Tears and the Tempest

Every year when we start the third stage of Ride of Hope in Göteborg it rains. Some faces amongst the cyclists are strained, desperate almost wishing that someone would steal their bike so they'd have to leave in the towel. That's when I take the speakers microphone, remind them of why we're here, why we're doing this; and that the rain? well those are the childrens tears, not of pain, not of despair, but of joy. Joy for us that are out there and in our own unique way are telling them we care.

This day, if the tears were the children, then the tempest was cancer.
We rode head first into a storm the likes of which I've never cycled in before.
After 22kms our group was stopped by an Italien cyclist warning us "You cannot go up there, go back"
The script was being set. Oddly enough, we were the days fast group. The only thing that was fast this day though was the approaching storm.

Branches and leaves lay strewn across the road as we headed westward inland towards Mount Carpegna. Earlier I joked that we should be nine (we were eight) so as to replicate the heroes in the Lord of the Rings.
Today all of us were ringbearers. All of us fought with the storm. It was as though cancer had manifested itself into the wind and was desperately trying to push us back.

But then my prayers were answered: Rain started to fall, and it with it the clear message:
"Remember the children" .... and from this point onward, the windblew harder and the rain whipped our faces. Sure it hurt but as one often hears "Pain is temporary, Glory is forever!" Well, so is Death and I ain't about to give up on this.

Many cyclists that have ridden in these parts will know that the road splits at the base of Carpegna. At this point myself and Carolina were some 200 yards back behind the group. Our high-profile wheels were making it hard to control the bike. As we rounded a turn that was momentarily shielding us from the wind a blast of air knocked us back so hard that we were suddenly doing 2km/h, bending our handlebars for all we were worth in an attempt to put some power down through the pedals, and all this in a minus 2% gradient!!!

We were both shaking from the cold, we had previously taken shelter for 30 minutes in a restaurant halfway up our 1,000 meter ascent. My fingers were now numb, stabbing pain was searing through my toes and my face was being pummeled with wind and rain.
We headed east of Carpegna into the valley and then up, up the ascent toward the top. Several times Carolina and I were close to being blown off the road. The wind beat us repeatedly, but this was nothing compared to what was to come. We stopped at yet another restaurant a mere 10kms from the previous one. We were slowly eating away at the days stage.
Per-Håkans group rode past just as we entered the restaurant. One of the group shouted at him but his voice was lost on the wind. Pasta for the group, coffee and biscuits for me. On the tv the news was showing snowstorms just to the north of us in Bolzano. Motorists snowed in, vehicles in ditches, we were obviously in this storm, but the weather was just to warm (an absurd word in the circumstances) for snow. 1 minute later the weather report said tomorrow would see sunny skies and 21 - 27c!

me at the top of the 1,000 meter ascent

After our lunch-stop, the rain had receeded, and we were a lot dryer. Heading out for the final ascent spirits were high. We didn't stop at the top to enjoy the view but took a quick decision to avoid San Leo. This descent is fast and furious and in this weather you can add 'deadly dangerous' to the list. It didn't really matter which way we took but we broke off the Villagrande - San Leo road halfway down to head to Novafeltria.

Here the wind was more treacherous than ever. Sudden gusts, no, sudden blasts of wind would have you hanging on to your bike for dear life. Leaning up to 20% to one side in order to just stay on the road. Then the wind would suddenly stop and you'd be fighting to get the bike straight again and not to hit the tarmac.
This all made it impossible to get any speed up, at times we actually rode slower on a 5% decline than on a 5% incline.
The wind was relentless, but then, so were we and we continued to battle on down the mountain. I recognised the road from Nove Colli last year. Then I was one amongst thousands of others battling up the other way. Today I was one of 8 fighting my way down.
Even when we made it to the base, the wind didn't give up, hitting us seemingly from all sides. Once or twice even from behind which was totally unexpected. We kept seeing to the west that the skies were lifting, but the wind wasn't ...  not just yet anyhow... but as we approached Novafeltria, the wind sighed and wilted ... we were still in there.
We'd beaten it, it wasn't easy, I guess it's not supposed to be. Today couldn't have been more symbolic for the kind of battle our children and their families have to go through from the moment they hear that their child has cancer.

Continuing our ride many of us were starting to run empty of energy. Cometh the hour, cometh the man! Dan was the hero of the day in more ways than one. This smiling energetic bundle of a human being with the kind of physique most of us who ride a bike would love to have, produced 4 Snickers which were duly broken in half and passed around among the group. 25kms left. We continued west, into the west. Finally, the outskirts of Bagno di Romagna, the baths of the Romans, built some 2,000 years earlier and we had reached out goal. Our goal for stage one of Ride of Hope Italy.

Hotel Euroterme. Pure class. It has everything you need for the body in need of a quick makeover.
As I stood there showering off, my bike stored for the evening, chain wiped down and oiled for the next day and the feeling coming back into my toes my thoughts travelled home. To those who live daily with that disease. You appreciate what you got. You appreciate how frail life is, and how lucky we are to be dealt with a body and a life that works.
I will never forget this epic journey from Misano to Bagno and I will never forget why I did it either.

What does the coming week have in store I wonder?