Monday 3rd May - The Fred Whitton Challenge. What a fun day! 114 miles of twisty Lake District passes, 143 hi-res pictures, 11 hours on the road and a lot less rubber on the edges of my tyres than there used to be. I set off at 8am to follow the race, riding ahead then stopping at promising locations to take pictures. Riding down Kirkstone Pass, only a short while into the race, I was flagged down by some cyclists because one of them had gone through a drystone wall at between 40 & 50mph wearing nothing more protective than some skin-tight lycra and a baseball cap. Seems his only injuries were a *suspected* broken arm and leg. That lycra must be better than body armour! After I'd called the ambulance I borrowed a fleece blanket to keep him warm and stayed with him to keep him talking and also to flag down the ambulance when it arrived. Then I had to stop traffic and wave through the other cyclists[1] or wave frantically at the cyclists if the traffic wasn't stoppable. Made plenty of 'thumbs up' signs to bikers who saw my Fazer against the wall with its hazards on. Then I had to GLF to catch up with the lead riders before they got to anywhere photogenic. After the race I had to find his co-racer who was waiting to drive him home and let him know which hospital he'd gone to then had to let the race organisers know that a certain rider was in hospital. All in all, a day of fun and biking lunacy over the Lake District passes. [1] You need *very* good brakes to stop when riding down Kirkstone Pass or a lot of forewarning.
