Learning to cycle all over again - it's a piece of cake?!

For those who followed my endeavors at learning to ride a bike for my first Highland Cross in 2007 (or maybe those who have foolishly and somewhat dangerously tried to follow me on a bike since then!) it will be of no surprise that it is the cycling section of this challenge that fills me with most dread. There is a popular saying “it's like riding a bike” which suggests that you never forget how to ride a bike. However, I can confirm that not only is this a falsehood, despite 4 years between getting back on a bike and today, I still feel like I'm learning!

Several of my friends have tried to convert me to the hobby of Mountain Biking, and I have to confess I really do enjoy pootling around hill tracks and forest trails on the bike. You can get so much more distance covered and get into areas which would take hours to walk to. Never the less I think these same friends often despair that my enjoyment of Mountain Biking is nothing to do with going fast down trails, in fact entirely the opposite, I like to think I'm very sedate in my descents (if slightly wobbly) – other people of course may just call this slow.

In the my two previous attempts at the Highland Cross I was left convinced that it was the cycling section that let me down. So many people, who I had probably passed on the run, passed me on the bike. It's not that I was worried about my time or placing but it is incredibly disheartening to finish the event in such poor style. My mother on the other hand, who loves her cycling, always says that being able to finish by passing people in the second half of the event helped boost her morale. All I know is I was worried about her being on my tail. Therefore, this year, I have vowed to work harder on my cycling skills. They say practice makes perfect and that things become more enjoyable the better you are, but as well as practice I also have a new secret weapon.... my Mum's race bike!

As Mum isn't competing this year she has kindly lent me her race bike with assurances that this will take at least 10 minutes off the time I managed on her touring bike; Colin told me that Mum's bike was a model that not long ago was used on Tour de France. All that sounded good to me and I gladly accepted the offer, only to find myself the subject of refitting and requiring coaching as both Mum and Colin got me cycling round a car park to learn how to ride this race machine!!

It seems that a race bike is not only different to a mountain bike but it set much lower in the handle bars to a tourer. This did not do my fear of falling over the front of the handle bars any good at all and much raising of the handle bars took place to minimise the wobble factor on the road. The gears are in the wrong place, there isn't enough of them, and you have to lean forward to brake. All of these things are going to require some getting used to, but I am determined to learn, and so yesterday we went out on my favourite local cycle ride to the great coffee shop at Kippen for cake. Cycling may not be a piece of cake for me yet, but I don't mind using a piece of cake as a training incentive.. Yummy!

For the first time ever I was out in front of Colin, it was slightly unfair as he hasn't got a road bike for the event yet, but it was impressive how easily the light race bike handled in the head wind on the way home. I did have some hairy moments setting out and I may even have 'grumped' at Colin when I got the gears back to front, making it slightly harder to go up a hill than I intended, not to mention a huge wobble when a bus passed too close to me. (I really don't understand why when riding a motorbike you put on leathers and a full face helmet yet riding a push bike you apparently just need a bit of plastic on your head?!) However the sunshine, beautiful scenery and quiet roads, not to mention the cake stop in the middle, all helped with a great introductory cycle, and meant I really enjoyed my trip out on the bike. It was a 26 mile trip with a cake stop in the middle; so now I just need to practice more and increase the mileage.. and I suppose I'll have to drop the cake stop too!