We get into the world of Tandem adventures with Di and Colin, a dynamic duo from Scotland who first rode a tandem bike on a blind date and haven’t looked back since.Â
They share about their adventures through the UK and France, and how a recent stage 4 Prostate Diagnosis has focused them more sharply on continuing to live life to the full.Â
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We tried to swap one time. We went came to this massive car park and I was fed up of him telling me, you know, to sort of uh pedal harder or do this or do that when you can’t do anything. Why can’t you see this? Why can’t you do that? Well, we were having a domestic. We were having a domestic and I stamped my feet and said, “You get on the bloody back of this bike and I’ll get on the front.” So I got on the front and he got on the back and four times we took off and four times he jumped off the back. He could not relinquish control because you don’t control anything on the back. You don’t move the handlebar. You can’t steer. You can’t change gear. You can’t break. Not for me. And you don’t set the rate of pedaling. Whereas the person on the front does all that. Welcome to Seek Travel Ride, where we share the stories and experiences of people taking amazing adventures by bike. Whether it’s crossing state borders, mountain ranges, countries, or continents, we want to share that spirit of adventuring on two wheels with our listeners. [Music] Hello listeners, Bella Malloy here, host of the show and I am stoked for the episode I’ve got coming up for you today. Back in July this year, I was cycling towards Tuloo on the canal demi. It was a ridiculously hot day. Ice cream was called for and when I pulled into a lockhouse cafe, I couldn’t help but notice a rather cheerful couple sat opposite me wearing matching cycling kit. They were clearly not letting the heat get to them, and I could tell they were enjoying everything about the day. Hearing their laughter was energizing, and as the host of a podcast all about taking bike adventures, when I spotted their loaded up tandem, I of course had to strike up the conversation and find out more about them. And that’s how I met a guest for today’s episode, Dlockart and Colin Calder. Ice Cream had. I set off, but not without getting their details and a promise to connect for a podcast session. Since then, I’ve had the chance to learn more about their story through their blog, Matilda’s Musings, where they’ve documented their journeys together from the perspective of their tandem bike, Matilda, or more recently, Eatatilda. They’ve taken on some great cycle tours across their homeland of Scotland, England, and Europe. often it has to be said with a theme based around food and some wine. When I met them, they were bound for a journey along the length of the canal deidi and even the heatwave we were facing didn’t seem to dampen their spirits. Now, one of the most inspiring parts of their story is learning how they’ve embraced taking these tandem adventures on while living with the recent reality of Colin’s stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis. Rather than slowing down, they’ve chosen to make the most of life and keep doing what brings them joy. It’s also a way of showing that life can and does continue even in the face of health adversity. Indeed, prior to them taking on the canal demi, they just finished the Grand Depart Classic, riding 115 mi in a single day, completing the full stage one of this year’s tour to France. and I’m speaking to them having just recently finished the tour to four in Glasgow, a charity fundraiser ride all about changing perceptions of those with a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. I cannot wait to learn all about this dynamic duo. Hear about what it’s like to tour on a tandem bike and how their travels are continuing to shape their outlook on life. Dye and Colin, you absolute dead legends. A big warm welcome to the show. And a big warm welcome from Scotland. Yeah. Hello. How are you doing? I’m doing well. How is Bonnie Scotland? Uh, it’s sunny today. It was pretty wet yesterday on the tour before and we got soaked. But, uh, you know, when you’re raising money for such a good causes as charity as cancer charities, it doesn’t really matter to be honest at the end of the day. Well, no. Oh, you’ve both got big smiles on your faces, which is exactly how I remembered you from the canal demi near Tuloose. We don’t have a glass of wine in our hand though. No, no, no, no. You had an ice cream in your hand back that day. I’ve got a heap of questions for you, Diane Colin, but the question I start my show with and I ask it of all my guests is, do you remember the very first bike you ever rode? So, ladies first die, I’m going to go with you. Tell me about your very first bike. Well, very first bike. You mean when I was little? Absolutely. Oh, criy crumbs. Well, there’s a weird backstory to that. Um, I was a very badmatic as a child. And living in uh, Octarada in Scotland, which is like Rome, it’s built on seven hills. The opportunity to cycle wasn’t that great for someone who couldn’t breathe very well. And drugs in those days weren’t as great as they are now. So, I didn’t do a lot of cycling. And I hadn’t had a bike from the age of 11 until until I met Colin. So it was second time around for both of us and uh we met online as you do nowadays. And uh so we set up a first date. So effectively it was a blind date because we hadn’t actually met each other other than looking at a picture of each other. Uhhuh. and we decided we would go to one of Scotland’s most beautiful locks, Lock Catherine. I’ve ridden there. Just to interject, I’ve ridden there with one of my greatest friends, Allison. Hi, Allison. I know you’re tuning in. You’re a super fan and I love you. Sorry. As you were. Uh we arrived at the car park. Thought we’d go for a little walk and a picnic. And I looked across to a hut that was hiring bikes. Had a quick wander across. Uh said, “Do you own a bike?” And she actually said, I said, “Yes.” with my fingers crossed behind my back. And then we saw this tandem. I said, “Oh, why don’t we take a tandem?” So, we did actually meet on a blind date on a tandem. And yes, it’s true. Nobody really believes that, but it is actually true. So we hired the tandem, got on the Walter Scott boat, steam ship down to the bottom of the lock which is about 14 miles and then obviously have to cycle back up from Stronic Lacer and it was absolutely hammering down with rain as it always is at Scottish lock by that time and we set off. I hadn’t probably ridden the bike for maybe three or four years either. You hadn’t ridden the bike as you said for many many years. Uh we set off lovely flat round the corner not used to the gears etc. Around the corner big steep hill I changed the gears in the wrong direction which made it much harder. The bike ground to a halt very rapidly and you I fell off the back. Oh my goodness. Right into a puddle. I’m sitting on my backside in a puddle in the corn rain. and she laughed. And that is why we’re still here. That’s why we’re here. It was so ridiculous. So, she’s sitting in the panel, she laughed, and I thought, “That’s girl I want to know more about.” Oh my gosh, I love everything about this story. And do you know what? Having ridden Lock Catherine, I rode Lock Catherine in May this year when Scotland had the most incredible weather known to man. In fact, I was there for about 5 or 6 days and I did not see a single cloud in the sky. Beautiful. But I think I know the dirty big hill that you’re probably talking about cuz there are some little steep hill. I descended down a steep hill and you would have gone up that one and yeah, it goes on and on and on for a little bit and it’s it’s nice and pinchy. You’re not on a rail trail on this tandem bike of yours. up and down. So it’s so we managed it’s beautiful though to get up to the top end to do the 14 miles or 13 bit miles whatever it is and um decided that we would have another date and um just kind of grew arms and legs I decided to move up from Glasgow to Octada to be with D and then it was a story about Oh you’ve been telling you run a hairdressing salon once we’ve been on the date I have a hairdressing salon and one of my clients was in and we were chatting away what did you do at the again. Well, I met this guy and and we hired a tandem and blah blah blah. Went for a live and I said um and we both really enjoyed it. It was it was a lot of fun. And she said, “I’ve got a tandem.” “Oh, have you?” “Yeah.” She says, “Yeah.” She says, “And we’re going to Australia. Do you want to buy the tandem?” And I went, “Um um uh well, can we come and see it?” And she said, “Uh, of course you can.” She says, “I’ll get my husband Colin to give you a phone.” So uh Colin phoned we arranged to go along when my Colin came up that weekend and he said why don’t you take the tandem away for a while take it home and they lived in the next village which is about 3 and a half miles away. So we cycled home from the village on the tandem for the first time. Got back to put the bike in my garden and we both stood back and looked at it and we both looked at each other and went we want this. This is like serendipity. Everything about your story is serendipity. It’s meant to be, isn’t it? The fact that the tandem was previously owned by another Colin. Yeah. Oh, third and fourth date we now were the joint owners of a tandem. I was actually wondering how we could, you know, half it down the middle if things went wrong at that stage. Um, so we could sell my So I could sell my house. Who got custody? Exact. Who in custody of the time? Yeah, exactly. And the rest is kind of history. We decided that we would move in together. And of course the house had to have a garage. So we could put Matilda in the garage and it became Matilda’s Rest um which is the kind of informal name for the house which is obviously used well on the blog and uh yeah we lots of adventures on old Matilda and I’m sure you’ll touch on this later but we then decided that we were getting quite old fogies and as D mentioned off being built on seven hills it was always a uphill slog coming back home. Oh, do you live at the top of a hill? Well, it doesn’t matter which direction you go. You either go uphill to get out and come downhill to go home or the opposite or you go downhill from the house and then it’s all uphill. I’m talking about quite big hills and obviously old Matilda was uh part of our life. She’s still hanging up in the garage. She a hefty lass old Matilda. Oh yes, she’s a steel framed. Yes, an old Jack Taylor. Jack Taylor classic tandem. Very heavy though. And uh we decided to go to the dark side as people keep saying to us nowadays and uh about what two and a half years ago now decided to uh get an E tandem. So it’s got double batteries. It’s got everything on it. It’s a price of a small car, but it’s what it’s what we do. It’s what we’re about and we just love it. Much enjoyment is being