Tony Panting is the reason that none of us on the Wednesday Ride can ever use age as an excuse for anything.
This year Tony the Tiger has Time Trialled faster than at any time in his life, set an East Anglian age-record for 100 miles and ridden 213 miles in his first ever 12-hour TT. And the day after these photos was his 75th Birthday.
In fact, he's Grrrrrrrreat!!!!!!!!!
Seven of us gathered at the Bus Stop in downtown Thurston to set off for Clare, where we would help him to an early celebration - meeting up with Kevin Flanagan near Wickhambrook to circle around towards Clare. We had intended a route that would stalk cautiously towards our destination, but still ended up going up (and up) to the seemingly inevitable Poslingford plunge down to Clare, and a Cake and a Candle. We had ordered the cake the week before, hoping that Tony and Maureen's Mallorca holiday wouldn't seduce them into a longer stay. The nightmare of eating the cake by ourselves was too awful to contemplate. There was even a letter to Maureen, pleading that Tony MUST be out this Wednesday.
Justin had brought a tiny plastic Cyclist to decorate the cake,
and then produced a second surprise contribution which involved demonstrating (to general excitement) how they glowed when agitated.
These were then set each side of the cake as sentinels. Richard, of No 1 Delicatessen, had produced a superb sponge cake (generally, we have sufficient fruit cakes with us on the Wednesday ride, without the need for more) filled with the finest Wilkin & Son 'Tiny Tip' Raspberry Conserve. Each enormous slice was so light that we had to hold it down and eat it fast for fear of it floating clear away.
We returned by a similar route to last week, but carried on through to Long Melford on tiny lanes and in good spirits. My total mileage, which would be similar to most, was just on 60. If Tony wanted to make this up to a mile-per-year he could always pop out again in the afternoon (as he did the week before his 12 hour, when he topped-up the ride to 100!)
SJH
In fact, he's Grrrrrrrreat!!!!!!!!!
Seven of us gathered at the Bus Stop in downtown Thurston to set off for Clare, where we would help him to an early celebration - meeting up with Kevin Flanagan near Wickhambrook to circle around towards Clare. We had intended a route that would stalk cautiously towards our destination, but still ended up going up (and up) to the seemingly inevitable Poslingford plunge down to Clare, and a Cake and a Candle. We had ordered the cake the week before, hoping that Tony and Maureen's Mallorca holiday wouldn't seduce them into a longer stay. The nightmare of eating the cake by ourselves was too awful to contemplate. There was even a letter to Maureen, pleading that Tony MUST be out this Wednesday.
Justin had brought a tiny plastic Cyclist to decorate the cake,
and then produced a second surprise contribution which involved demonstrating (to general excitement) how they glowed when agitated.
These were then set each side of the cake as sentinels. Richard, of No 1 Delicatessen, had produced a superb sponge cake (generally, we have sufficient fruit cakes with us on the Wednesday ride, without the need for more) filled with the finest Wilkin & Son 'Tiny Tip' Raspberry Conserve. Each enormous slice was so light that we had to hold it down and eat it fast for fear of it floating clear away.We returned by a similar route to last week, but carried on through to Long Melford on tiny lanes and in good spirits. My total mileage, which would be similar to most, was just on 60. If Tony wanted to make this up to a mile-per-year he could always pop out again in the afternoon (as he did the week before his 12 hour, when he topped-up the ride to 100!)
SJH
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