OOPS! This young cyclist got off his bike the hard way as he fell while travelling along the Clyde Walcott Roundabout. (CPG)

by Anmarie Bailey

The morning started with a bang for me and 776 other registered riders in the 17th annual Nation Fun Ride, but the course proved too challenging for this inexperienced "rider" who, after traversing Green Hill, called it quits.

Armed with determination and little more, good intentions were not enough to allow me to complete the 18-kilometre route.

After breezing through Harbour Road, Holborn, President Kennedy Drive, Eagle Hall and Spooners Hill, things quickly unravelled once I hit Codrington Hill and Green Hill.

Owing to fatigue, frustration and a faulty bicycle, I decided to try to return to Nation House, Fontabelle, at roughly the halfway point. With a bike that either failed to hold gears or was stuck in high gear, and had a bent back wheel, I found the work too much for me. The back brakes were also involuntarily engaging, and Green Hill proved to be my undoing.

What should have been moderately challenging became almost impossible as I tried to change into lower gears to climb the inclines.

Well-meaning spectators and riders offered assistance. One spectator used a piece of wood to try to make the task easier, while another tried to help, all to no avail.

A well-meaning rider even traded bicycles when he realised the trouble I was having. By then, fatigue and frustration were at their peak, and after a few minutes I decided to give him back his self-titled "steel demon", thanked him and another well-meaning cyclist who offered to complete the route with me, and turned around.

On the way back, another spectator offered to disconnect the back brakes so I could coast, but after considering the fact that I would be going downhill with only front brakes, I rejected that option.

The fact of the matter is that I was not ready for such a long ride. It had been years since I'd ridden a bicycle, and although I was in tip-top physical shape about two to three years ago, over the past year to year-and-a-half, lack of regular, strenuous exercise was probably more responsible for my performance than the bike's problems.

Would I do it again? Most definitely, but with more preparation. I wouldn't wait until four days before the event to start training.