A special day today as my younger son, Rupert, joins me and his brother as a cyclist on main roads. Where I live most the roads are either quiet cul-de-sacs or private so he has been cycling along streets for some time but when travelling along main roads he has been on the pavement and his brother on the road. Being with both of them at the same time has been quite difficult.
I guard him from the rear by controlling the road space around him but on some manoeuvres that is a challenge. Turning right across on-coming traffic is enough to give me a heart attack even in a 20mph street. Watching Rupert stop, poised to turn right, as a BMW X5 hurtles towards us on our side of the road with the driver mobile in hand can be a somewhat aging process. Fortunately, a driver in a Jaguar XK stopped to let us cross.
Many cyclists will deal with these sorts of life or death situations for themselves on a daily basis but when your own child is just ahead of you in the middle of a busy main road the thought of witnessing their last moments is chilling. How could I give the news to his mother?
To cap it all I was freezing (clearly not actually freezing but I was very cold). Cycling by myself on a very cold day is one thing but cycling slowly behind a beginner at just above walking pace as he assesses the pot-holed roads and parked cars is another.
However, cycling through the Surrey countryside with my children; as my father, in his time, did with me and my siblings; provides warmth to the coldest journey.
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