if you've got a bit of time?

[Tumbleweed]

?read this story?

 

The incredibly romantic tale of a wonder girl cyclist
Social history is transmitted in various ways - via oral history where people's memories are collected together by academics studying the fabric of society rather than headline events. And, of course, by people settling down with an older relative and flicking through a photo album.
Isabel Woods' autobiography, Wheels of Change, has exactly the charm of that kind of informal history lesson about Northern Ireland.
The woman whom the Press idolised in the 1950s as the 'Wonder girl cyclist' has set down, as in some idiosyncratic scrapbook, the story of her life and times.
It's been quite a ride, from her childhood in Larne, where her father owned two butcher's shops, to the record-breaking years when Isabel set no fewer than eight national records, four north of the border and four south, as a member of the Belfast Cycling Club that she joined in 1950. She also brought up four children born in quick succession and worked as a factory clerk.
These days Isabel, a feisty 80-year-old, regularly goes dancing with her husband Peter. "I loved tap dancing as a child and now we go step-dancing. That involves groups of eight."
The couple, who live in a cottage in Lisburn, also run a dance class with traditional Irish music accompanying it in Rosemary Hall.
Although she is registered partially sighted, Isabel can see well enough to write.
However, producing the book involved some contortions: "I used a lot of scrap paper and a heavy marking pen. The scribbled pages were transferred to foolscap with the help of a big Anglepoise light, and my nose touching the paper."
This labour of love came about because Maeve Sarrar, secretary of the Landscape Association which Peter Woods chaired as a landscape gardener, encouraged Isabel to record the highlights of her interesting life. Maeve also helped type the manuscript and get it ready for publication. There are delightful vignettes in Wheels of Change that capture another, possibly gentler world. When Isabel met Peter, through cycling, she thought that his fondness for wearing plus fours meant that he was rather snooty.
She writes: "I had seen Peter at the Drum Ups but had never got to know him. He was always very dapperly dressed, complete with plus fours. He gave the impression of being aloof and a bit snobbish and I had no time for snobbish people."
She adds, with comic timing: "I was quite surprised to learn that he was employed as a gardener."
Still, she and Peter became training companions, with Leslie Bingham, and, in 1955, lifetime companions. At their wedding, the cycling club formed a guard of honour with bicycle wheels.
In reality, there is, of course, nothing gentle about the world of competitive cycling.
The training was tough, the distances covered immense, and Isabel had none of the advantages of riders today. So while Isabel's record in the End to End Irish ride, 386 miles in all, was broken by a girl in 2007, there is, as she says firmly, "no comparison" between the two athletic challenges.
Isabel says: "I completed the ride in 23 hours and 2 minutes, only stopping to put on a sweater and tights when I was cold. She beat me by an hour, but I had a five-gear bike, she had a 25-gear, I relied on sandwiches and raisins to keep me going, plus brown bread and honey, which I loved, she was on scientifically devised nutrition. Also, her route was about 20 miles shorter."
Once Isabel's family arrived, she stopped racing.
"Back then, women were advised to have their families before 30, so at 28 I stopped." Naturally, her children became keen cyclists.
Reading about Isabel's education, it's clear that her determination helped her overcome significant obstacles.
She attended Belfast Royal Academy, but after developing short sight, she was removed at 14 at the suggestion of her eye specialist.
"So I went to comptometer school and learnt book-keeping."
At the time, Isabel was keener on horses than bikes, but then she saw a Ladies Raleigh Sprite in a bicycle shop on Belfast's Cregagh Road and "fell in love with it".
From then on, she was hooked and exchanged "a flesh and blood steed for one of steel - it was the gate to freedom for me".
Writing down her memories, Isabel found the work grew to 300 pages. She had it published last November, which wasn't brilliant timing.
"There were a lot of celebrity autobiographies, Gloria Hunniford, Cliff Richard and, of course, I was competing with Obama, too."
But word of mouth recommendation, including an enthusiastic mention by Mary Peters, has meant the book has been selling steadily. As a chronicle of an age, it's the perfect book to dip into.
There are dark passages detailing when Isabel lost her son David in 1981 just two weeks before his 23rd birthday in a cave-diving accident.
And she recounts the accidents and injuries sustained while pursuing her beloved sport, but overall there is the kind of fizz you associate with Isabel's generation.
She says that her childhood was "wonderful" and you sense what followed wasn't half bad either.

[Thug]

How about a quick summary ?

 

 

 

[Tumbleweed]

lazy bugger?ok, here goes?The woman whom the Press idolised in the 1950s as the 'Wonder girl cyclist' has set down, as in some idiosyncratic scrapbook, the story of her life and times.

[Thug]

Thanks.

 

When you've finished reading her lifestory, you can also precis it for me. Ta.

 

[Tumbleweed]

she rode a bike. was good at it. fell in love. got married. had kids. the end?

[Thug]

If only life was so simple....

 

 

[Tumbleweed]

that's why i want to be a dog. sleep, shag, eat, repeat?

[javadude]

Thanks for the summary, definitely can't read that without Ritalin.

[Gasping]

she rode a bike. was good at it. fell in love. got married. had kids. the end?

 

Roly, you got it wrong.

 

It goes like this: Fell in Love. Got married. The End. Had kids ...

[Tumbleweed]

Thanks for the summary' date=' definitely can't read that without Ritalin. [/quote']

 

a fellow add survivor. welcome to the club

[Gasping]

Thanks for the summary' date=' definitely can't read that without Ritalin. [/quote']

 

a fellow add survivor. welcome to the club

 

Q. How many ADD sufferers does it take to change a light bulb?

 

A. Lets go ride our play Wii !!!!

[Tumbleweed]

Thanks for the summary' date=' definitely can't read that without Ritalin. [/quote']

 

a fellow add survivor. welcome to the club

 

Q. How many ADD sufferers does it take to change a light bulb?

 

A. Lets go ride our play Wii !!!!

 

[Speed Devil]

that's why i want to be a dog. sleep' date=' shag, eat, repeat?[/quote']

 

 

Check my signature

 

[Tumbleweed]

that's why i want to be a dog. sleep' date=' shag, eat, repeat?[/quote']

 

 

Check my signature

 

 

maybe the speed is an issue?

[Gasping]

that's why i want to be a dog. sleep' date=' shag, eat, repeat?[/quote']

 

 

Check my signature

 

 

maybe the speed is an issue?

 

Too quick?

[fiasm]

that's why i want to be a dog. sleep' date=' shag, eat, repeat?[/quote']

 

I thought that was how it is for you anyway? men are such simple creatures