Newsletter - 2001 Archive

BC Randonneurs Cycling Club

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If patience is a virtue then I have some very virtuous friends, well acquaintances anyway. I make the differentiation due to fact that when we go for a ride I see them now and again. I think what it is they hammer themselves into the ground then use the excuse they are waiting for me when in fact they are too knackered to keep going!

There's David, the Cybernaut who disappears in the distance like an unprogrammed robot. He's the most patient of all. I think that one of these days he will discover his back wheel has some bigger sprockets than 14 teeth on there.

Then there's John who is constantly trying to ride Danelle off his wheel, forgetting she's riding the same bike as he is! She seems far too happy to be doing the stoking that is required of the rear person on a tandem.

There are some more gentle souls who come on the winter club runs who I actually get to talk to. Take today (Feb 11) for instance.

Bob Marsh made a surprise appearance at Wendell's in Fort Langley He, along with the Bates/Laidlaw tandem were supposed to be doing the Street thing in town. But they came out to enjoy the ice-covered roads of the Fraser Valley. Bob hasn't ridden the bike for a month. His eyes glazed over when David said we were going to ride over Sumas Mountain. As it turned out the ice patches put me off that idea. A year ago under similar conditions I had got part way up Sumas Mountain before the sight of an upturned car int' ditch told me I was riding on ice.

Jim McKay obviously felt that the 3 weeks of Rainy's Friday night lash had got him in good enough shape to pit his fat tyres against the Litespeeds et al. It was a pleasure to have him along, when he wasn't disappearing in the distance as well.

Gerry Nicol cried off. He phoned me tonight just after I got home. He admitted he was disappointed to be missing such a spectacular day but he had a brochure to produce with a deadline of tomorrow.

Bob Bose comes out on occasions when he's not popping off across the country. Bob is easy to get along with but he wasn't there today.

We had almost reached Fort Langley at the end of our 88.5 km today when we came across Keith Fletcher messing about with a flat tyre. Bob Bailey was hanging about too. Given the temperatures we have been enduring the past few weeks Fletcher and Bailey's idea of going out in the afternoon makes sense, even if Bob wasn't going to Church in the morning. Bailey, Marsh, Fletcher and I returned to Wendell's for coffee or Chai. The place was packed so we sat outside on Feb 11 and were not uncomfortable.

So, if we feel like moaning about our lot we can always say: "Well we (I) could be living in Newfoundland".

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