Racing....

Last night I got perved on by a van driver. Rather than be offended I was cheered, quite frankly it's about bloody time.

So I was waiting at a junction and the guys were making mock bets on which of the three cyclists at the lights would get across the junction first and whether the van would beat them all. I tried to ignore it but I could feel my heart thumping as my eyes focused on the amber light. Come on baby turn!

As soon as it was lit I stood up on the pedals and bombed across. If I'm honest I don't think I went particularly fast and I often bomb across that particular spot as it's a very wide junction and the lights change quickly. What shocked me was that I beat the van. They looked sheepish as they caught up but the passenger had the good grace to shout 'You're quite fast, well done mate!' before they turned off. I was on a high and for that reason I tackled the horrible steep hill near my parents rather than use the workaround route. I managed to get up it with two gear changes and some heavy breathing and glided down the hill to their house.

I made dad's dinner, washed up, did some ironing, met the lovely bass player who will be playing fr me at a mate's wedding and got down to more ironing (mum was out or she never would have allowed me to do her housework).

I prepared to set off home at about 9.15pm and, because I was in a good mood I decided to go the more difficult route home. Again, a big hill is involved. Halfway up the hill is a set of traffic lights. I pulled up and prepared for the steeper second leg. Two young men on nice-looking roadies pulled up behind as the lights changed and without stopping nosed ahead. I snapped.

I don't know if the van race earlier on had galvanised me but I went off like a shot and even though I stopped at the second light* I still beat them to the top and remained in front all the way home. I was going at least 20mph on the flat it felt fantastic to hear 'Oh God mate, we're having the s*** beaten out of us by a girl!' floating on the breeze. I never got terribly far ahead and we were all giggling about it when we stopped at the roundabout near my house and we both shouted a friendly 'Night' when I turned off into my street.

I wasn't going very far and they'd probably been at the pub all night but it felt good all the same. When I first got a road bike a friend nodded knowingly and said 'Soon you'll be visualising yourself in the yellow jersey.' A couple of months later not only do I know what that means but sadly enough I can visualise it. Tour de Ealing here I come.

*They didn't stop at the light and asked why I didn't just run it. They were shocked when I told then they could get fined for running them.