Day 1000 - The End of The Pedalabout

It is just over 1000 days ago that I started my Tour de Fitness. This was when I returned to cycling some 30 years since I last owned a bike. It was in March 2013 that I collected a shiny new heavy hybrid cycle and proceeded to puff and wheeze my way to fitness and oh how I needed to get fit.

It was on Day 83, as I was measuring my tour in days back then, that my cycling took a momentous step change. It was a warm Thursday in May and I was enjoying a lunchtime treat of fish & chips on the beach. Reading the local newspaper that I'd picked up from the chippy, there was a writeup on the local cycling club having just returned from a trip to Brittany. It stuck in my mind as I walked through the roundabout on the seafront,  when I spotted a sign "The Pedalabout .. Seaton Town Council in partnership with the Axe Valley Pedallers Cycle Club".. a seed was definitely sown, I needed to find out more about this club, the AVP.

The Pedalabout - May 2013

Back home, I looked the AVP up on the internet and the following words leaped out at me  .. "Thursday night is club night. We meet at the Kings Arms in Seaton for plenty of chat, chips, a beer or two, maybe a cake and perhaps even some cycling! Thursday nights are all about socialising and having fun. We depart at 6:30 pm when a road ride and a mountain bike ride will set off aiming to return to the pub for beer and chips around 8:30pm." .. I was hooked, I went along, we did more miles in that one evening than I'd ever done before and the rest is history!

Over the past 900 or so days, since that first meeting with the Pedallers, I have always looked fondly on the Pedalabout. I've even joined the gang re-painting, sweeping and tidying it before the annual Grizzly runners from across the country come to town. It came as quite a shock therefore, to find it unceremoniously dismantled last weekend, bikes piled in a corner, to make way for Christmas lights!

I had to hit social media to express my concern over the lack of 'partnership' in making this decision to tear down the Peadalabout! The Town Council to be fair, came straight back .. such is the power and immediacy of social media. @TownClerkDrake replied "not torn but taken down for new Christmas lighting display and then new features to be agreed in new year" .. yes I was being a little emotive in my 'torn down' statement ..  perhaps little tabloid, but it got me noticed!

The Pedalabout is 'Torn Down' - November 2015

@TownClerkDrake went on to say "the display was shot to pieces and not a good reflection on the town, so once lights are down we will ensure proper display".

I my view, there is much in Seaton which looks shot to pieces and not a good reflection on the town, but I would have to disagree that this could be said for our set of Google coloured bikes. I believe they have been there since the Tour of Britain passed through in 2009 and such I would agree that such a time spent in salty air and sea spray does take its toll on steel .. but through my rose tinted specs they looked fab to me!

Some fellow social media followers also commented: GM "I would have wrapped the bikes in lights"  .. CA "I loved them" ...  DR "Quite disgraceful !" ...   RG "Oh Goodness" ...   GB "R.I.P colourful bicycles" .

We will have to see what @TownClerkDrake thinks is a 'proper display' in the new year,  whether the AVP 'partnership' can continue and if the Pedalabout's replacement will equally inspire someone else to go and do something inspiring and that they've never done before.