Champion enjoys the 'dark' side of cycling

by Pip Read - Australian and world masters champion cyclist

I have a confession to make. I love riding in the dark! It feels like I am floating. Very surreal! It's like you are out by yourself with no one else in the world. Well at least until a car or (at least for me) a potato farmer's truck comes sailing past and snaps you back to reality!

I've been riding and training in the early mornings for years but since I've been working part time in a bike shop in town, and with winter upon us, I'm heading home 25km away in the dark. I've re-discovered how much I have missed riding in the dark.

Just to give you a mental picture, I travel along quiet country roads in the dark and cold, usually with a head wind. I have two head lights and two tail lights on the bike, one head light and one tail light on the helmet, reflecting strips on my shoe covers and more clothing than I can list. I'm sure it's a sight. Having said that, you still need to have your wits about you this time of the year.

I have had some interesting problems coming into the shop now that the weather is turning. One customer came in the other day complaining about a strange noise coming from the rear of his bike. It turned out that the rear chain stay was full of water. We could work out how the water got in but do you think we could get it out? And being a very expensive bike the owner was not keen on drilling a hole in his carbon frame. We are still waiting for some advice from the importers on how to solve the problem. The funny thing is that every now and again the chain stay must have an increase in pressure and a little of the water escapes.

Recently the first race in the time trial series was held on Kew Boulevard in Melbourne. All week the weather forecast varied between rain, showers and storms and just to top it off wind. I have raced this circuit a few times and I was not looking forward to racing it in that sort of weather. As it turned out it was neither; the road was only a bit damp on the first of two laps. I had a few problems with the gears on the time trial bike. As I was being held on the line I must have knocked the leaver a bit because when I left the start I heard a loud crunching noise followed by the chain jumping from the big to the small chain ring. After a bit of re-adjusting of leavers I was back on track.

I must admit to being a bit surprised at winning my grade and also getting the fastest time for the women on the day, as it did not feel that fast. The only pity is that I will have to miss one of the rounds as it is on a Saturday and I work Saturday's although we did have a few DNS so it may work out OK.

I hope you managed to watch the cycling action from Europe in the past few weeks. We were glued to the Giro racing as we were in Italy last year. We even had the map on the floor of the lounge room following this year's event and dreaming of going next year.

Please stay safe on the roads over winter and keep warm. I'm loving the SheSpoke fleecy head band. Use lots of lights on your bike and yourself (i.e. Christmas tree!) the way that I think about lights is "the more the better".

Talk soon

Pip