Some years back, an old friend in South Africa lent me Tim Hilton's fine book about club cycling in Britain in the 1950s and his reflections on the Tour de France, One More Kilometre and We're in the Showers. One of the mantras in that book was, "You're always young on the bike."
Today I heard a phrase that matches that: I had stopped by to have a cup of tea with a friend who has Parkinson's and is pretty much confined to his apartment. We gossiped about old sports cars and big-inch V-twin motorcycles, then I took my leave. In the lift on the way down, feeling a bit glum, I met a woman in his building whom I hadn't seen before. She was at least 80, I'd guess, well turned-out and attractive, bien conservée, as they say in Québec (at least, the guys say that) and when she saw my cycling helmet, asked where I was going on my bike. I said I used my bike to get around town, and was visiting a friend. She said, "I used to love cycling, but I haven't ridden for a few years now." Then she said, with a bit of a lilt, "When you're on the bike, it's like you're on holiday!"
Not often you hear such a nice turn of phrase in an elevator ... you may be sure I thanked her for that.
