JUSQU’ A TOI

My friend John Cupido who was always late for races, but that didn’t matter as he always made it to the start line driving like a ‘speed demon’ in his orange Cortina comes back to memory sweet like a summer breeze.

He would sit there on his bike in wind or sleet, up or down tilting his head to the right…always.

Quiet, never loud on and off the bike he was always a delight to have around.

The one thing John never spoke of was his girl-friends; I don’t even remember him having any.

So whenever you invited John to anything there was never hesitation as he didn’t have someone to keep him back.

I do recall one day he was in a bunch sprint at The Blue Route Shopping Centre coming down kissing the tar horrendously with many other riders. After that his whole jaw had to be reconstructed, this trend seemed to follow him as recently he broke nearly all his bones in a MTB race in the Alps in the South of France.

Years passed and finally one day he was no longer with us on a regular basis, Mark Florence and I then realized this Jack had certainly found his Jill.

He packed his bags and was off to Holland and still ‘hollands’ today with his now family.

Just to tell you John, I remember, and it was great racing with you.

Ps. one day John says to me, “how do you manage that? Manage what? I asked.

“Go up the mountains so effortlessly?”

From Indurain to the least of these, we all suffer; albeit silently, it’s the nature of the beast…long live Cycling.