In which new shoes draw blood

After hearing the weather forecast for another fine and warm afternoon, I am sure we were all keen for a relaxing ride in the sunshine. I had especially been looking forward to this chance to try out my new Shimano cycling shoes and “clipless” pedals. This was my chance to finally show the others what I was really made of.

Bob started his from somewhere near Geelong and met up with me at Wandin, where I was able to unveil my “secret weapons”. Once I managed to get my feet engaged (or maybe married) to the pedals we set off in high spirits and calm weather. After about 10 mins I had learned everything I needed to know about clipless pedals and cleated shoes (and to think the pamphlets said they took some getting used to).

We cruised on without incident until Bob’s bladder again gave way (unfortunate legacy of many years of steroid abuse). and he had to stop for another pitstop at the Yarra Junction toilets. In fact that guy has more pitstops than a pregnant woman. By this time John had woken up from his sleep and unpacked his bike from the car. While I was waiting for John to get ready I thought I would demonstrate how easy it was to ride in these high tech shoes, especially at low speed. Started off doing a slow tight circle, but when I needed to plant the foot on the dirt, I discovered to my horror that it was still attached to the bike tighter than a pitbull’s jaws. So the bike bit the dust with both my feet still stuck in their fatal grip. Ouch, well I guess it was only a small amount of skin I lost – could have been much worse. It did dent the confidence a little though.

While Bob stood by and laughed at my misfortune John disappeared up the trail and out of sight. We had never seem him move so fast, so off we went in hot pursuit. The only trouble was that after we had gone a couple of km there was still no sign of him. Surely John could not have improved his speed so much. We did hear the echo of his whistle on one occasion but not a trace of the man himself.

After a couple more km we stopped to reassess the situation and the mystery was solved. There was John in the distance (BEHIND US), puffing and panting, trying to catch up. It appears the poor guy was hiding in the bushes to scare us but we rode past so fast we spoiled his joke.

A few minutes later we reached Warburton to find Mal sipping another of his enormous cappuccinos. We enjoyed a lazy lunch while I examined the damage to my knee. By this time the day had developed into the perfect riding afternoon – fine, cool and NO WIND.

The return ride went without incident, apart from the time when John tried to get a few laughs by wearing his underpants over his head!!! Man you can’t take some people anywhere. It was bad enough when he only tucked his tracky pants into his socks.