had now on a Oh, much definitely. Nice smiles all the time there. Well, yeah. always a bit daunting going out in the old tandem because I’ve always got out of breath so much. I’m still asmatic and that’s what parist and thank you now I don’t have I don’t have to worry. I think that’s absolutely brilliant. I’ve had a friend of mine who’s got an ebike and they think the E stands for enabler because it enables them to experience and see so many different things. And funnily enough, I’ve just come back from a week in Northern Ireland visiting my husband’s relatives and his awesome uncle did everything he could possibly do to find two more bikes along with his bike. So my husband himself and I could each go for a ride. It’s been something we’ve been scheming for like the last 5 years. And we made it happen. And funnily enough, null, who’s very fit and active now in his mid70s, he was on his road bike and he’d found us, my husband and I, two ebikes. So, we sort of thought, hang on a minute, how does this work? This feels like it’s not right. And it was a revelation to me. It’s the first time I’ve ever really been on an ebike, and I just thought, “Oh, this is amazing.” Every takeoff was so smooth. It didn’t matter what the intersection did. if there was a pinch up or anything, I was at it and I wasn’t worrying about how long the climb was going to be or where it ended. But I will admit I um I stubbornly in solidarity with Uncle Null. Didn’t really use the facility of the E, but I had it there and I loved it. And I just love seeing so many more of them around now because people are enabling themselves to do things that they otherwise would not do. Absolutely. Very much so. And if you’re saying that the fun of an ebike as a solo, you basically double the fun as they say in the tandem club with it. Oh, it would be revolutionary as a tandem. Oh my gosh. Yes. It’s the best thing. It really is. Uh has totally transformed our tandeming and our adventures. Absolutely. And as you say, we just Well, we always did kind of tand them with a smile on our face, but the smiles got even Oh, the smiles are broader. Even broader. But it’s quite amusing just to go back for a second the fact that we had the tandem purchased after about four weeks of meeting each other and much prior to any kind of decisions about us getting together. So the tandem came first and love came second or did love come first and then the tandem came along because it’s love for the tandem came first and then it came to us. Ah there you go. H you were heavily invested so it had to work out. Ah, yeah. Nowadays, the modern way of living is people get together, they have a baby first, then they buy a house, and then they get married. Well, obviously being 50some, we weren’t going to do the baby thing. So, we got we got a tandem and that then it started from there, then the house. And then three years ago, we did actually get married on a beach in a west coast island called Milport. Mhm. And Scotland. Matilda was very much part of the proceedings. We walked down onto the beach to Daisy Da give me your answer and all that and all that kind of stuff and she was the altar if you want to put it that way while the cent or the um registar registar did the uh did the ceremony on the beach. So yes, very I love this. The tandem is you are inter you’re intertwined. The tandem is stoking your fire. Boom. Boom. The stoer, right? As Diana that famously said, there’s three of us in this relationship. So we always say there’s three of us in this relationship. Dy, me and Matilda or Matilda. I love how you write your blog from the perspective of Matilda and E Matilda now and I love that the tandem has been front and center. I have a question for you about tandemss. Actually, I’ve got a couple of questions. I did reach out to one of my bestest friends. Hello, Pam. And Pam lives in Australia and she has been part of a charity called Fitability where she pilots a tandem for people who without a pilot would not be able to get out on a bike. And I said, “Pam, I’m interviewing a tandem couple finally. Have you got a question for them?” And she does. and her question is assuming they are both cited which you are. I’d like to ask them if they ever swap between Stoker and Pilot and if they find it more sustainable sharing the load. So there’s a one word answer to that and then I can explain the word one word answer is absolute well two words absolutely not. Absolutely not. Okay. Who’s the pilot? Who’s the stoker? Well, I’m Mr. and he is always Mr. In control. We tried to swap one time. We went came to this massive car park and I was fed up of him telling me, you know, to sort of uh pedal harder or do this or do that when you can’t do anything. Why can’t you see this? Why can’t you do that? We’re having a domestic. We were having a domestic and I stamped my feet and said, “You get on the bloody back of this bike and I’ll get on the front.” So I got on the front and he got on the back and four times we took off and four times he jumped off the back. He could not relinquish control because you don’t control anything on the back. You can’t steer. You can’t change gear. You can’t break. Not for me. And you don’t set the rate of pedaling whereas the person on the front does all that. Oh. Is there part of you that wishes you could swap between each other? No. Die. Sometimes I’d like to see where I’m going cuz Colin will say something about what he’s seeing up ahead and he gets annoyed because I haven’t seen it. I thought I I’ve got to look to the side or wait till we’re going around a corner and I get a different angled view of the road. All we need is a is a one forward facing camera and a screen in my back. Listen, there’s enough technology on that bike as it is. Somebody once described the front handlebars of our tandem as or was it groaning with technology? Colin’s got more gizmos and gadgets on the front of this blooming bike than you could imagine. But it’s a very valid point about seeing because we have to really have we have a a tandem language, don’t we? A sort of a really much communication. Well, actually that nearly brings me back to Pam’s second question which she did to be fair to her have. She said if one is visually impaired, which you’re not, but you did bring up that you don’t see what the pilot sees. So, I’m going to ask you this anyway. She said I’d ask them how do they share information about the terrain? How do they communicate on the level of effort needed for different terrain? And generally share the visual experience. So, this is sort of apt for both of you regardless. So, I’d love you to answer that question as well. Sort of apt. Um I think in terms of we have our own kind of communication that I would say left and I go which left and all that kind of stuff. The other one the other one I do the uh sort of steering and I does all directions and telling me about traffic big lries coming up behind and stuff. Lori coming. Yeah. Yeah. Colin usually just sort of say has the the root on his element Rome or whatever we’re using and he’ll say okay pedal which means we’re coming to a hill. So I don’t get any information about what’s coming up because um in days gone by when we had old Matilda and he said we’re coming up to a hill I sort of went you know panic stations you know breathing got a bit faster before I needed to and all that kind of stuff. So he just shout pedal. So now he just says keep pedaling and it’s so much easier. But uh yes, but there’s a lots of communication. Lots of communication for especially for starting and stopping call and say, “Right, we’re stopping in three, two, one.” This one, this one just find a suitable pavement or something. Find which one. But going off is easy. So we say 3, two, one. So yesterday on the uh Chris Hoy event, we’re in waves of about 50 riders. So there was always quite a number of riders behind us that was going through a series of traffic lights at some point. We’re going pedal. That’s her signal to get the pedal in the right angle. Turning around going, “What pedal?” And then uh 3 2 1 go. No, we’re way before you. It was so cool because people round about were going, “Oh, look. It’s a tandem. Oh, that’s so cool.” Now, do they mean that that’s smart or cheesy or, you know, it does attract a huge amount of attention? I mean, it I know we probably do. Uh, we’re not exactly publicity shy, which is one of the reasons we’re doing this. Oh, I know. We do the matching outfits as you I’ve seen them. Oh, I definitely saw your matching outfits and you were very respplendant in them. Listeners, I will no doubt be posting a photo of the selfie I took with all three of us in that. actually. Yeah, we were in sort of two of the to four jerseys which were sort of matched up of the four tour of def France uh jerseys of the the dots, the green jersey, the white jersey, and the leader jersey, the yellow jersey. So, it was like four different panels if I remember rightly. So, you could choose which one you wanted to be each day, couldn’t you? That got a lot of attention. Uh obviously in France and just doing the same you wearing the same kits here all the time. We’ve probably got about 10 different which one are we wearing today? And the bike gets a lot of attention too. I mean we’ve been in places where we’ve been sitting having a picnic and there was one day we were we were in the law and we were sitting have a picnic at this picnic table. The bike was parked at the edge of a path. This is the old one the old the classic one. Jack Jack Daniels. Uh Jack Daniels. Jack Taylor. Sorry you Fredd. Oh my gosh. You are so in sync, which you need to be for a tandem, but you’re finishing each other’s other sentences. You’re two peas in a P for sure. I love it. Back to the park and the Jack Taylor. And we’re sitting having a procco picnic as usual. And this guy’s walking past with a camera over his arm just walking past and he sort of did a double take and he came back and he said, “Excuse me, is this your bike? Is that a Jack Taylor?” And so hyper excited. Yes. Oh my god. And he then he got down in his knees and he was looking underneath for the serial number for the the frame and he’s taking a photograph to see if it was an original one. He’s like stroking the and he’s literally stroking the bike. It’s an interesting fetish. Yeah. Very knowledgeably. Of course you’ll see it’s still got the original French cranks and he went wow. You know it was just it was weird just appreciation society. What a geek. So that’s on the JD on the fact that it was a original. It’s not JD turn. But even every time we go out we always pass people and obviously you get the she’s no pedaling on the back and for a pound for every time or a euro every time someone said that we’d be very very rich. But it just attracts an awful lot of attention. People just like you know you pass kids and they’re going double bite mommy double bite daddy and uh all this kind of stuff. And then oh of course the the old uh the older ones were maybe packed up for a picnic somewhere and you meet I remember my granny and granddad got out in the tandem. We all went in holiday the kids in the middle and there was we trailer on the back for all the all the all the clothes and it’s just people talk to you when you’re on a tand you’re you’re an object of fun. