I’m not talking an easy slip past in traffic in the gutter, as the cars queue for the lights, but a big, dramatic overtake on the outside of the car, accelerating past and away as I took a quick look at the driver. It’s moments like that that make each commute different and makes you feel a bit special. In one movement you’re a faster and bigger road user than a hunk of metal being piloted along the London streets. I was powerful and higher in the road food chain just for a bit.
Ok, ok the car was a small blue Micra. And it was a learner driver. It was slow pulling off from the traffic lights (although I actually did wait behind the car at the lights), and I’ve never seen a slower car along a straight bit of road. But I still think that as a cyclist on the roads of North London any victory over a car is worth taking. So I stand by my bigging-up of myself. It ranks along with the time that I overtook a scooter on a road with speed ramps (now that was a day…) and the opportunity I had to totally blitz away from an invalid carriage at a pelican crossing. I will be chalking it up in my shrine to beating other road users, with trophies of my victories. The shrine sits in the back of the understairs cupboard (and Four Miles lives in a ground floor flat) and occasionally I like to go and spend time with it to remember those great rides.
Following on from my alerting you to the possibility of riding next to Beyoncé if she’s ever in town, it also turns out that you might be more likely to pull up to lights next to a different star of stage, screen, and music. Someone who has broken hearts, sung to an entire generation of teenage girls who wished they were Kylie Minogue, and, more recently, performed at Bristol’s Brannighans. Yes, I was recently informed that Jason Donovan rides a bike home every night after his role in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Look out for him next time you’re riding along Shaftesbury Avenue. If you need more proof look here and here.
A
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