Lob shots keep falling on my head

For the first time in about twenty years I was on a bike today. It is a short trip to the local tennis court that we usually walk. My son said why we don’t we take the bikes for a change. After getting permission from my other son for a loan of his cycle, off we went.

It is said that you never forget how to ride a bike. In seconds I was on the saddle and pedalling through the revolutions. The wind was in my hair cutting a dashing figure. I was pedalling fast then slow then medium pace; eat your heart out, Butch Cassidy. There was only one street to navigate before we come to the rural area just outside the park. To take a bend I had to slow down and guess what? I clean forgot about the brakes. I used the heels of my trainers to decelerate the machine. What’s happening here? Is cycling like Speedway? My son whizzed past.

“What are you playing at?”

“How do you stop this thing?”

“The brakes are on the handle bars.”

Silly me. I soon got used to braking at tight corners and steep slopes. I gave myself a slap on the back when we reached our rendezvous in one piece. You would have thought I was a natural at the bike game. My sprinting wasn’t great but I did have good endurance. If I keep at this I’ll be King of the Mountains one day.

Afterward (6-3, 6-1 to me, I’m a bit of a tennis specialist in my spare time, y’know) I was glad that I was not a swimmer. I don’t swim. Swimming isn’t important. If I had been away from swimming for twenty years and dived into the deep end maybe I would have forgotten one little thing -just like the brakes on the bike- with catastrophic consequences.