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s different. It’s a point of difference. It’s interesting. It’s unique and you two are such lovely people to chat to as well. you’d have some interesting stories to have shared as well. [Music] If you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you will already know I’m a big fan of Zeralei. They are an independent Aussie brand all about getting people outdoors. I have been wearing their gear on my rides and just in general. And recently, I have been loving their trekking sandals. And the thing that I really love about them is that they are grippy, not slippy. Which means if I want to explore around camp or maybe even go on a bit of a hike on some rocky terrain or steep uphill or downhill, I can do it with these sandals and not worry that I don’t have the right footwear for it. Now, if you want to check out Zorali and support the podcast at the same time, click the Zeralei link in the show notes. Now, back to the episode. Something that I wanted to ask was I’ve never ridden a tandem. In fact, Pam, you’re listening to this. You and I need to put that right. And we both need to ride a tandem together. And I could think of no one better to be my pilot than you. I would come to Scotland. Oh, or or come to Scotland. I hear you’ve got a spare. Allison. Allison, maybe you and I needed to go to Actarada and uh and then there Oh gosh, Allison’s Allison’s a beast up a climb, too. Anyway, what I wanted to know though was what’s something about a tandem that someone that doesn’t ride a tandem wouldn’t know or wouldn’t understand. Something that you’d only really understand once you get on it. You both have to pedal. Yes. I think Oh, totally. I think there’s this perception that I mean that’s where this joke thing she’s she’s not pedaling in the back comes from but I think a person in the back can sit with their their feet up reading a magazine or something and I think that’s that’s probably one of the biggest things. Yeah. People really think that you know you don’t have to pedal in the back. Uh the fact you both arrive at the same time kind of surprises a few people because obviously one of the reasons for people getting tandemss genuinely is this idea of the husband and wife, the man, the woman, whatever the couple, whichever they are, um going out on a cycle ride and quite often, not necessarily always the male, but um I don’t want to be sexist, but at the time we were riding, it was a lot of guys and women out and the guy would blast off up a hill to show his macho style. and get to the top of the hill and uh and she comes up 10 minutes later right to the top and as soon as he get she gets to the top naturally he takes off the man wants to move off again. Um so obviously if you’re both in a tandem as I’m jokingly saying but you obviously do both arrive at the same time. Perfect. It’s interesting actually something you’ve just reminded me of. You’re the second tandem couple I’ve met this summer. The other one was actually I was dot watching the transcontinental race which is an ultra cycling race. It’s it’s I don’t know if you’ve heard of ultra cycling before but it’s people doing phenomenal distances day after day after day after day after day after day after day especially in the transcontinental. But this year was the in was the 11th edition of the race and but it was the very first time that a tandem was in the race. Normally tandemss aren’t allowed, but they made an exception uh for Gavin who’s got a visual impairment and his mate Tom Butcher was the pilot. And I saw them on the day that they were going to tackle the colder tormlay. It’s ridiculous to think what they were doing. But what surprised me was neither of them had ridden the tandem before. Like it’s not like they’d ridden heaps and they do tandem rides together all the time and decided to take this on. This was a hey, I think this race would be cool. would you be up for doing it on a tandem? So, and what occurred to me was you were mentioning it a bit with where you live and the seven hills. If it’s something I’ve learned from Pam, it’s you do have double double the people on a tandem bike, but it’s double the weight on a heavier bike. And I imagine that gravity has a bigger impact when you’re taking on inclines as well. Correct. Going down is fantastic. H you have the momentum is superb and we noticed that yesterday. We were sailing past solo bikes coming downhill but still going uphill. A lot of them were as soon as you especially the classic bike because as soon as you hit a hill you lose all your momentum because you’ve got the weight of the two people in the one bike. Yeah. Another thing is that you can’t stand up to pedal. It just doesn’t work. You’ve got to keep seated down. So Yes. See, Tom and Gav were talking about that when I met them because Tom mentioned he is a person that normally rides his bike standing to climb every now and then. And the fact that he couldn’t, it just changes the way that you approach climbs, it obviously puts a different sort of load through your back and everything when you can’t change position and things like that as well. Dy, what’s it like being on the back on a descent? It’s scary because again you’re not you can’t see what’s in front of you. I’ve got a place what he calls my placebo brake. There’s a drum brake and uh on the old bike, but this uh this one’s got the disc brakes and uh it’s got a drum brake as well, hasn’t it? No, you’ve got a a proper brake. I’ve got a I’ve got a caliper brake which is like I’d be squeezing the life out of that won’t stop the tandem, but it does help to stop it if you’re going really fast. But yeah, it’s quite scary because you can’t see where you’re going. And I’ve got to trust Colin that he’s not going to go so fast that you can’t control the bike because you can get up to 40 miles an hour going downhill. I mean that’s one of the things is is about trust and that’s why a little bit surprised to hear about that is the big thing the guys on this race if they haven’t tanned them before because it’s all about experience and kind of you know knowing what the other person is doing because I can’t always see what D is doing and quite often she’ll maybe just like move in her seat or something and I’ll go what you doing D because you can feel it you just intrinsically feel it on the on the handlebars that something different is happening so I’ve got to let them know if I’m moving if I’m getting sore sitting in one position I’ve got to say right or shifting and that’s what we’re going to see too. I remember going down um uh in Champagne one year. We were coming down the side of this mountain and the old bike and the old bike and we had a drum brake and you know back and front caliper brakes and I had my little placebo break as well and we’re coming down it was a Sunday and we’re coming down to a tea junction and we were to turn very steep down and we were to turn right and when we getting down to the bottom of the hill getting towards the junction we couldn’t stop the bike and we couldn’t stop at the junction we had to keep going straight through. This is my nightmare. Personified. Oh my gosh. And I hope somebody was coming. So yes, there there is a there is a momentum thing because we were fully loaded, you know, trying but uh yeah, there’s there is a momentum. Yeah, there is a momentum thing. I think you have to be fairly as you mentioned about being in sync mentally. We’re fairly in sync physically on the bike and stuff and I think that makes a huge difference. I wouldn’t like to although you respect Bella, I wouldn’t I was happy to take you out for a we shot and all that kind of stuff, but I wouldn’t like to do like a 100 miles with you in the back not having cycled with you before. No. And like to me there’s such a big Maybe that’s die. Maybe that’s when you get to be the pilot. Maybe you can pilot me. I’m a scaredy cat on the downhills. Die. You’d have to squeeze those brakes hard cuz that placebo would be getting the workout of its life. Well, we’re a perfect pair. We’re a great pair then. Sorry, Cole. The other thing I’ve thought of there is, and I mean, I get this a bit. My husband’s my best friend, just like you two are at Peas in a Pod. I’m the same with my husband, Steven. And we enjoy taking bike adventures together. Obviously, we’re on two separate bikes. But one of the things that I’ve learned intrinsically from doing that is there are moments in a day or sometimes days where someone’s up and someone’s down and energies are at different levels. Someone’s on a high, someone’s on a low. And the benefit of having two of you is the other person, especially if they know you. A, they know when to not to speak. Sometimes sometimes silence is necessary, even from someone that talks like me. But also sometimes they know what to do to help you out and to help lift the mood, help take the burden, help with the, hey, let’s stop here and have a timeout. Let’s let’s eat some food. I’m going to go get the coffee, whatever. So, I imagine on a tandem that’s even more important because you’re sharing the actual mechanics of moving forward as well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I can be fairly bloody minded and determined which uh probably got us through that ground depart classic which we’ll tell our story about in due course but uh I think we definitely do help each other along you know I start I hear some moing from the back come on another five miles to go and we’ll have a there’s a coffee stop up there or there’s a ice cream stop if it’s the canal maybe you’re very encouraging as well about keep going um I think when you both hit that what was it called? Uh when you both bonk on the bike which is obviously a difficult balancing act but yeah good good joke and all that kind of stuff. The last stage was for us was where were we? What was the other medieval city busy to set and we stopped off at the end of the canal demi where there’s a the lighthouse and someone had said go for lunch in town five kilometers up Marian Man or Man and someone had also mentioned that they happen to do lovely oysters from the local lake. So naturally we had to go to up to this town and found a nice restaurant that did the local oysters. We happened to have a bottle of peak pool wine which apparently is just made four or five or just grown. The grapes are grown four or five kilometers away. So quite a boozy lunch and you know the temperatures yourself at that point. It was hitting 30. It was roasting hot. It was ridiculous. It was disgustingly hot. The wine was perhaps not the best thing to have. We then went for a wine tasting, which is probably the second worst thing that we could have done. After