There’s a paragraph I wrote down from a book by Rob Penn ‘It’s all About the Bike’, which I had read just before setting off on my LEJOG. Rob and his family kindly let me stay with them one night while on my trip, and rode with me for a couple of hours the following morning.

Every time I read the paragraph it makes me cry, but also smile, because Rob has put down in words, far more eloquently than I ever could, exactly how I feel when I am riding my bike at the moment.

At times when I’m feeling really low, I take out this paragraph, written on the back of a photo of Gareth riding a massive jump in Whistler, and read it to myself to remind me why I’m doing what I’m doing:

The Bicycle saves my life every day. If you have ever experienced a moment of awe or freedom on a bicycle. If you’ve ever taken flight from sadness to the rhythm of two spinning wheels, or felt the resurgence of hope pedalling to the top of a hill with the dew of effort on your forehead.

If you’ve ever wondered, swooping bird-like down a long hill on a bicycle, if the whole world was standing still. If you have ever, just once, sat on a bicycle with a singing heart and felt like an ordinary human touching the Gods, then we share something fundamental.

We know it’s all about the bike.

Thanks Rob, pretty much sums it all up really!