Re Della Corsa

Hi from Manchester, England.

Historic day yesterday eh?

Did you know that on that day in 1297, the English were defeated at Stirling Bridge by William Wallace? Did You also know that in 1777 Geoge Washington was defeated by the British under General Howe at Brandywine Creek?

D.H. Lawrence was also born in 1885 not far from where Raleigh Bikes were manufactured in the county of Nottingham, England.

In 1914 W.C. Handy publishes St. Louis Blues, recorded over 100 times since.

1928 saw the worlds first television play transmitted from New York.

Jep, I know!



Anyway, as you may know the Brits usually start a conversation with the subject of "weather" and its been the worst summer I can remember here, fortunately I spent a month in France and Italy and got burnt.

Don't know how you feel about this but I have a son who is 11 and we both did the "Lombard" in the Alps---------THE HARD WAY! You may know that this Col is one of the most famous in the Tour De France along with the Bonnette and Le Alp D'Huez.

We actually cycled from the Col summit off-road along the alpine ridge and down to the Sactuary St.Anna and then back up (after a further steep descent) again off-road, to the summit. The ride is only about 12 miles but it was scorching and incredibly rocky mule tracks.

Most of the cycling seemed to be uphill since the downhill bits were mainly walking down 60degree alpine paths. I got burnt twice; once by the earths sun and again by my own son! Unbelieveably he was ready for more after, while I was prostrate. I'm thinking of nick-naming him "Lance", especially after he took off on the really steepest part of the final zig-zags, glanced back into my squinting eyes and contorted, gasping face and disappeared around one of the hairpins. I'm begining to wonder just who the hell his dad was! I decided to buy him a Rabobank "Deni Menchov" cap on the Alp D'huez to remind him that even top cyclists can fall off unexpectedly!

Hope to read some good stuff from you all soon.

Cheers fellow pedlars, or is it pedalers?

East Hill

Hello RDC, I am originally from Swinton, although I have lived most my life in the United States. I do go home to visit the rellies as often as I can afford to do so! What part of the city are you in?

We be happy pedalers here, even at the risk of falling off one's bicycle .

Welcome to BF, and feel free to PM me with any questions !

East Hill
Forum Moderator

HigherGround

Welcome to the Forums! I had spent a semester in Eastbourne, and I've had an affinity for England ever since. By the way, I enjoy the "British humour" in your post! It's amazing that there can be so much dry humour in such a wet country.

Re Della Corsa

Hi both of you.Amazing! I'm from Swinton too!

My smirking young 'un learned his trade down the Irwell Valley on a fixed wheel "Fireman Sam" bike I'd taken the stabilisers off when ages 3.

Great performances from the GB cycling team at the Olympics eh? This is due partly to the great facility at the Velodrome in Bradford, now Eastlands, East Manchester. Many top cyclists re-locate close to here for this reason now, including triple gold winner Chris Hoy. Sometime it's like a who's who of cycling down there on training days.

My son now wants to join the Eastlands Velo club and become the next Sastre or Valverde as he says. In fact he also wants all the jerseys, yellow like Contador and Sastre, green for best sprinter like Cavendish, KOM like Kohl and white for best young 'un like Andy Schlek, so I told him about Eddy Merckx.

It was great during Le Tour recently as I was ribbing him by pretending to favour Cadel Evans and he Sastre. I have to say Evans isn't everyones cup of tea but I do like his determination and will to keep going against all attacks. The CSC team threw everything at him for 3 weeks and still only managed to win by a few seconds.

Hope to read some more from you people soon.

Cheers again

Stonecarver

You must be living in the wrong part of Britain Re Della corsa, I live up in the far North of Scotland and I must say we have had the best summer since 1995 up here It has been fantastic !

One quick question are you blue or red.

I used to live in Rossendale an ride with the Rossendale Road Club many years ago. I wish we'd had the vellodrum back then. I loved the hard track but never really got much chance to compete other than a couple of visits to Kirkby and once to Nottingham and Leicester.

Just getting back into cycling after 22 years off.

It hurts more than I remember.

Re Della Corsa

Hi Stonecarver,

Do you know we've been waiting for some good weather for years up in Scotland so that we can have a week or two there without coming back with mildew. I've scanned the weather forecasts diligently with repeated disappointments. We now go to the continent more because of this.

My favourite places are the north west Highlands, especially around Argyll and further NW.

One of the most memorable weeks was spent touring from Glencoe to Ullapool. we stayed camping wild near Dundonnell and the pub hotel there was a godsend, especially for my wife. The management were absolutely super and allowed us to use their facilities even though they knew we were camping further up the valley.


My son goes to school in Bury and we have been regular visitors on the East Lancs Railway that runs up Rossendale to Rawtenstall with steam locos every week-end now.

I am a staunch blue by the way, as were all my ancestors going back to the days of Billy Meredith who my grandad used to watch at Hyde Rd.

We're the richest club in the world you know?

Hope to read some more soon


Cheers

East Hill

Hehehehe, my father was as red as they come--he was born just 'around the corner' from Old Trafford .

East Hill