having the wine for lunch, tasted red, white, rosé. Didn’t obviously have a huge amount of that. We still obviously still consume a little bit. And then we thought was maybe like, oh, it’s only about 8 miles to go into set. It was actually 18. So, it was a bit of a miscalculation. And it was baking warm. We get to the outskirts of set and there’s this sort of what is it about 8 to 10 mile long beach that you kind of cycle along. So you’ve got the beach and then you’ve got the cycle path and then you’ve got a road and then you’ve got a railway. Fantastic French infrastructure. Hang on. I think I’ve been on this. When I went on it I couldn’t actually see the beach. Is that like the ismas? There’s like an ismas. Yeah. And you can’t actually see the sea. You can see bull rushes. Yeah, that’s right. And you can’t get the breeze from the sea if there was any. No. So there absolutely baking hot. No uh shade. Get in. So sat seeing some buildings for that. Oh be there soon. But apparently set in a very large quite a large city and we didn’t know this either. So we get to the outskirts and um I think d our very best set of instructions ever. We’re both really rehydrated dehydrated by then. Oh absolutely. D is into a tabac comes out with four cans of soft drink. Did you have like an orangina of life? I love orangina in France. Orangina. I don’t like Coke. So it was orangina. Two each. I mean the first one didn’t have the sides. No. And then the second one but you got the best instructions. Oh, ever I I asked this this lady for the grown hotel tin and said and ah Tess wait. So she takes me outside points me in in one direction and she goes a dwat a gosh and fif f [Laughter] Right, then left, and then that’s one. I got we got to the right street. We were seriously we were seriously in need of uh water and stuff by then. So, but then the water in in our beongs had was it was tepid. Oh, yeah. It is. In fact, actually the best thing I had happen to me during that heatwave when I was conducting my tour was we stopped in at someeries and a tobac. I’m trying to think where this was. I think this was on the day that we were heading to Carcasson and it was baking hot and disgusting. And the lady at the apologized cuz they didn’t have ice to put in our biddens as they refilled them. But what they did instead was they put them in the deep freezer. So, we were having our coffee and ice cream. My gosh, it was the first time I’ve had ice cream at like 9:30 in the morning and this was I remember this at a tobacu and the lady was like, “Oh, give me the bins.” Refilled them and put them in the ice cream freezer and I thought that was just such a love like it’s amazing because the tapered water is horrendous, isn’t it? Disgusting. It makes you feel sick. Yeah. No, that that wasn’t pleasant. Something about your tours though is and I definitely got this insight reading through the adventures you’ve taken from your blog is they are very very much based around let’s say rehydration of certain sorts food or wine and going to a region specifically to seek out the regional you know dishes or bottles of plon is that something that both of you were intrigued by? Is that what inspires your travels? Cuz it’s one thing to ride a tandem on a blind date, be besided with tandem riding, take tandemss for short trips, but I want to understand the bike travel side of it because there’s obviously this food and wine element or beers or whatever attributed to the tandem tour, but what about that aspect? Like how did you actually get to touring in the first place? I’m going to show you something. Oh, I can see it and I’ll describe it. Show me. Yeah. Yeah. It’s just like the listeners. The listeners are now the stoker on the tandem. Oh, okay. Is that like a pub or am I build a bone? Oh, okay. Yes. A picture [Music] precolin and we put it on the wall and we were sitting one day and I said to Colin, what if there actually is a hotel deone? So, Mr. Googled it. We found a place called Bone in France, but there isn’t actually a hotel de. the hotel is a theospice hospice de and we thought that might be fun and that’s how it started. We decided to uh found that bone was in Burgundy and uh strange enough we had a fairly good affinity for French wine before we started touring in France. Heck. Um don’t get the wrong impression. Always drink responsibly. By the way, listeners, always drink. I’ll be responsible for you if you’re responsible for me. Okay. Okay. I do. Listen to your mouth. It’s awesome. We did this tour of uh Burgundy with on and just loved it. Just 20 30 miles a day at that time just going from kind of one town to the next. And of course there happened to be one or two deachions along the way. And uh of course it was really fun because you would go into Viner. They wouldn’t necessarily have seen that you’d arrived to the bike at that point and you go in and taste the wines. And of course usually the deal would be that maybe if you’d arrived by car you just have a little soup song of the wine but you would or one of you would be drinking one of you not. And um you would obviously perhaps buy a few bottles to take with you if you liked the wine. But then of course we just have to say well thank you for the tasting. I’m sorry. We’ve got to turn them back. Very most we could take is one bottle and uh back onto the back onto the town. And you didn’t have to buy actually buy the wine, which was um it’s a little hack, isn’t it? There you go, listeners. You don’t want to have to buy the wine, but you want to taste it. Turn up on a tandem. Yeah. This takes me back to a tour my husband and I did and we were going from Sherborg down to the Pyrenees. It was actually when we moved to France. We moved by bike and we were in the Santa Million wine region just Oh, lovely. Yeah. But none of those wineries were open for tastings because the wines are too exclusive for just randoms off the street. So, they’re only open to market buyers because, you know, a random off the street’s not going to lump up 780 euro a bottle. So, they’re not going to just even give you a little drram of that away, are they? Yeah. I think it was that first tour that was somewhere like that. It was actually open. And it was a quite a high village. And we did it was one of these hermatically sealed doors, you know, like you went you had to press a a bell thing and then the door would go open and then close. And uh we said and people were rocking up and taking boxes of wine away. Probably got probably realized then where we were. Can we taste you? And of course they start at the lower ones and end up at the GR crew and the premier crew. I think we probably tasted four or five and it was exactly the same. Then I said, “Look, you know, we got a tandem.” Have you ever walked away with a like what’s the most expensive bottle of wine you walked away with? Oh wow. Oh. Um, that would be we were with I’m just going to find one over here. But what was it? Probably about £100. No, wait a minute. Oh, yeah. near Jeffrey Shambertton. Jeffrey Shambertton. Yeah, that was Jeffreyund. We pushed the boat out. You still got the bottle there. You’re going to have to open it up. Uh, still still got the cork in it, but there may have been more than one bottle. Oh, we’ll find an occasion for sure. I have to tell you very uh just to move, but it is on on cycle touring because it was Canali. Uh we’d arrived in uh for the night and apparently it’s historically been a wine trading port uh on the canal demi and uh we got this beautiful chatau bed and breakfast the shardan the had a swimming pool really lovely and we said what about this restaurant and obviously as they all do they all have their favorite restaurant which they obviously get a kickback from and they said no you want to use this one and we went okay we’ll go there. Lovely outside patio sitting there. Still the sun coming down. Um does the wine choosing uh for the uh evening meal. Mhm. And uh Oh, it was a a Michelin Michelin recommended. Yeah. Michelin recommended restaurant and they had a really nice wine list and I said, “Well, I’m more of a red wine drinker. Colin’s more of a white, but we, you know, we do sort of swap over.” So, I was looking down the wine list and it just popped out at me. It was a wine called The Secret of Matild. Oh, of course, you’ve got to have that. So, guess which wine we had. Yeah. So, yeah. And just a quick end to that story, we really liked the wine. It’s really lovely. And also like the story of And obviously like the story of the wine and we when we came home, we thought, let’s see if we can try and get some. So I emailed the one of the wine uh retailers in uh did the whole you know hi I’m Colin uh we ride a bike called Matilda we’ve tasted your wine called the secret of Matilda can we uh order some and pay for it and all that kind of stuff and just got a very sharp reply back saying reply uh no Brexit can’t do or a but as I did say I’m fairly determined I then contacted the uh vineyard. Same story. And they obviously had a much the guy who was reading it had a much better day and he said, “We can’t really export to the UK, but I’m sure we can make this work. We can do it as a gift if you send us the money and we’ll send you a gift of 12 bottles of wine.” And that’s what happened. We now have our own um case of The Secret of Matilda wine. Oh, I love it. And And do you Well, hang on. The case still unopened. I I nearly feel like every time you go on like a tour No. Okay. When you when you when you come back from a tour, do you have like a bottle of The Secret of Matild? Well, we did. We also got this case. I wouldn’t say it was I think probably nine bottles remaining, I think, at the moment at this count. So, it’s our our uh special occasion. Yeah. But did you have a little tipple of it yesterday after doing the tour to four? Not yesterday, but this is a missed opportunity. If you need someone to give you an excuse, just get in touch with me, Colin, and I’ll give you I’ll give you a reason anytime. excuses.com. You have actually toured with another couple who also ride a tandem as well. So, it’s like a tandeming duo, isn’t it? Yes. Our best friends, Jane and John. They haven’t been in France with us, but we do tours in the UK with them. In fact, we’re just back from one in Dumfen Galloway. Beautiful part of the country. I had never been to the very southernmost part of Scotland called uh Mull Galloway. Mull Galloway. They into the procco picnics as well, so it works very well. Oh yes. Uh so there’s always a prosecco picnic on the go. They have a semi-reumbent tandem. I’ve seen photos of that. I’d never seen one of those before. Hop penino. Yeah. So the the the pilots’s on a recumbent, aren’t they? And then you’ve got the stoker on like the conventional sort of setup or is it the other way around? Other way around. Um so the uh Yeah, the guy sort of sits up as if it’s a normal sit a normal bike at the back and she sits with her sits in the front out the front. He does all the gear changing and