theanxiouscyclist

“there is a narrow path between fear and exhilaration…..”

  • Age of anxiety

    I still don’t know what triggers panic attacks. They start slowly, from nowhere and then arrive in an unstoppable wave. Like watching an oncoming headlight which appears to be far in the distance, a tiny spark, far away, no threat.… Continue reading

  • Navigation issues

    I like navigating on rides but I find it hard to navigate friendships though. Route finding your way across the landscape is much easier than route finding in social situations. I also have a bad reputation among my cycling friends… Continue reading

  • Secret lanes

    The land hasn’t died this year. It is still green and not yet black as it should be in December. This old year refuses to die even while new life springs from the withered flesh, the sagging skin, the emaciated… Continue reading

  • Sunday service at the Church of the Wheel

    A book that has never been out of print since 1679 and was for a long time the best selling book in the English language apart from the King James Bible and yet many people have today neither read it… Continue reading

  • March 2024…the light beckons

    The tile tossing, branch breaking, cloud chasing, leaf stripping, mad March winds have ended, at least for a moment. Better weather, is here for a day and hope flourishes. The green spirits of spring are stirring beneath the land. A… Continue reading

  • Lost in winter gloom January 2024

    A tree lined lane, branches interleaved to create a dark tunnel of winter bare stems. A flash of white as an owl passes silently overhead.  The moon shines through a gap in the branches, illuminating daffodil stalks glowing ghostly white.… Continue reading

  • Winter riding January 2024

    Weeks of rain. The steep lane down to the house runs brown with runoff from the empty fields and the lawn is more puddle than grass.  Then, one day the weather suddenly changes. Frost sparkles on the grass, clouds are… Continue reading

  • Winter riding December 2023

    Today is a day to head west chasing the low winter sun down past St Ives and onto St Just. By the time I reach West Penwith I  haven’t seen a car for more than half an hour. Every isolated… Continue reading

  • Winter riding November 2023

    Winter has arrived: it’s too far to drive to calendar events up near Bristol or the Midlands but I still want to be challenged and have a reason to go out. My riding friends shudder at the thought of staying… Continue reading

  • Was this a good idea…?

    I am completely lost just ten kilometres from home. There is a rats nest of narrow, twisting lanes to the north of Truro that either follow or climb over numerous steep sided river valleys, converging on the cathedral city. Truro… Continue reading

Latest Posts

  • I have moved to substack

    Thank you for clicking onto this site. If you want to continue reading or find out what I have been doing recently then look up: woodland place.substasck.com Substack is a free social media site for writers and journalists mainly. Unlike… Continue reading

  • The end of summer

    It is early Sunday morning and I am on a bike, on a mission to do another 100 mile ride for no good reason other than making me feel better about myself, which is a poor reason, but the only… Continue reading

  • Memoirs of a geography teacher

    Memoirs of a geography teacher

    Once I was a geography teacher,  Coloured chalk and the spirit narcotic of Banda machines Graffitied textbookss and dusty slides.  Lists of things that must be named and some jokes I tell Every year, every year…. Store cupboards filled with… Continue reading

  • Exeter-Cheddar-Exeter: a 200km DIY audax ride

    Stars align and the weather looks feasible as I keep going through online weather sites looking for confirmation that all will be well and the rain will hold off but who am I kidding? It probably won’t rain until 4pm. … Continue reading

  • Sunday service at the Church of the Wheel

    A book that has never been out of print since 1679 and was for a long time the best selling book in the English language apart from the King James Bible and yet many people have today neither read it… Continue reading

  • Secret lanes

    The land hasn’t died this year. It is still green and not yet black as it should be in December. This old year refuses to die even while new life springs from the withered flesh, the sagging skin, the emaciated… Continue reading

  • Ah Cornwall, warm winds, ice cream, turquoise surf, soft sand and quaint villages.

    Lung busting, handlebar fighting, knee crunching. I can hear the ragged breath of the four riders behind me unable to get past on a track just wider than my bars. Brambles hang down from the trees ripping at arms and… Continue reading

  • A good day out

    Once I was lively and now I am merely alive but that in itself is an achievement worth maintaining even with a long walk uphill pushing this infernal machine and serenaded by song thrushes from the coconut scented exuberance of… Continue reading

  • The Hidden Life of Angels: My Cycling Companion

    Sometimes I go out for bike rides with an angel. I do mean a real ‘angel’. Not someone who is just ‘angelic’, but a genuine angel. No I didn’t believe it either but he is now my regular ride partner… Continue reading

  • In memoriam

    Frost has bladed the grass but it will soon be gone. It has already begun to melt where the sun can reach, away from the shade of hedgerows and the winter bare trees. The sky is an intense cold blue.… Continue reading