Red hot cycling ace goes for the burn...

MaNY of the kids on our council estate in the early sixties had part-time jobs. If it could be delivered on foot or by bicycle we were what logistics specialists now term ‘the delivery solution’. Most of the cash I earned as a ‘delivery solution’ went straight to the bike shop. My friends and I soon joined the local bike club and started racing. we idolised the continental pros and always had to have the latest kit to look like them. Easter 1961 and five of us, the oldest going on 15, decided to tour the Highlands, staying in youth hostels. The day of departure dawned with rain beating on my bedroom window. off we went, spirits high, oilskin capes flapping in the gale, splashing along, flat out. by late afternoon we arrived, drenched to the skin, at aberfoyle youth hostel. Thankfully, there was a drying room and our woollen cycling shorts and jerseys (lycra had yet to be invented) were soon dripping from the overhead pulley or steaming on the radiators. but we needed to pack our sodden leather cycling shoes with newspaper and there was none. My best pal andrew then had a brainwave. The hostel kitchen had a cooking range and we could dry our shoes in the oven. we were not convinced, but he was determined to prove he was the genius among us. His shoes were placed on a baking tray and the heavy iron oven door swung shut. Time passed, andrew’s confidence visibly rose, his doubters were about to be proved wrong. as the door was opened a delicious aroma of stewing steak billowed out and made our mouths water, but then the baking tray with smoking shoes emerged. The uppers stood vertical, separated from the soles. only the heels remained glued. on the upside, it has to be said that andrew’s shoes were perfectly dry. oh, how cruel we were, giggling and laughing. and how he punished us for the rest of the week, racing ahead on every hill, looking like a Tour de France professional — except, of course, for the shoes held together with string and insulating tape.

Ian Clark, Freuchie, Fife.