she just pedal ding and braking. She pedals. Wow. Have you did either of you ever have a go on it? Uhhuh. We have done it. Yeah. I didn’t like it but I didn’t like having my legs out in front of me. It was so exposed and holding on to two handles at my, you know, at my So, hang on. Hang on a minute. Is the recumbent on the front, are they effectively the stoker and the person on the conventional bike is steering it? Yeah. Oh, wow. No, that’s weird. That that’s done my head in front. You come up to a road junction and obviously you’d both be able to see though. He would have to see, but then she’s they’re sticking out. You think, “Oh, Lori went past or something.” Uh-uh. No, we didn’t like that. Didn’t like that at all. No. What’s been your favorite tour that you’ve taken? We liked Champagne, believe it or not. It was very, very hilly. We went back a second time. It was very hilly the first time with old Matilda. And we did I think it was a bit of a clue. I think we’re a little bit naive when you look at the map and it says Laana de Champ. And I hadn’t really done my proper French translation on that one. a lot. We suddenly realized as we were trying to get from uh Yep. Uh that it was somewhat hilly, mountainous. If you ever want to feel like you’re in the mountains without climbing them, you need to check out a trail. Well, it’s clo Well, actually, does it The V81 goes very close to my village. So, I’m in the in the south of France. I’m in the Pyrenees and there’s the Velud or the V81 and it sticks to the foothills. Ah, as opposed to the mountains, but it crosses from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. So, that could be right up your alley there. Oh, that sounds interesting. You go through the Basque country first and there’s some great food to be had there. Obviously in Champagne, you were obviously tasting the champagne which was uh wonderful. And I just happened to have been a case of champagne went into the car boot on the way home. So yeah, keep that for very special occas because I was going to ask you, how do you manage with the tandem over like traveling with a tandem? Because it’s one of the things that I’ve brought up with other guests and I felt it and other listeners have. I think it’s one of the most stressful parts of bike touring is the traveling with the bike when you’re not pedaling on the bike like when the bike is in transition and you know when you have to have it on other forms of transport. So on on the car I can understand would be a little bit easier but have you ever had to have it on a train or anything like that? Okay. So uh there’s only one train in Scotland that you are allowed to put tandemss on that goes up the west coast and we did that just to try it and it was a whole carriage which was given over to to bikes which was incredible. That’s fantastic. Really the way of bike travel and train travel should be in France. I’m told no tandemss at all. So when we did the canal deidi, we uh drove to France fairly just like middle range size car. But uh there’s a wonderful roof rack contraption that you buy when you buy a tandem which uh basically comes off the roof and down to the side. take the front wheel off, put it onto this uh pivot arm, and uh lift the bike onto the roof. So, basically, it’s on the top of the car. You just have to remember that it’s you can’t go through low barriers. Oh, everybody who rides a bike and hangs with people who ride bikes knows somebody knows somebody who has done that into the garage. What’s your system so you don’t do that? Big sale on the dashboard. Yeah. Piece of paper on the dashboard. height and we both have to be awake so we remind each other. Yeah. Have you had some close calls? Uh, no we haven’t. We haven’t gone. The only close call we had was in Tulus because we were in a hurry to get the bike. We couldn’t find somewhere to park and we stopped beside this market right in the middle of Tulus and Square and we were in a hurry to get the bike off the top of the car so that we could put the car in the underground car park where it was being left. I know the car park you’re talking about at the capital. Yes, capital. So, we uh got the bike off the car, put it together, and I walked off with the bike. Colin was going to go and park the car and then we were going I was going to join him and go back and get the luggage and things which is fair enough. So I walked off with the bike and Colin headed for the car part and uh going down the ramp uh two or three cars behind me fortunately not many and suddenly and you see the barrier in front of me you think sugar. Um there’s a kind of central arm that still has to stick that still sticks up off this roof rack contraption. Oh my goodness. sort of two feet high and that would have been mangled. So I just had to put the hazard on and stop and much tooting of horns from behind do the reverse of shime. Yeah, it only takes uh it only took about a minute to take it off but just they just we don’t drive around with that on but we’ve just been in such a hurry to get the bike off to get out of this busy square. Listeners, I’ve been wearing Umbra’s Refugeio sunglasses on my rides lately and I absolutely love them. Umbas are an awesome brand. They have created sunglasses that don’t have sidearms. Instead, they have this awesome rope system, which means that when you don’t want the sunglasses on, you just take them off and they hang around your neck. You don’t need to worry about losing them. What I love about the Refugeio model is that when I’m going down a descent, they’ve got great coverage around my eyes, which means I’m not getting wind coming in from the side and making my eyes all stream up either. And you know what? They actually look pretty stylish. They’re a bit of a conversation starter off the bike. I’ve given them to friends to try out and everyone’s always loved them as well. Anyway, if you want to try out a pair for yourself and actually support the brands that support the podcast, be sure to click the Ombres link in the show notes. Now back to the episode. So in we did to lose to set. So we left the car and to lose cycle to set and then we just had to leave the bike somewhere very safe in set and get the catch the train to lose. Yeah. And then drive back. Yeah. And that was a the price to be paid was the uh the ping pong journeying if you like. I do hope that more trains get set up with that ability to take tanners. I know that there’s another super van of the so Sue Chapel. Hello Sue. And Sue has done a lot of tandem riding over here in France and I think Sue you have put a tandem on a French train even though specifically perhaps you’re not allowed to and maybe they’ve turned the other eye. But the thing with that is it’s always up to the conductor, isn’t it? And I feel like that’s the case anyway in France sometimes. And sometimes you’ve just got to find out where that gray area is and just insist because often the reaction from someone in an officious position is always non no. But you’ve got to move them from that default and just look desperate and say please and you know get them on their right side cuz yeah it does occur to me that traveling with a tandem would have its further complications. I guess there would be are there tandemss that decouple like and become almost like single bikes? Well, not not single bikes but decouple into manageable portions like a single bike. There are they come into two parts but you have to take the chain off naturally and all that kind of stuff. But yes, it can be done for non non ebikes that can fly with them, take them on a plane and all. Yeah, because obviously the e tandem you’re not taking it on a flight. Oh my gosh, I couldn’t imagine a tandem on a flight. finding a box that’s big enough on the rail travel. We have uh tried we have taken on a few trains here in Scotland but it’s just your luck as you say of the guard or whatever. If you ask the answer is no but if you just bust it there’s a fair chance that you might get on. Out in France we had a very tight timetable to get back home and we had this vision of us standing on the station platform the train drawing and the guard saying huh and uh the train going off and and leaving us there. And then what do you do then? Uh so we decided to play by the rules. Yeah, we’re not we’re not the kind of people that can just bask it. I mean maybe if we were 40 years younger, but our age, you know, we put all the the paners on it and the indust, you know, the an uncertainty of of getting on. There’s also the hardness of navigating just like even if you could get on the train, navigating a platform just with a single normal conventional bicycle is hard enough yet alone a tandem. I could not imagine even lifts and things are quite small. Well, you wouldn’t get it in a lift like you’re upright. I mean, I had that I had that experience just with my normal bike and you’re upright and you’re squeezing in and you’re breathing in when the doors close and ducking down and yeah, like you’re a contortionist and thinking how am I getting and you know, you end up with chain grease all over you. I mean, look, you know, as every every adventurer knows, sometimes it’s the misadventures that that bring the best tales, right? And and these are the stories. But yeah, traveling with a tandem, I imagine, is a bit more complex, let’s say. It hasn’t put you off, though. And I love that you just think of your roots with that planning in mind. Like who comes up with the roots if it’s not like is it Colin? Okay, good pointing of the hand there. listeners from Da Colin. We decide where we’re going to go, which uh vineyard and which hotels, decide where we’re going, and then it’s a case of, believe it or not, the most first couple of times we use the kind of package operator companies who shift your luggage along, do all the booking for you, and take your luggage. And yeah, that’s fine, but it’s quite expensive. Um, and you’re not always staying at the best, you know, hotel you would want to be staying in. Yeah. So what we do now is have a look at uh so we decide the area for example the canal debidi and obviously quite a few operators do that kind of package for the canal debidi and very fortunately most of them list the hotels and where they’re going to be so we uh just took the list of hotels and um looked at did a bit of research bit of googling and all that kind of stuff we always try and book we don’t do camping nowhere to plug nowhere to pl haird dryer in n and we don’t plates are off. He’s joking, by the way. Yeah, you can plug stuff in. In fact, I’ve camped and seen people with ebikes camping at campgrounds with electricity and recharging them as well. It can be done, but obviously obviously only one of you is only one of you semi-interested in camping. Like Diane, would you camp? No, neither of you. Well, you’re two peas in a pod. That was one of the reasons we got together. We like life’s luxuries. Well, that’s good. It’s good to know what you like. One of the one of the