of America. Cant wait for the virtual exploration of the USA.

Parsley,sage,rosemary and thyme

Not wishing to to be seen as conservative, the end of the week saw me head due North to visit my sit my Mother in Scarborough.
The north East Coast of Yorkshire is a hidden treasure, with Whitby, Scarborough and Filey the real gems.
Each deserve its own blog space so this week its Scarborough.
To get there from where I live in Beverley, you have to cycle about 50 miles.
Travelling north over the Yorkshire wolds, into the Vale of York and onwards to the foot hills of the North Yorkshire Moors.
Scarborough is 20 miles south of Robin Hoods Bay where I went to Boarding School (Fyling Hall School) and my spiritual home.
Each day I would wake up and look out onto the harsh North Sea.
Not the picture post card tropical scene that we often think of when we look for that exotic holiday destination.
But the moody one, full of hidden scars, ripping tides, and weather as fickle as a politician.
The very sea that Capt Cook also looked upon as a child from his Whitby home and the resting place of thousand of wrecks including ships of the Spanish Armada.
In my teenage years I often wondered if Simon and Garfunkel had ever visited this place.
The way they sang their well know 'Scarborough Fair', I was convinced that they must have.

My Mother lives on a road that leads up to the famous Scarborough Castle. Her road is called Castlegate, this changes into the amply named 'Paradise' at the top of the Hill, where there is situated the beautiful St Marys church. My mother tells us all that situated where she is, she is half way to paradise. I think I agree with her.

Mercy Me, Duffy gets in on the Act

I saw this advert on TV and it made me smile.



She can sing as well as ride a bike

Keep a lid on it

As a cyclist the ability to recall horror stories about bad motorists is as common as the name Wong, in a Chinese telephone directory.

Some months ago I was cycling in York, a city that is no stranger to cycles, with a positive and sympathetic cycle policy. It is somewhere that you should always feel comfortable to cycle, to be able to relax as you turn the pedals.
Whilst pedalling around the inner ring road, I was forced into the gutter by a motorist. The driver was a large female who had decided to swap lanes. Apparently in her world, this would enhance her progress and reduce her travel time by 0.51 seconds. Really!!!!
The manoeuvre was magnificently choreographed.
As well as turning the steering wheel with her knees, she was able to graze on an over sized sandwich, talk on her cell phone and preen herself in the mirror - all at the same time.
The additional and perhaps most important task, of looking at the road appeared to be beyond her comprehension or ability.
IF she had done so prior to the manoeuvre she would have seen me in a more favourable disposition.
A happily cycling chappie, brightly dressed and wearing a helmet.

Having delayed her observation until I had hit the pavement, she missed my metamorphic transition from ‘Mr calm and reasonable’ into ‘Mr Turrets’.

I was so animated that I might of EVEN frightened myself.

In the cycling world it is sometimes all too easy to become blinkered by the transgressions of other road users and to forget about ourselves.
Sometimes our halos drop too.
At work I often get into debates about cycling and cyclists with non cyclists.
One of my colleagues lives in the Yorkshire dales where he complains of being impeded by groups of cyclists riding in large groups two or three abreast along narrow and winding country roads.
I too have seen this practice, which can be dangerous as well as irresponsible.
If I were cycling along such a road and came across a group of pedestrians in the middle of the road, I too might have felt a bit disgruntled.

Arrogance in any road user, only causes further divide.
In England you don’t have to wear a helmet to cycle a bike on any road.
This cant be right!!!
Most parents would never let their children ride their bikes on the road without a helmet, so why undermine yourself by not wearing one.
Every weekend I see dozens of cyclist (usually my generation) riding with no helmet. Its so disappointing. Why should we expect motorists to take more care when we don't even look after ourselves.

When I ask helmet less riders why? The answers are varied.
'I want to feel liberated'
'I am an experienced cyclist and don’t need a helmet'
'I am not letting any civil servant tell me what I have to wear'.

As soon as the sentences start with I, then the accompanying arrogance usually causes any rationale argument to be lost.

There is also a lot of controversy over traffic lights, with cyclists often disobeying them and running red lights. It only adds fuel to the flames of motorists displeasure.

"And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye."

Luke 6:41-42

Bridging the great divide.

Since the turn of the year I have been pedaling my way through the East Yorkshire countryside.

For those not familiar with Yorkshire, It is the biggest county in England and Yorkshire Folk are very proud of their heritage.

Due to its size, wherever I pedal I am likely to remain within its borders, unless I pedal into the next day or head south.

