Tour de France - Kraftwerk

Fascists. That's the only word that can describe the PE teachers at our school. Maybe they are the same the world over but we had our fair share of sadistic and cruel sports masters. Actually, as long as you fit into one of their pre-conceived ideas of what makes a good sports person you were fine. Stray from their narrow minded view and you were doomed. Doomed to be cannon fodder for their chosen ones. It's not that I wasn't keen on sport, its just that I didn't particularly enjoy rugby - the school's sport of choice. So many a games session was spent facing up to the schools A-team. And it hurt.

Me? Well I was much happier on my bike. Fresh air and only the open road in front of me. In fact me and my mates cycled everywhere; both locally and further afield getting as far as the southern lake district in a single day. We were fit, not by bashing the hell out of each other on a rugby field but by grinding out mile after mile in all weathers. That didn't matter to our PE teachers. Every test in school was geared towards proving how superior their chosen ones were. Not that I'm bitter. Well maybe a little.

Anyway it got to the point where we started to take cycling seriously...... and bought some lycra shorts. Judging by the reaction of those people we passed wearing our newly purchased sportswear you would've thought that we'd taken to wearing pink leotards and lipstick. Lycra was new to Hartlepool and, for some, it was just too much. Never mind - we shrugged off the laughter and kept on going. And going. And going......

And I've being going ever since, eventually swapping the smoothness of tarmac for the unpredictability of the mountain trails. But throughout the wheels kept turning.

With the success of Team GB in the in the Olympics, cycling is finally getting the recognition it deserves. And we are beating the world at it. From the Tour de France to the velodrome Great Britain rules the world. Or at least the wheels of the world. So I dedicate this blog to those medal winners of Team GB and, of course, to those who dared to wear Lyrca in the face of public ridicule.