rules of the Bible, the himsh sheet at the start was no camping and we haven’t done so nor have any intention of doing so. So food is good nice wine nice hotels like to spoil ourselves and it’s a holiday. It’s all it’s a holiday for us. It’s all pre-booked. Um so we know the disadvantage of course if it was here in Scotland or whatever the weather you still have to go. So you can’t just sort of hang around and not go but it’s nice knowing that you’re next destination. And quite often we’ve got the restaurant booked as well. So that if we’re not arriving into the hotel till maybe half 4 or 5 in the afternoon having a quick cure, you know that you’ve got a meal sorted. But yes, we do like uh we’re good to each other. We like life’s uh luxuries and absolutely the food as you mentioned the food, the local food, the regional food is is a big part of it. We’ll always taste the not always like it, but we’ll always taste the local delicacy. You must have had castle in like castle nasty. Yeah, which was lovely. We did have also had the local Oh, yeah. We were in Al in Strasburg and we went to this lovely restaurant and I had asked for something local and it was a local sausage. Oh, is it Andwi? Oh, andette. Yes. Ripe. Yeah, it is. My husband likes it. I’m not. Yeah. The first time he ordered it, he didn’t know what he’d ordered. And then when he cut into the sausage, it all fell out. He goes, “Oh, that’s a bit different.” He likes it. I’m mind over matter, and my mind ma it matters to my mind, so I’m not going. Funny enough, I don’t remember an aroma about it, but um I haven’t gotten that close to it, though. Yeah, tripe is disgusting. And but I would sort of get me something local, you know, trust it trust the waiter. And we also like the idea of the one thing we do do is kind of free wheel at lunchtime in terms of we don’t necessarily have a place identified but there’s always can be the beautiful lock gates weren’t there. Um but we’d have a picnic lunch with us if you like or the constituent parts thereof. Yeah. We go shopping in the morning get some bread get some ham get some cheese. I love nothing better than a pavement picnic. Did you have a little openall in France as well? Like that’s that’s mandatory when you’re in France. have your little open all knife. Yes. Oh, yeah. Definitely. Oh, that’s you’ve got the kit. Everybody laugh cuz they bring out this little b this little bag and it’s got plates and a bottle opener and and a set of plastic cutlery and it usually attracts quite a lot of attention as well. The salt the salt and pepper grinder and but we’re not allowed to eat anything till Colin’s photographed it. It’s all got to be set out for this blog. Colin, you did not occur to me to be one of those foodies. I love a good pavement picnic though of the touring because I mean ob you can’t D can’t take a 15 different outfits for the evening but uh we because obviously you’ve got the well restricted to basically four paneers. So one’s usually got the cycling kit and one’s got toiletries and one’s got some clothes for me and one’s got some clothes for you. And then there’s the bag with the medication is getting bigger. But you do have it figured out like there is a distinct packing thing here. But back to the pavement picnic. Remember when I mentioned my friend Pam before? Yeah. She and her husband Liam has toured with my me and my husband many times. We’re called Goonag Adventurers. The Goonies. If if you’re in Australia and you know what a Goonag is. If you don’t, a Goonag is cask wine. The reason we’re the Goonies is because the first bike packing trip we did was to the high country in the Snowy Mountains. And well, we hauled up a goon bag and and managed to drink a lovely lovely cask red wine which Liam then used the empty cask as his pillow. So the Goonies were born. But one of my distinct memories when we were traveling all together in France was a great pavement picnic slap up of a dinner that we each had in Berserk. And I can remember it distinctly. We had beautiful supermarket tibuli oriental. You had we had bread of course and cheese. is there probably would have been some form of pate and maybe some smoked chicken or something that you could buy. I remember distinctly always insisting we needed to have something healthy. So, we’d have like cut up pieces of carrot or peppers cuz there’s got to be some sort of vegetable there and then of course some local plon. But I want you to tell me what would a typical pavement picnic look like if you’re not at a restaurant? What what are you bringing out to to eat? Oh yeah, lunch normally. Lunch is is bread definitely couple of cheeses. Definitely patty. We’re from a from a deli. Cold meat of some description. Olives and a big tub of grapes if we can find them because in France they don’t have grapes as a fruit. They have grapes for wine. But you it’s very seldom you can buy a tub of dessert grapes. No. Well, see the regions you’re traveling to, all the wine regions, I mean, you’re not going to get any tasting grapes there, are you? Exactly. And I think they have to they buy in dessert grapes. you buy them in from Spain and of course you the the key constituent the key although we call it a procco pendic trademark pending is whatever local whatever the local delicacy may be whether that be white wine red wine crea um but we have a cat for we don’t always finish it it’s one of the most if you if one of your questions is What is the most underused items in your tandem kit? It’s your wine saver cap. I love it. A very, very good. And and listeners, did you see how I easily managed to mention food on the podcast and wine on the podcast? I have to do it for every episode, Colin and I. So, we’ve done that quite seamlessly here. I want to segue to something that’s that’s I guess more serious than what we’ve been talking about. And Colin, that’s this your situation in your health situation. Yeah. I think the best way to talk about it is to bring up how you first spoke about it. Personal announcement from Matilda’s Musings Tandem crew. We are facing our toughest ever personal challenge as I’ve been devastatingly diagnosed with lifelimiting stage 4 prostate cancer. Toward the end of last year, the bottom fell out of our amazing life together after I went to the doctors with a mild urinary infection after a rapid series of tests, scans, biopsies. We received the unfathable news that I had stage 4 prostate cancer. This was just days after six-time Olympic gold medalist cyclist Sir Chris Hoy went public with his terminal diagnosis. My oncology consultant actually used the phrase that my condition was almost identical to Chris Hoy, including the prognosis and projected time scales. As we try to come to terms with his living with cancer, the medics have emphasized how crucial our tandem cycling is to help maintain bone strength and muscle mass. That’s got to be like talk about things coming out of left field. Yeah. I can’t imagine what it’s like to go through that. Speaking to you here the last hour, I can see you’re a couple that’s full of energy, enthusiasm, and laughs. What’s it been like to navigate this part of your journey together? Hell, we were two years ago, we were out in France. We did also on it. And uh we let that uh go and literally uh late September uh last year, one uh episode of blood in my urine and obviously clearly that’s never good news. Um went to the doctors with the and they did the kind of oh it’ll just be a just be a urinary infection, all that kind of stuff. We’ll run a few tests, took a couple of blood tests, get you some um what do you call it? Um antibiotics. antibiotics because if it’s an infection, ah, don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine. So, they do this what’s called a PSA test, which is one of the big things that always go on about. Get a PSA test from your doctor and he says over 45 trying to campaign for 50, I think it is as well. But obviously the earlier detection, the better the outcome can be. It’s called a specific answer. What’s it called? PSA. What was it called? Um anyway, uh it doesn’t matter. Uh S is specific and E is antigen. So it must be uh prostate specific. Well, that’ll be it. And uh so they do that test and we’d be out for a cycle ride on the Monday. Went for a blood test in the afternoon. Just a local docs. Must have been about 2:00 in the afternoon. By 7:00 the next morning, my doctor’s on the phone trying to get a hold of me. I think, you know, D, that’s not good news, is it? You don’t normally have a doctor phoning you directly before 7:00 in the morning, especially in Scotland. So, it didn’t uh for some whatever reason, we didn’t connect at that point. It was later in the day. So, your PSA, if you’re uh a kind of a normal healthy person, it should be something like between zero and four. Mine was 282. Whoa. So, yeah, that send you down this path of uh numerous scans as you were mentioning there and biopsy. And then it was Halloween the 31st of October. You never forget that date. We’d obviously kind of braced ourselves for it kind of fairly certain it was some form of cancer. But when you go into this gray room and there’s someone sitting at the side and then the consultant comes in and it’s not the person sitting at the side. What’s that person sitting at the side for? I don’t know if you’ve read Chris Hoy’s book all that matters. M he talks about exactly the same scenario and obviously there this other person’s there to mop up the pieces shall we call it consultant comes in and delivers this uh sentence in about 90 seconds um sorry to tell you um stage four terminal prostate cancer 2 to four years and your life’s just lying on the floor at that point are you both together like were you on your own in this No we’re both Yeah, that still would be our lives lying on the floor um effectively at that point. So yeah, I mean just very difficult to navigate. They mentioned as we left that we should get in touch with an organization called Maggis and registers in Europe or abroad but in Britain there’s of Maggie’s cancer care centers. Didn’t really know anything about it at the time. There’s one right across from the hospital in Dundee and went in told the story and you you’re given this complete wonderful warm welcome blanketing warm welcome and it’s just been absolutely amazing and giving me a helping hand every every step of the way really and explaining things just at that stage when you think your life is completely over. They help you kind of turn that round into thinking that okay yes your life is going to be over but there’s a lot of living to be done between now and then. And obviously these time scales are only just like guesstimates. we’re on the best possible uh medication package, drugs and medication package and that’s keeping it be at the moment. Um having regular blood tests and they’re all on the extremely good side. So it’s just a case of uh as we say living life to the full basically the casoy message of get out there and live every minute of every day and changing perceptions of what can actually be achieved. Yeah. while having a stage 4 diagnosis because a lot of people think well that is my life over but as I say I think there’s a lot of life to be living since then and I think that whole process took us to the fact that I think it was around about Christmas time I I obviously had um liked various things like prostate cancer UK and all that kind of stuff on social media just to get as much information as you can you want to be a sponge at that point and this thing came up about uh looking for people to do the first stage of the tour to France or what they call the GR depart classic a week before the tour to France itself starts in Leo uh before the pros uh professional cyclist did it and looking for people to sign up to this uh 115 miles in a day so we had a conversation as my glamorous assistant and um you said yes I did know we’ll do that we’ll do it we’ll do it which is the longest ride you’ve done in a day isn’t it if I remember correctly like like it’s off the scale, right? By miles. Um we we had to do sort of a serious training thing and we got up to about 85 miles, which is a hell of a long distance. Yeah. For those of us that work in kilometers is a long way. A day is a long long way. And is that like 200 km? It could nearly be 200 km. 185 something. 