Things you hear on a bike

When you head out on a bike with another cyclist or a group of cyclists there are many different topics of conversation. You hear about their training and racing , their families and jobs and quite a bit else besides .

Last weekend I was out on the bike with a friend who I had not seen in a while. We were jumping from one topic to another when he came out with a gem of a story ;

His girlfriend has an aunt who is a Nun in her seventies . Recently she was on a trip to Boston and was staying in a nice downtown hotel.

After she checked in she proceeded to the elevator where she was preceded by a coloured gentleman . Just as she stepped into the elevator he spoke to her and said ‘ Hit the floor ma’am !’

Having heard about the dangers of the city from her colleagues in the convent she knew better than to argue and immediately made her way down onto the floor of the elevator and placed her hands over her head . She then calmly spoke and asked ‘please don’t rob me. I have very little of material value ‘

The man in the lift then burst out laughing and explained that he just meant for her to hit the Button for whatever floor she required .

The little nun apologised profusely for the misunderstanding and the guy was still laughing when she stepped out of the elevator on her required floor .

The Nun soon forgot about the incident until she was checking out of the hotel 2 days later when the receptionist informed her that her hotel bill had already been paid and handed her an envelope containing a brief note . The note said ;

‘ Thanks for the best laugh I have had in ages , regards , Will Smith ‘ !!!

I also recently heard a story recounted about a training group in Limerick a few years back who had a dramatic end to a winter training spin .

As the racing season approached a group of Limericks finest cyclists , some of whom were amongst the best in the country at the time , were towards the end of a good training spin when they noticed a guy in a yellow jacket up ahead .

Like all cyclists the ‘carrot in front of the donkey syndrome’ kicked in and the pace began to gradually increase as they started to reel him in. He was still hanging out there as the speed got faster and faster.

Before long the whole group were doing up and over which soon turned into a full on team time trial. The lone rider up ahead still managed to hold them off. A training spin now became a race and all caution was thrown to the wind . Riders were now being shelled left right and centre .

The group was thinned down to just 4 then 3 and when there were just 2 riders left the super strong Davy Hourigan really put the hammer down to close up the final few hundred meters alone to the rider up ahead .

Just as they approached Limerick city the gap was eventually closed only to discover that the potential All Ireland TT champion up ahead was in fact a local council worker on a Honda 50 !!!

Barry