Despite the advent of the motor vehicle some Yorkshire folk see an excursion across the county line as the equivalent to Foreign Travel.

For the adventurous Passports would be sought or renewed and packing completed well in advance. Queues would form outside local doctors with vaccinations requests.

These shopping trips to London were a logistical nightmare.

For the more traditional they would ask

'Why would you want to go anywhere else when you have all that you want here?

I must admit the county is incredibly diverse both demographically and geographically.

They do have two very important commodities Yorkshire Pudding and Yorkshire Tea.

Although I firmly believe in cultural values, I also believe that we can not live in the past.

'Being an 'international cyclist' he says very smugly

(having cycled in the USA as well as in Yorkshire) I decided to take Addy on a day trip.

Today the great people of neighbouring Lincolnshire would become acquainted with me and my trusted companion Addy.

We would be modern day path finders and illustrate to our fellow Yorkshire folk that it is safe to go over the water.

So after my breakfast of Yorkshire Tea, Cumberland Sausage, Cornish Pasty, and Lancashire hotpot, Addy and I headed south over the Humber bridge.

It is not as impressive as the Golden Gate which I have also travelled over, but you could hardly compare Hull with, San Fransisco.

We did 72 miles in total at a steady pace and took some pictures on our way.

This international travel is great, although when I asked at the toll booth to have my passport stamped, I was a bit miffed that they said NO and called security.

So you say your a cyclist?

As the Autumn of my life steadily sneaks up on me, my memory is not always as sharp as I would like it to be. One of the regular things that is effected by this is my recollection of various passwords.

There used to be a time, that the only code I had to remember, was the combination lock to my bicycle.

Now I have about twenty different passwords to remember.

To make matters worse, I have to change most of them every three months.

I used to store them in my Blackberry 'password box' but alas I forgot the password for that too.

When I do forget, I have to go through a right rigmarole of having my personal identify verified.

Its a good job that my twin brother Paddy lives in America, as I used to be asked the question.

How do I know that 'you are you', and not your twin brother?

More confusingly, I have also been asked.

How do 'you' know 'you are you', and not your twin brother?

I guess that there is always the possibility, that when we were babies we got mixed up.

However as we are not in line for the thrown, or awaiting some massive inheritance, being 12 minutes younger has not affected me too much.

When you look at the cycling there are also some identity issues, with so many disciplines that accompany the generic term of 'cyclist'.

Each has its own following and stereotype attached to it.

Each is also very different.

For me, I seem to have forgotten my metaphorical combination code as I scramble for my 'cyclist' identity.

For years It was easy, I was a recreational cyclist and that was the end of it.
Now the lines have gone all fuzzy.
I still ride to work, ride to the pub (Very important) and ride to the shops. This sort of puts me in the 'ecco-recreational' category. However if you now mix in Sportives, Audax, and the odd time trial then you have a very long word.

One that might compete with llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrob wllllantysiliogogogoch which incidentally is a place in wales and translates as :
"The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave"
Sounds a really cool place to cycle.

Considering other disciplines such as :- track cycling, cycl0-cross, fixed gear street riding, the many forms of BMX riding, mountain biking, road racing, criterium, or people just taking spin classes in the Gym there is good reason to be more specific.

The principal may be the same but the application, training and technique is often very different.

I sometimes hear drivers castigate cyclists.

Well which 'cyclist' exactly do they mean, as we are not all the same?
I think anti cyclists often take a piece of negativity from every discipline they can think of, and clump them all together as in this satirical video 'The Cyclists'.

Weekly Training/Weight Data

This week my weight loss has moved to a sensible amount of 4lbs (18lbs in three weeks). I am starting to find the hills easier and the flat bits much faster. The energy levels do seem to fluctuate though, so I am now taking whey protein drinks after each ride.

I managed 228 miles this week with 11,000 ft of climbing. I am very pleased with this but its been tough. It included 70 miles today in gorgeous weather around the Wolds. I took some photos (below) which included a cycle scare crow spotted in Wetwang. The strangely named village was hosting a scare crow festival.

I also had my daughter take one of me sporting my fantastic T Shirt from Rat Trap Press Check them out, they are all very original and great value. I support them because they are hand made using a silk screen process by the man himself.

In my virtual reality bike ride from Beverley to Houston, I stated last week that I was over the gulf of St Lawrence and moving towards the New Brunswick Coast. This stretch of water still contains some winter ice which affected my GPS. It miscalculated our progress probably through wishful thinking. We are still infact in the Gulf of St Lawrence and longing for landfall !!!!!!