180 something. Yeah. Close enough with rounding. Come on. Tell us. Tell me when you’re training for a marathon if you’re running. you shouldn’t actually do the whole distance. So, we took that on board and uh we did up to 85 miles in a day. So, if we can do that, we can do the whole thing. Got out to Leo the weekend before Fran started. There were about 150 of us all with prostate cancer um shirts on. Not everyone was uh in fact we were only there was only three stage four people. A lot of people were doing it in in support of people who had prostate cancer or in uh the uh the nastier side of it the in memory of but uh the race what 250,000 250,000 with 150 cyclist that’s quite a lot of money but it was it was tough. Uh we took about 11 hours, 11 and a half hours. We did 12 miles an hour, which I thought was pretty good given that the uh last seven miles the batteries kicked out. They just had enough. Oh my gosh. I’m sorry. I’m just picturing an E tandem with no battery. No batteries. Heavy bike. Heavy is the word you’re looking for. No, there’s a magic hefty. Hefty last before heavy. Yeah, you can bleep out heavy for you. Um and of course we’re fairly well knackered by that point. You’ll glad to know we didn’t have a procco picnic that day. We’re very focused and so the last seven or eight miles. Maybe that’s actually what you needed probably. And then in their infinite wisdom, the end of that particular route was through the center of Le about five o’clock on a Saturday evening absolutely ram jammed with cars and there’s in France obviously they’re trying to get rid of a lot of the cars and it’s mostly psychopaths but they still have a lot of traffic lights. We must have gone through about 20 sets of traffic lights easily and every single one of them was at red and so it was stop but we got back and we did it. We had a bottle of procco later by the way. We did. Two. And there was two category climbs in that. Three. Three. Three. Two or five. It was a full first stage that the guys did um later. Interesting point was that we took it about 11 and 1 half hours. Um what do you call them? Who cares how who cares what they took? Who cares? Seriously, I live at the base of many tour to France climbs Cole and I and I can pretty much at least half the time or you know whatever they do up a mountain climb at least double it if not more and maybe I’m there. It’s ridiculous. They ride up the climbs as if it’s a flat. They ride up the climbs faster than I can do on the flat sometimes. One of them was the cobbles which was even more interesting. Oh wow. Then the batteries kicked out at the end, but we got there in the end and amazingly we managed to raise£75,000 uh between us for prostate cancer UK. That’s a phenomenal effort as well. We were somewhat knackered afterwards and got over the line of burst I burst into tears. Burst into tears. Just relief that we were finished and it was it was just but it just shows what can be going back to that point of changing perceptions. It just shows what can be achieved with a little bit of bloody mindedness, a bit of effort, a bit of um support, obviously massive support from my glamorous assistant. That’s you die. Could I ask when something just comes out at you like that and you you said, you know, you’re not expecting this diagnosis, you’re given it. And speaking with you now, and when I first met you there at the lock gate near Tuloose, you know, like I said, the thing that drew me was your energy. Yeah. you know, your laughter, you know, your outfits, your tandem, all of that sort of stuff, and your the the decision to keep on living. Has your perception and your perspective shifted as well from that? Like you you you said you were put in touch with this lovely organization? Was it Maggie’s? Maggie’s. Have you always been that positive mindset? cuz my perception of you when I met you was positive, optimistic, lovely people. But would that be your default or have you learned to make that your default? And has that laser focused you on living, living, living, living, living? Well, I think going back since we’ve been together 30 years, we’ve always been fairly positive. Quite a lot of things thrown at us during that time. Yeah. And we’ve kind of tefloned them off, dealt with them, and kind of um moved on. Uh maybe that’s easier if there’s just the two of us. Obviously it’s children, older children. Um but it’s easier if uh it’s just the two of us. And I think when you’re given that news, yes, I mean it’s I’m not saying it’s a bed of roses every day. Um, I think a lot of the stuff you mentioned there about positivity and the tandem outfits and all that kind of some of that’s a bit of a mask to try and collect from the daily grind because even if you’re out enjoying yourself in the tandem, you still have this concoction of medication to take in the in the morning and your um what do you call it? Your um pin prick thing for your diabetes and all of these things that’s all got to be factored into it. So I would say it’s a roller coaster. You try and be as you can, but obviously there are down days and you think about the worst case scenario and I suppose maybe when you’re on a tandeming holiday, you’re always going to have aches and pains. I’m sure you’re aware of that yourself or in terms of your solo bike. They’re sort of to be expected. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? Is you you would you would simply put that down as an aching pain of a cycle trip. Yeah. But obviously with my diagn Oh, my hips we again. Hips sore. Wonder what that is. and everything you have a cold anything you have is I wonder if that’s anything to do with the big C and you just uh there’s no way around that. You’re trying to be as positive as possible. I think it’s h it takes a while to get into that time frame. Again, reading Chris Hoy’s book, he said it took him a year. In fact, it took him a year before he went public with it before he went public with his diagnosis before he could face the world. And obviously he’s done a complete vault fast and gone the other way and been Mr. Positive. But I’m sure there are times that Chris’s house with his lovely wife that he is not Mr. Positive because he’s a human. Yeah, exactly. The public faces, you know, I’m I’m this positive person and we are trying to follow that to a certain extent, but it’s not always it’s not always possible. But you know one of the things was that they kept mentioning this thing right away about you know exercise is a huge part of long longevity um and it stops obviously the bones from um decaying and all that kind of stuff and said cycling absolutely brilliant for it. Tandem cycling well yes of course I mean obviously that’s part of cycling. So it became a a new focus if you like um even if it was slightly wet or whatever on a Sunday when we normally go out on a Monday we would go out because we felt it was doing well or we do feel not past tense I’m still here we do feel it’s doing something positive it’s something that we can do to help it’s almost like a different form of medication that you’re taking going for your ride is part of your routine now to keep as healthy as you can like what’s in your control and you’re able to do that. So there have been uh studies uh recently publicized here in uh the UK that actually show the first time ever some empirical evidence uh of uh increasing longevity for cancer sufferers and again that’s at the back of our our mind and we you know try and put the the ultimate end of the journey to one side and focus on very much focus on on living for today. Definitely. Yeah. Has it given you thoughts? Like, are you How do I want to word this? Well, actually, I’ve got I’ve got something to say beforehand. I’m not someone that’s often lost for words, as you can probably tell. I’m an extrovert. I run a podcast. I host it. I I talk to people and chat quite happily all the time. It’s something that I’m very aware of is that I struggle knowing sometimes the right words, the right questions, the right ways to phrase things. Worried about saying the wrong thing. There are no wrong ways to talk about this. What would your advice be? Like what are the sort of things that you would want people to be saying about this? I guess it’s I know it’s a weird question. I know it’s a weird question, but how about us? Yeah. How would you want people to react, but also what what is the what’s the perception that you want to give people off? just that um you can uh have loads of fun and you can have lots of uh energy and um uh people are want people to be genuinely asking about my condition but we’ll try and you know answer that in the first few seconds and and move off and um say uh you know we’re cracking on with it and uh getting on with life and you know we’ll be given this uh sentence if you like of the the time scale but we’re going to use every part of But that kind of thing of like when you you just keep booking loads of things at the moment. Concerts, people we want to see, traveling, places we want to go. Freaking yes. That’s exactly what I want to hear. Abs freakingutely. Already got next summer’s tour kind of semi plan. We’re going to do the I mean, now you’ve got to come and do the sud in the, you know, the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. I mean, hello. We’re going to do the Lir. uh not from the source but uh from is it never uh out to the Atlantic uh is Nick Summer. Brilliant. And just to keep doing like I feel like that’s like I said I feel like it’s almost like the elephant in the room. You don’t know how to discuss it. Like you know its presence is there and you sort of have to give it the two-finger salute and keep