Whoosh 24 Day 2
May 4th, 2024
It was late morning, just after the village of Horeb, that I encountered Jonathan, the regular participant in Whoosh rides who skilfully undertakes the often thankless task of planning our routes. I had just undertaken the latest in a series of lung-busting climbs on the day’s ride, 67 miles from Cardigan to Aberystwyth. I had chosen the 67-mile route over a shorter, 50-mile route, on the premise that, while longer, my route would involve less climbing.
Jonathan was riding on his own, hoping to make it to Devil’s Bridge in time to put his bike on the narrow-gauge steam railway from there to Aberystwyth.
“Well, I’m glad I’m doing the route with fewer climbs,” I told him, still a little out of breath.
“That was quite a nasty climb,” he agreed, ruefully.
The conversation was part of what turned into one of the most demanding days of cycling I’ve ever undertaken – 67 miles that in the end involved just over 6,000 feet of climbing, some of it at the very edge of my ability to keep pedalling. The route at points snaked round hairpin bends, giving me the illusion I was assaulting some glamorous col in the Tour de France. I reached more than 1,000ft up in the Welsh hills.
But, in contrast to Friday’s rainy first day of riding, it was a day when the cycling stars seemed aligned to keep me going, providing the energy for each hill that felt like the one that would finally force me to get off and push my bike. It was a day that made me conscious that I am privileged to be in a position to make the most of the dogged determination that keeps me going up unforgiving hills. That, of course, reminded me of Whoosh’s beneficiary charities and how they are trying to extend the chances available to far less privileged groups of people.
The stars seemed to smile on me particularly broadly at the start of the day. After breakfasting with Dave, another ride participant, I headed out on my own because Dave was taking a different route. I hoped to catch up with other riders who had breakfasted earlier. I sped along the A484 out of town, up and down as the road went from next to the River Teifi to the forested hillsides. No professional rider sent to chase down a group of escapees can have felt a thrill as great as I experienced on catching up with a clutch of other Whoosh participants in the town of Newcastle Emlyn.
Then the climbing started and I found myself in the mental cocoon of intense physical effort, trying to maintain my tempo on the hills and, shamefully, forgetting about my riding companions. I lunched alone in Lampeter while, amid the confusion of our different start times and riding speeds others dined at different places along the High Street.
I talked briefly to the others before we headed off into the beautiful, increasingly wild hills. Jonathan and I rode together briefly along one quiet road in a beautiful valley, with few background sounds other than the bleating of sheep and the wind in the trees.
But the day also provided reminders of my limits. After I reached Devil’s Bridge, I recognised the weak feeling in my legs was a hunger that I normally don’t feel when riding. I felt ashamed of the times I’ve mentally tutted at others who insisted on breaks on rides. “This is what they were feeling,” I realised, buying a lemon cake and coffee from the Vale of Rheidol Railway’s café.
As I ate them, I thought about this year’s Whoosh charities. Gaza Sunbirds normally seeks to extend to people with physical limitations the excitement of cycling as part of a racing team. But, amid the war in their territory, the group is tackling more fundamental issues – the shortage of food and other basics in the territory. CHIPS peacemaking, meanwhile, seeks to help those whose circumstances deprive them of the peaceful society that is a precondition for any human flourishing.
Revived, I pressed on, across the rolling hills. To my right, I could see the River Rheidol in the newly emerged sun, snaking along the valley bottom. Villages, chapels and farms flashed by. Suddenly, I could see the town of Aberystwyth and the sea, far below me but approaching fast.
As I rolled into the pretty resort, I was reflecting on the profound satisfaction of setting one’s mind to something difficult and achieving it. I have the rich world privilege of setting myself challenges and the personal circumstances that make them less daunting. It is humbling to remember the far more limited choices that others enjoy.
