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Cycling Shorts is your platform for news, call-outs, views and opinions on anything cycling-related. We’re keen to hear your biking tales, old or new. Drop us an email with the details. We’re looking for all types of short stories from Audax riders, with a picture of yourself too if possible.

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Sun hat, sandals – and a sunny smile

A stalwart of the Audax community, Geoff Bell, has passed away, aged 82 after a long illness. A native of Sheffield, he lived for much of his life in Glossop in the Derbyshire peaks, and was a keen member of The Rucksack Club, a group for people who love the outdoors. Indeed, he was club president from 2003 to 2004, and an honorary member. His friend and fellow cyclist, Gerry Goldsmith remembers a cheerful and competitive rider who loved a challenge…

Geoff had been a good time-trialling cyclist in his early years – from 10 miles to 24 hours. He joined the Rucksack Club and completed many challenges, his true talent being for long distance walks and rides. Geoff joined Audax and decided to do Paris-Brest-Paris. Having cycled with him on Rucksack Club meets, I encouraged him and in 1999 we did most of our qualifying rides together. Well “together” isn’t quite right – Geoff used to set off like a rocket and I would catch him up after about 100k! This happened on the figure-ofeight 400k from York, where the first loop was flattish and the second half hilly. He was tired after his fast start. In the 1999 PBP Geoff, always competitive, set off fast. I caught him up at a control at 200km, and from then on we cycled together – going at the same speed. It was good to have company, especially through the nights. Cycling up the hill out of Brest we met a group of six cyclists from Nice, and started chatting, Geoff using his schoolboy French which had them in stitches. Geoff’s sandals and sunhat were the epitome of the eccentric Englishman, contrasting with their smart club attire. Then they noticed he’d lost his false teeth – more hilarity. We cycled with them to the finish. Geoff particularly liked extreme DIY Audaxes. He rode Land’s End to John O’Groats in 2000 as part of the four Sea-Summit permanents, plus walking up the summits of Snowden, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis. This trip took him just over eight days. Then he devised a 1,000km route from Calais to the summit of Ventoux, a DIY Mer-Montagne randonnée which had to be submitted to FFCT and validated. I remember helping him construct emails in French. In the Lake District on a Rucksack Club weekend ride, with panniers, our route had to take a section of A-road, which was not too busy. There was a time-trial on, and a couple of riders passed our group, head-down, going like the clappers. Geoff suddenly accelerated, latched on behind them and kept up with them for some distance, until we had to turn off. They couldn’t believe this old geezer, in hat and sandals, with panniers, could go so quickly. Geoff always wanted a new challenge, and he loved planning them. Seventy AAA points at the age of 70 was another he completed. He was always cheerful and wore a smile even in tough times. When a few years ago he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, it hardly dented his cheerful demeanour. We will all miss him and his stories.

Gerry Goldsmith CS

A magical mystery tour… of Kent

Bob Watts invites you to go on a treasure hunt through the historic county of Kent – his daughter Louise has even drawn a map…

Kent is a county of riches – a place crammed with interesting, unusual, even exotic things – and if you follow this treasure map by entering one of the Fairies Crown Rides on 3 October this year you’ll find a hoard of jewels.

The route’s start and arrivée is in Ulcombe, where many of the church bells of east Kent were cast in the foundry established there by Thomas Hatch in the 15th century. If you listen out on your Sunday ride you’ll hear the many that still ring out.

There’s also Wye’s famous crown, cut into the hillside of the North Downs by students from the local agricultural college celebrating the coronation of King Edward VII in

A magical mystery tour… of Kent

1902, which looks over the first control on the village green, as does the village sign, with other clues to the past of this historic village.

You’ll get deeper into the Kent Downs AONB on your way to Deal on the Crown and Anchor 200 or take a turn towards the High Weald AONB on the Half Crown 100, passing Port Lympne, now a port far from the sea but home to many exotic species.

At Deal you might see ships at anchor, sheltered by the Goodwin Sands which once would have set their chronometer by the time ball.

On the clifftops over to Dover you’ll get the best view of the castle and, on a clear day, France. Hidden away to your left is the monument to Louis Blériot, the first person to fly the Channel. But this is not the town’s only claim to aviation fame. Just a few years later on Christmas Eve 1914, it became the first place in Britain to be bombed from the air. There are, too, rich associations with Ian Fleming whose silhouette memorial looks like the one in the opening sequence of early Bond films.

Should the infernal goddess of wind be raging, your crossing of the shelter-less Romney Marsh to reach the Denge Ness (which means “sticky-out-bit” in Old Norse) will be an endurance test. Here the lighthouse – one of seven built here through the ages – will guide you, although Dungeness nuclear power station is more prominent. It took the blame for the three-eyed fish that were allegedly found in these waters by conspiracy theorists. At the café you can admire the wonderful train set of a Count and a Captain from a century ago.

Passing through King Edward I’s Winchelsea is a trip through a new port town just seven centuries old. Abandoned by the sea but still a Cinque Port with mayor, corporation and freemen, the churchyard houses the controversial grave of the most famous Goon – Spike Milligan.

The two routes converge at Milkhouse Street where once the notorious Hawkhurst Gang smuggled and stole before being routed in the Battle of Goudhurst in 1747. Milkhouse Street changed its name because of the rebellious connotations. Back at the arrivée there will be no smuggling or battles, just soup and home-made sweet things, and a chance to chat through the treasures you passed by, or that passed you by. If you don’t like the map there will be a GPS file and route sheet. Bob Watts

CS