El Journal de Jezza

Gerry Rosen joined the club in late 2007. As he'll remind you, he's a "big boned" London cabbie but he's also got the cycling bug. He's been chronicling his conversion to cycling, beginning from his first club run all the way to the Etape du Tour in 2008 and now beyond. In the latest installment, he explains why he's been on the road a lot, but in his cab, and why he's heading to Spain.

I write this in the middle of a 25 hour fast to commemorate the holiest day in the Jewish Religion Yom Kippur, where Jewish people are not allowed to eat or drink and also repent for their sins throughout the year, I am suffering, big-style!!

Back in May 2007 I asked somebody about cycling and joining a cycling club and 2 names kept cropping up Kingston Wheelers or London Dynamo, it was suggested to me, to meet up in Richmond Park for a few laps, to discuss all things lycra/2 wheeled., Could a 21 & 1/2stone bloke cope with 3 laps of the park and people young enough to be my son overtaking me and leaving me for dust, well the answer was yes, even a group of chavvy girls in a Vauxhall nova going from Roehampton to Richmond gate shouting at me "yer fat w*****r !!! " didn’t put me off and as for which club to join , that was a no-brainer, after a small incident in RP that day, I also remember travelling around the North Circular Road going home that day absolutely aching from every orifice, still wasn't put off.

It took a further two months for me to pluck up the courage and go to a pub night, at the Brave New World pub, I shouldn't of been worried as I remember meeting Rob Leslie, Chris H, former member Svilen and the one and only Badger Mark Briers for the first time who couldn’t of been more friendly and discussed with me the virtues on the Shimano/Campagnolo debate or whether helmets are a good thing, all over a pint or 2 of Guinness...

It then took till the middle of October 2007 for me to pluck up the courage and join the Sunday club run, which I will admit has been my only one to date, as the realities of life dictate and I have to work, Sundays as they are a busy day for me. But that Sunday I couldn’t have been in more better hands, even though I kept people waiting with my slowness, everyone rode with me, asking if I was ok, even the fifteen minute ascent of Box Hill, someone was with me...

As most of you know I had suffered from Testicular Cancer back in 1998 , 10 years on, in February 2008, it was to be my last check up and out of remission, I wanted to do something to say thank you and it was decided I would do the 2008 Etape from Pau to the summit of Hautacam, you all know about what happened with the training , overseas recce trips and exactly what happened on the 6th July 2008.Three weeks later I entered the last club 10 of the year and duly dispatched the A24 in 28m 55 secs., and let it be known, I suffered more after the 10 than the Etape, so much so I spent the following day in bed, not being able to move !!

I had great plans for 2009, but mid-September 08 was to see a dramatic downturn in my fortunes, for which I am only slowly recovering from, We had the start of the recession, my taxi was taken off the road for 7 weeks through no fault of my own, costing me in the region of £5000 there was also family illness, too much time off for all the trips abroad, the amount of times spent traveling South from Hertfordshire, Hotels, pub nights, Saturday rides which left me tired and unable to work afterwards, you name it, it cost me, something had to give… and that was most trips to Kingston and the Surrey Hills and cycling in general, for which unfortunately is still the case, but I hope that will change in the near future.

In April this year I joined a club near to me, they are the North Road CC www.northroadcc.org.uk they are 2nd claim club(feel like a pro saying that) and when I joined them, I turned up to their first evening 10 (F7/10 course) and within a week I was designated their push off man, it took a few more weeks before I was cajoled into taking part in a TT, I will say it makes yours look like child’s play, its certainly not A24-esque standards, as a matter of fact its pretty rural , and it takes me just under an hour to get there on my bike , , it starts and finishes on an uphill section , part of the course is uphill for a mile, think of Box Hill but without the hairpins it is certainly tough and the quickest time this year was sub 21 !, my time though was considerably slower , but at least it was sub 30 !

I've been out with them a few times on a Saturday ride and its opened up to me the countryside of Hertfordshire which I have to say is totally different to Surrey, much more rolling then hilly and more akin to Northern France/Belgium. I have also discovered this great place for a cake stop called Emily’s Tea Shop, its set on a farm , near the town of Knebworth, where they specialise in serving cakes made with fair-trade ingredients(thoroughly recommend the Chocolate Brownie) and as Watercress is grown in abundance in the area they make the most deeeliciouso Watercress soup. One last thing on North Road CC., every February they organise a Hardriders 25 around little Switzerland (Potters Bar area) and teams like Sigma Sport/Team Corley Cycles enter, now I know its not exactly near to Kingston, but it would be great to see some Wheelers enter, i'll put a shameless plug on the forum nearer to the time. On a personal note they will never replace KW.You are the club that gave me the start in cycling for which I'll never forget.

I've also got something else to say to you all, I was contemplating moving to Spain to live, I've got some taxi driver friends who've made the move in the past few years and watched how the quality of their lives have improved considerably (apart from their smoking) so I've decided that from next March I'll be moving to Spain as well and join them, not permanently for the time being I shall add, but along the lines of working two weeks solidly here in London then returning to Spain for two weeks of chilling out.

I'll be about 40 minutes North of Benidorm in the town of Denia with the backdrop of the Marina Alta Mountain range, so not bad for a spin on a bike, if it’s good enough for Indurain & co, than it’s good enough for Gezza, there is also a good ex-pat community out there who like their cycling , so it should be good, and once I’m settled in you'll more than be welcome to come out. In truth I should of made the move ages ago, put it this way when your mortgage is over £900 a month and you can get a 2 bedroom appt for 450 euros with swimming pool overlooking the sea, it’s a no brainer really, and I honestly don’t think I'll regret it And that is, I doubt there will be another Gezzas journal until Spain next year , by which time my Knowledge of the surrounding mountains will be good and not take the amount of time it did to learn the roads in Surrey.

Click here to read previous entries in Gezza's Journal.