Last night

So, while Manchester and Salford rioted last night, this innocent old lady was out on her bike.  I had been contributing to a thread on a climbing forum (stay with me on this), and somebody very very local to me was looking for a club to get back on to his road and MTB in the future.  He stipulated easy stuff.  I made contact with him to see if he might be interested in an occasional evening MTB ride partner and bingo we're hot to trot.

I selected my partner well.  Recovering from serious injury (actually still carrying the prolapsed disc injury), aged 52 and not been on a bike for 6 months.  I was gambling that there would be a chance I could stay up.  We agreed a time and meeting place just down the road from me and agreed easy stuff, no technical, just off road made up pathways.  He advised he normally did about an hour.

This is where I went marginally wrong.  I should have a) asked how far he went in an hour and b) established that it was an hour out and an hour back.  So I meet the somewhat pleasant chap as planned, almost immediately realising I haven't told a soul where I'm going or who with and in fact could have placed myself in a highly risky situation.  But sometimes trust is all you have, and I'm willing to accept my fellow man for being only good.

Off we go, and we set a snappy kind of a pace, although do-able.  We hit an uphill road section and I'm in front.  By the time we get to the top I'm some way in front.  Back on the pathways and as soon as we hit tarmaced paths, he puts the hammer down and I'm not even able to get on his wheel.  I'm trying everything at this point as far as both cadence and gearing / power are concerned and no, simply can't do it.  Turns out to be a great two hour ride though as he doesn't always put the hammer down, quite often we're a really similar pace, and I don't always leave him on the hills.  Combination works out well.

He punctured on his rear wheel and urged me to leave him and simply follow the path home. Naturally I refuse, I mean, us girls just don't do that kind of thing, abandoning a friend (albeit someone who's not a friend quite yet but could be).  So I wait.  Turns out I do more than wait.  Turns out I loan my tyre levers out, I am the one who gets the inner tube in the right way (seriously he was trying to put the valve in from the spoke side), I assist with getting the tyre back on the rim and indeed I'm the one who gets the chain on correctly.  I think he may have been delayed a little if I'd left. 

It was a lovely two hours and he's mailed to thank me for my mechanical assistance.  And then I returned to the reality and horror of rioting in the streets just a couple of miles down the road from me.