i put an advert on my local gumtree for a cycling partner and tdy(being a good day ,thought it was a great day to go out on bikes)before this we hadnt met each other so i didnt even have a clue if he/she was male /female ,a few emails and i set out ,
now this person had said to me they had limited exp and werent very confident on road ,,so i wanted to go to decathlon for a new jacket and i sorted out a fairly quiet route in my head ,i cycled down to meet them (opp direction from where we were heading )
met up (girl ,early 30s ,a bit heavy ,on a singlespeed )i was on my road bike ,the girl informed that she came from islay ,had never drove and was scared by traffic ,great start!
so we set off (top speed 7mph )and about a mile up the road i could see she was struggling so i suggested we stopped for a breather .this was repeated 4 times in three miles until she admitted defeat and phoned a friend to come get her (who wasnt in -more on that later) (apart from the speed she was really close to the kerb and parked cars ,very apprehensive around any sort of moving traffic and even got off her bike in the middle of a junction and walked across causing more hassle than she needed to (her defence was she was too stressed out -bearing in mind i was behind her and no need for panic at all)
so we were halfway to decathlon and i was thinking her plan was a good choice as i didnt want her to get out there and not able to cycle home .so ,phoned a friend ,no answer and i said id cycle back with her and make sure she got home ok
the route back was much the same(stopping ,speed ,junction walk offs ),anyway got her back to a wee cafe next to her house no drama (well ,you know ,no offs or anything )
she was well impressed when i told her we done six mile (her biggest cycle was prev to the shops and back(less than a mile along the canal path )
dont think iv ever been at that stage but if i was iv came on leaps and bounds !i mean im no pro and im rubbish but compared to her ,,,,anyway iv been in confusion as some posts in here are by people whos stats are a bit much for a beginner ,what struck me tdy was how relative beginner actually is ,!
canal path from now on !