Thoughts on Riding in the Snow. More old gits memories.

Thoughts on Riding in the Snow.

We thought we where going to get away with it this year a winter with out the interruption of snow, then it happened with vengeance on Saturday night. We knew it was coming, but still it left us with the problem what do you do when you had mentally prepared yourself for a Sunday ride. Being an Old Git I have weathered years of cold, icy, snowy conditions. I am old enough to have lived through the two coldest winter of the last century 1947/8 and 1962/3 although I can only remember 62/3 when it snowed boxing day and snow was on the ground until March, 65 days in all. I can remember riding through walls of snow in damp misty conditions, we did it, we just got out and rode.

I did try riding cyclo cross but I only rode one as a young rider like Simon I managed to wrecked my bike and was DNF. I didn’t do any more cross until I was a vet. and the mountain bike had been invented.Since then I have used my mountain bike to ride in snow but, as a young man riding during those bitterly cold snowy winters of the 60 and 70 had been on the road bike. Thinking back we had some horrible rides, one notorious one was the Catford Reliability ride ( precursor of the hell of the a Ashdown) in 1971. Only a handful of riders turned up as it had snowed and there had been a partially thaw. To start with the main road was dry and there where only small patches of ice as the day proceeded it appeared as if the thaw was continuing. Unknown to us a blizzard was blowing across East Kent and spreading west as we headed back towards Tonbridge Wells, we came into the thick snow and conditions got worse the further we went, slipping and sliding our way towards the food stop. By now we had been out for over 4 hours and should have been back at the finish, then out of the snow the food wagon run by Len (one of the clubs old stalwarts) appeared searching for us. After tea and buns, we cut the ride short, going up over Ide Hill which had been block, a car that had slid across the road and no other traffic was able to get up the hill. We managed to walk past the block and get back to Polhill, only to find that there had been no snow on the North Downs. Len was not as fortunate as us as he got his van stuck in a snow drift and had to spend the night in a local Pub.

As now to try and keep fit during the worst of the winter we turned to working out in the gym in those days we didn't have turbo trainers it was roller training or circuit training. But I never found it enough and I would get out on the road in what ever the conditions were, only really heavy snow stopped me.We did a mix training session out on the road for a hour half then back to the gym for another hour mixed weigh training a circuit. It was then in the local for swift pint before closing time. It payed off I managed to get enough points to gain a 1st cat. license with a couple of wins and a hand full of 2nd 3rd places. But snow was always frustrating kicking around trying to find things to do until the roads were safe enough to ride on again.