A bright, warm day with cloud free skies. Perfect for a bike ride. Onto the saddle and off along the trailway. Sun shining, birds singing, and flies!
Flies in your sun glasses but worse still flies in your mouth. Yuk! Never mind, wash them down with a quick drink.
Over the road at Hammon and on to pretty Shillingstone station. At Stourpaine the church bells were ringing out across the valley. Blandford, Charlton Marshall, and Spetisbury. Over the hump back bridge and the Stour water meadows where a pair of swans were warming their feathers.
As I turned left onto the road to Langton Long there was a big gaggle of cyclists spread wide across the road, deep in conversation.
What is the collective for more than one cyclist? A quick search on Google lists; gasp, wheeze, road-rash, cadence, link, chain, shift, gear, cable, frame and rainbow! There were a few dodgy ones too. However, the most obvious platoon, and in French, pelotan. Anyway as I passed them, we exchanged cheery waves and salutations. They caught me up ten minutes later!
Turning under the under pass to the water meadows at Blandford I met an elderly couple on a tandem trike, (they looked as though they had it from new). They pedalled up a steep incline to the road at the top – no wheezing for them.
It was at this point I was caught by the gasp, wheeze, roadrash….. you got the idea.... of cyclists that I had passed earlier. They were in awe of the elderly couple and struck up a reverential conversation once again utilising as much of the road as they possibly could.
Watching this whole episode the one thing that struck me the most was the width of the tyres on this machine. I am sure they were narrower than a Ritz cracker and as for shock absorbing, just about as efficient. Amazing!
Thus, from my experience today the best name for a collective of cyclist is a Flash-mob.
Flies in your sun glasses but worse still flies in your mouth. Yuk! Never mind, wash them down with a quick drink.
Over the road at Hammon and on to pretty Shillingstone station. At Stourpaine the church bells were ringing out across the valley. Blandford, Charlton Marshall, and Spetisbury. Over the hump back bridge and the Stour water meadows where a pair of swans were warming their feathers.
As I turned left onto the road to Langton Long there was a big gaggle of cyclists spread wide across the road, deep in conversation.
What is the collective for more than one cyclist? A quick search on Google lists; gasp, wheeze, road-rash, cadence, link, chain, shift, gear, cable, frame and rainbow! There were a few dodgy ones too. However, the most obvious platoon, and in French, pelotan. Anyway as I passed them, we exchanged cheery waves and salutations. They caught me up ten minutes later!
Turning under the under pass to the water meadows at Blandford I met an elderly couple on a tandem trike, (they looked as though they had it from new). They pedalled up a steep incline to the road at the top – no wheezing for them.
It was at this point I was caught by the gasp, wheeze, roadrash….. you got the idea.... of cyclists that I had passed earlier. They were in awe of the elderly couple and struck up a reverential conversation once again utilising as much of the road as they possibly could.
Watching this whole episode the one thing that struck me the most was the width of the tyres on this machine. I am sure they were narrower than a Ritz cracker and as for shock absorbing, just about as efficient. Amazing!
Thus, from my experience today the best name for a collective of cyclist is a Flash-mob.
Back over the traffic lights and onto the trailway, with its tree stump carved head and ‘iron work’ cycling family, and home.
A quick 27 mile jaunt around the block.
Amanda
A quick 27 mile jaunt around the block.
Amanda