“Four Priests go on Tour”
(you’re gonna need to stick with the story a bit before the title of this first part makes sense)
Prologue
Just shy of a year after my 2nd TCR attempt ended I find myself in a VW Kombi loaded with bikes heading up towards Norfolk. On board are Chris Eccles from my cycle club, and two of his friends: ‘Baggers’ (Peter Bagwell), and Mark Waters. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t really planned or expected to do any bike touring this year. The passion for any type of extended bike ride deserted me for quite a while. For around a couple of months after TCR I was nursing too many broken bits. And for a longer period after that, the mojo just wasn’t there. But as the weeks rolled by a steady sequence of pleasant mid-week club social rides got me back into the spirit. So when Chris ventured the idea of a short summer trip to ride the Rebellion Way (one of the newer Cycle UK gravel routes) it was an immediate ‘yes’ from me. A flat, non-technical route, split up into 4 or 5 easy days sounded ideal. Of course, no sooner had dates been penned into my diary than another thought occurred to me: Norfolk isn’t that far from home, and my cousin Bron lives on the way back. Why not ride home at the end of the tour and visit her along the way? Only those who know me well, or who have followed this blog for a while will understand my logic in deciding to tack a completely unnecessary 450km ride home onto the back of a 350km tour. That’s just how I roll. But I’m getting ahead of myself, that’s for Part 2 of the blog entry.
Continue reading “Rebellion Way – Part 1”