I used to rack up a lot of miles commuting, so many in fact that I never needed to find a reason to get a bike out - I was just on one, five days a week, rain or shine.
I know 2026 is far from over, and it will surpass last year in terms of commuter days, but getting the mileage in is much harder than it used to be.
The reason for this blog was to document the training, the bike upgrades, the sponsorship push and everything else related to my attempt to cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats, 980 miles in 9 days... in September 2020.
At the weekend, I received email confirmation that the event (the Deloitte Ride Across Britain) is being cancelled this year, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. September sounds like a long way off, but the organisers have (correctly) realised that it's going to take a long time to get through this, and a long time afterwards for life to return to even a semblance of what was considered normal before.
My place on RAB has been rolled over to 2021, so I'll still be doing the ride, but now not for another 17 months.
I understand the reasoning behind this, it's the right decision, and of course I get that everyone has more important things to be thinking about at the moment. But at the same time, if it's alright with you, I am just a bit gutted. Delaying by a year means that my already creaky body is going to be even creakier. Nobody gets fitter or stronger as they advance through middle age; the decline might only be slight, but it'll be there. And it's not like it was going to be a doddle this year, so next year...? Plus I bought into the idea that this year's RAB dates meant that I would be celebrating a landmark birthday slap bang in the middle of the ride. Not so, next year...
I suppose there are plus sides. I suddenly have an extra twelve months in which to raise much-needed sponsorship, should anyone's thoughts return to charity at any point (I haven't attracted any sponsorship in the last month, for obvious reasons). And maybe, assuming I still have a job and there are still functioning bike shops, maybe I'll have time to save up for a super-light race bike. Maybe.
Even so, here's where I insert an appropriate visual metaphor for my current mood...