on going in a way. I think the worst thing is that people don’t ask. Yeah. Because I’ve heard that Colin before like in a situ in a different entirely different situation where someone’s lost, you know, someone’s passed away and then people don’t know how to as they don’t even mention it and then it it’s like they never existed whereas that’s not the right thing to do. Or in Scotland they’ll cross the street and uh to make sure they don’t bump into you. Oh no. I hope that’s not been the case. No, and it’s not. I’m just saying that that’s the kind of perception and a lot a lot of people don’t know how to handle it themselves which is amazing at the Maggie’s organization as a men’s group and it’s all about people’s you know experiences and what they’re going through. There’s a guy for example whose best man basically heard about his diagnosis and phoned him up and said look I can’t I can’t be your friend anymore basically because of what you’re going through and well wait a minute it’s me that’s going through what not you so fortunately we haven’t had that um we had a few people not interested in us and say to them by the way you know we need to ask or maybe ask die about me and it’s like hello speak to the boy in the wheelchair it’s quite a common thing isn’t it People will ask someone’s partner how they are because they don’t want to talk to the person themselves in case they upset them or do you know uh or are maybe told too much that they don’t want to hear I don’t know don’t ignore you you you’re still here and you’re still very much living. Yeah. So let’s sort of move back to the positive aspects of it all and we’ve been given this opportunity. D retires from her hair salon in end. April, end of March, beginning of April. And that’s going to give us lots more time to get out there. So, we’ve got to be out there a lot more regularly on Ematilda. As you would say in Scotland, you’ll be a booting a boot. A boot scoot a boot. Scooting a boot. What’s the other one? The new I’m not even sure what that means. Why am I saying that out loud? I’m sorry to every single Scottish person I know. That’s one of those ones that long meek is what I want to do, which is long me you could your chimney continue to smoke. So yeah, the actually I have to mention it but it’s so not relevant. It’s a new Scottish saying I learned while I was in Northern Ireland of all places and it was from my husband’s uncle null and I think it was pick your windy which is about pick your winder you’re leaving. Yeah. which is where is that sort of like where you’ve overstayed your welcome. It’s like get out which we know you want to be flung from. Get out. I don’t care who yourself are. You can choose window one, two, three or four. Which one you’re going to get thrown through? But h yeah, we’re just going to keep uh keep going as as long as we can. There’s obviously going to be um a day that we’re not going to be tandeming. I’m going to fight that off for as long as possible because I think that’s very much of what we’re about about. Absolutely. And uh we’re just going to keep uh that positivity positivity going and um have different goals and different things to to look forward to. Well, if we get to the stage where we can’t deal with the hills as as well as we we are at the moment, then we just take the bike somewhere flat. You know what? Um, if I can get myself up to Scotland somehow, I definitely want to take you up on the meeting you and getting a go on the tandem. And if for some reason I can’t and you’re anywhere near my part of France, I’d love to bump into you again. There’s something I believe intrinsically and that is about serendipity. And it honestly feels Col and I that it was a moment of serendipity for me to stop at that lock house, decide I need to ice cream, and to sit next to you and to just chat and say hello. And I’ve learned so much about you. I learned so much about you doing my online stalking of you. yesterday researching about every single thing you’ve done so I knew what to ask. But yeah, I I would love the opportunity to to catch up with you again and I’m I’m so pleased that I’ve been able to have this opportunity to listen and hear more of your story as well because I think there there are lots more there are a lot more procco picnics to be had. So definitely lots more of Matilda’s adventures. I did notice by the way you were I do actually notice you were stalking us yesterday because we we get pings about the stats for the blog and frantic you’ll have some more for about an hour before the session just getting my dates right. Let me check this out. Oh my gosh. I could speak to you forever but I do need to wind things up and I do that by asking the same three questions. The first one is music related and that is you’re both guests of the podcast now which means you get to choose a song which goes onto the Seek Travel Ride music playlist. Listeners, it’s available on Spotify and Apple Music and I have got links to it in the podcast show notes description. But if you could pick one song to be the soundtrack to Matilda’s Adventures, what song would you pick? Um, well, it’s a no-brainer for us. And it’s a song by Paul Carrick, and it’s called Don’t Wait Too Long. Oh, obviously a no-brainer. That’s giving me goosebumps. I don’t even know the song. I was I was half thinking you were going to say waltzing Matilda. Well, that’s you could have that as a second choice. It’s not Walt. It’s Daisy D. Maybe I am an Aussie. I could just add it on for you. But, uh, yeah, Paul Carrick and don’t wait too long. That’s our new theme song. Oh, I love it. I love it. Okay, second last question. You’re given a choice one day at Col and I. You can choose to turn left, but you’ll be riding on the most bumpiest corrugated washboard surface of a road of your life. All day long, no relief. Or you can turn right, but you’re going to be riding into the most brutal headwind that’s unrelenting all day as well. Which one are you going to choose? Oh my goodness. um especially given the current circumstances it sounds as if left would be the uh you know came out of left field as I say uh the bumpy road ahead but I think because we’re embracing it head on he says uh cleverly trying to use some of the words you were using and with our battery power on I Matilda it would have to be into the headwind. Yeah. Well, actually, Cole, it’s only you into the headwind. Diane, you that’s one thing. You don’t get to see anything that’s going on, but you at least don’t have to worry about the wind, right? Yeah, D. It’s a lovely day today as my face is like, love it. Love it. Okay, team headwind, I have got you down. And the final question, and that is it. I want you to finish this sentence for me. And you do finish each other’s sentences. So, it’s going to be interesting to see how this goes. And that is that is I want you to finish the sentence for me. And the sentence is the best thing about taking a bike adventure is spending time with my amazing wife day. I was just about to say doing it with my best friend. Who’s Who’s that? Was that Matilda or is that Colin? Oh, they’ve just given each other a kiss. I’ve just gotten goosebumps again. Oh, it’s warming my soul. What a beautiful, perfect response. Cheesy, cheesy, cheesy indeed. You have some cheese and crackers. It’s that time at your next procco picnic. Oh my goodness. D and Colin, what an absolute trip it’s been. I feel like I’ve gone on a little mini tour myself. I nearly need to have some procco tonight, too. Right. Yeah. What an absolute pleasure. As I mentioned before, life gives you moments of serendipity, and I honestly feel it was a moment of serendipity that brought the three of us to be sat at the same bench together. Hearing your story has been great. From the first blind date tandem, buying a tandem four weeks later, getting married and using the tandem as an altar and all of the awesome adventures that you’ve taken ever since, and all of the awesome adventures ahead of you. I cannot wait to read about how the Lir Valley treats you next year, what sort of new additions you’ll have on your next Procco picnic. And as I said, I really hope that I can somehow get up there and see you or or see you somewhere on a tandem ride as well. Life is for living. You’re you’re taking it on and you’re living every moment of it. It’s clear that you two were meant to meet each other and meant to ride bikes together or a bike together. Thank you so so much for sharing your stories and experiences here on the podcast for Seek Travel Ride. It was a pleasure. Lovely. Thank you very much for having us and I love your energy too and yeah I think uh very likeminded people and it was lovely to have met on the video and then end up end up doing this. So and hopefully we’ll meet up sometime soon. Thank you very much. There we go listeners. I hope that you are absolutely as energized as I am after speaking with Colin and I and hearing their incredible story. Has it actually got you wondering about maybe having a go on a tandem yourself? As I mentioned in the podcast, it’s not something I’ve done, but I would say it’s not something I’ve done yet. I am keen to explore that. Overwhelmingly though, the biggest message that I could take away from Colin and I is they are like two P’s in a pod. They are definitely a couple made for each other. and I could see the happiness and energy radiate off them. But the diagnosis is a serious one and I could also visually see that on their faces. We spoke a little bit after recording where I was mentioning that whole thing where often people don’t know what to say to people in this situation and Colin and I both mentioned something which is important and that is just say something. Just say something. Don’t ignore people. Don’t be absent from them. Someone’s going through something, say something. And I think the other overwhelming message has been life is for living. And that is a message that I felt overwhelmingly from Colin and I. They were very realistic about it as well. It’s not like they’re energetic, happy, golucky people every single hour of the day. And I’m sure that they have had their down days, too. But to hear them planning ahead for their tour of the L and many procco picnics to come fills me with joy. And I think it’s the overwhelming message that I want to take from both of them on this show. I have provided links to their beautiful online blog, which I encourage you to check out, as well as their Facebook page. So, give them a follow and let’s watch their adventures play out. Listeners, if you’re enjoying what I’m putting together here on the podcast at Seek Travel Ride, and you want to support me and the podcast, you can do so by buying me a coffee. Simply head to buy me a coffee.com/seektraide. buy me a virtual coffee, but more importantly, let me know what is it that you love about the episodes and where is your next bike adventure going to take you. And until the next episode, I’m Bella Malloy. Thanks for listening. [Music] [Music]