On 27 February I broke my collarbone when a car hit my bike from the rear. On 13 March I was due to ride my first PBP qualifier, the Cheltenham Flyer 200.

Four days after the crash, with a little wincing, I was able to tie my own shoelaces again. I celebrated the reacquisition of this small but vital skill by heading over to the gym and doing a session of frenzied spinning on the static bike with my arm tucked Napoleon-style into my cycling top. The legs and lungs seemed to be in good shape. One week on from the crash I tried sitting on my Trice recumbent trike, to see if I could manage to steer, brake, and change gear: No problem. My condition seemed to be improving daily, so I began making plans to ride the Cheltenham on the trike, on the assumption that after another week's healing I'd be able to drive. It was obvious I'd need a babysitter to ride round with me, fix any flats, and help get the trike back into the car at the end. Ian Hennessey volunteered to come along and hold the rattle. He was intending to ride fixed. This was going to be an odd team. By 12 March I could drive again reasonably comfortably, so coopted the family into loading the Trice into the back of the car.

Though the weather forecast was dry and sunny, the Cotswolds plateau was shrouded in dank mist as I drove over to Cheltenham, but the city itself was bathed in sunlight. I parked the car and asked my neighbour to unload the trike, explaining my plight. He was happy to oblige, and we fell into conversation. He was looking forward to his first 200km, and would clearly have no problem with the distance since he'd ridden 100 miles the previous weekend. The car park was filling up fast. I was not the only person on a nonstandard machine. Dai Harris was riding his Greenspeed recumbent trike with a friend on a Wavey recumbent bike. There were also a couple of upright trikes, a Moulton, and a sprinkling of tandems among the field of well over 200.

I met up with Ian, and we set off among the second group to start. The long, gentle climb on the A40 up onto the plateau is quite trike-friendly, so I didn't lose too much ground on Ian and was able to close the small gap once the road levelled off. The B-road roller coaster to Stow was entertaining. On the long shallow descents I was able to hammer past strings of riders, with Ian whirring away frantically in my slipstream. On the short sharp climbs everyone I had just passed would return the compliment (or more usually the amiable barracking) as I twiddled up some way behind Ian, who was stomping his 68-inch gear. Ian would loiter at the top, then we'd repeat the whole process all over again. The upshot was that everyone arrived at Stow pretty much together.

There's not a vast amount to be said about the Cheltenham as an event. You pass through some pretty villages in Cotswold stone. It's mostly pretty flat, though the first 40km and the approach to the time-capsule village of Lacock are quite hilly, and the stage after Lacock always seems to feel harder than the terrain warrants. I never even contemplated using the granny ring on the trike. A car joined a roundabout unexpectedly in Calne, forcing me into an emergency stop that almost had the chainrings biting the tarmac. There was a wonderful vista over the plain on the descent into Lacock, a couple of bends that had me leaning hard, and a narrow humpback bridge on a walled road that made me briefly wish I had a flag on the trike (I compensated by waving my arm in the air as I approached the blind hump of the bridge). Soon after Lacock we were joined by Dave and Stuart from Wellington, and rode the rest of the way together. One or other would considerately drop back on the few occasions when the trike lost contact on hills.

After the last cafe control I was feeling unaccountably frisky and the road was smooth and flat, so I picked up the pace. According to Ian, the wind shadow of the recumbent trike increases appreciably with speed, so it was probably more comfortable to follow me at 36kph than at 30kph. Or maybe not.

The highlight of the ride was the long, gradual climb up the valley from Cirencester. The far side of the valley was glowing gold in the setting sun, and the air now had a crystalline clarity. The eventual descent into Cheltenham is straightforward, so there was no problem in admiring the view. I registered 66kph on the way down, freewheeling past Ian as his knees approached meltdown (a cadence of over 200, I think). Stuart and Dave, pedalling furiously in a full tuck, managed to pass me toward the bottom.

Apart from the fact that, thanks to the benefits of recumbency, I was able to ride in comfort two weeks after breaking my collarbone, what most surprised me was that it took me almost exactly the same time to ride the Cheltenham on the Trice as it had done on my upright. To within 5 minutes. Though normally I reckon on being maybe 10 percent slower on the trike on shorter events. I think the Cheltenham must be even flatter than I had thought...

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