Page 36 - GC, July, Newsletter

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LMC GENERALCOMMUNITY
JUSTA SHORT
RUN, ITFELTLIKE .
A MILLION MILES! .
Anyway, back to cycling, I decided I needed a challenge, so looked around for something. Having done a little research, I decided London to Paris was achievable. Plus, it was a chance to make some money for the Alzheimer's Society, a charity close to my heart.
July 2017 was the date and what an experience it was. There was150 of us,
and we rode it over four
days a total of 350 miles.
Riding down the Champs-Elysees with the road set up for the finale of the Tour de France, which was due to finish the day after, with everyone clapping and cheering, was genuinely moving. I made lifelong friends over those four
days, and we meet regularly to ride and sink a few beers.
I now ride four times a week and have made new friends from the Playa Honda camp and caravan park, who I sometimes ride with. They also have a cycling group made up from the people at the camp-site who spend their winters there. This group is like the United Nations. There are Dutch, French, German, Belgium and British nationalities represented. Some of these guys are nearly 80 and prove that age isno barrier to being a cyclist.
So how far do we go? Well for me a short ride is 50 to 60kms. It sounds like a long way, but once you get into the sport, you realise these distances are within most people's ability. Most of my rides are now between 80 to 100kms, with occasional longer distancesif we are on a day out!