My back wheel is being held aloft by a giant cow standing up on two legs.
I'm unable to achieve forward momentum and start swaying from side to side, my feet trapped in my pedals and fingers furiously gripping the brake hoods. It seems I'm having that dream again. Only this time I've remembered to wear my bib shorts....
'Go, go, go!' I'm pushed forward by the black and white Friesian, who turns out to be the Smithams Chimney Hill Climb race organiser Mark Jerzak in a cunning disguise, and swiftly become pitched into battle with my Sunday-morning nemesis, a local legend that's been tormenting West Country cyclists for decades. Standing 2km in length and with an average gradient of 7.4%, Smitham Hill in East Harptree, Somerset, might not trouble the Hardknott Pass or Bamford Clough in the battle to become Britain's toughest cycling ascent, but its varied elevation (141m in total) and distance make it a perfect platform for a hill-climb event.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 2023 من Cycling Plus UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 2023 من Cycling Plus UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
GANARY A COALMINE
The James Brown tune 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World' comes on the radio, filling the coach, and does nothing for my pre-event nerves as I sit surrounded by serious-looking, wiry, tanned men in Lycra. It's 6.30am, pitch black outside and I'm feeling very out of my depth as a relative newcomer to the world of clipless pedals and hurting for fun. Last night's stress dream involved being very unprepared to get married and being handed my great-grandmother-in-law-to-be's hideous silver dress with lace trim to wear minutes before the ceremony was due to start. I'll let you psychoanalyse that one.
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