Ben’s Langdon bike ride…day 3

The Jewish News is following the progress of Ben Miller, who is taking part in the Langdon International Cycle…

Today’s starter:

The beginning of today was a gentle 3km, hitting 18% at time and averaging 15%. For those that know, you’ll be aware that the steepest hills in London and environs are 15%, but only for 300 or 400 meters. The photo is Kate, one of our first time riders towards the top, with Tom, one of our guides.

The Adige Valley:

After the steep start, the rest of the morning was relatively straightforward. Mostly on wide cycle paths alongside the beautiful Adige river, which Ash and Clive are modelling. The other photo is Mark, one of the Langdon residents, with me. Mark has lived most of his adult life with Langdon, starting with 24 hour care, but learning the skills for independent living, and now sharing a house with three other people, as well as working at Heathlands, a care home for older folk.

The end of day 3:

The sharp climb over, the rest of today was quite reasonable. We cycled some 35km up the valley, nearly all on bike paths, but with a decent headwind all the way. We did witness our second accident of the trip – the first, on Monday, a kid came round a bend too fast and too wide, lost control and skidded into one of our guides. Fortunately, nothing more than grazes, despite the kid wearing no helmet. Today, an older couple hit the ground, and the lady did not get up. I was 30 yards away when she crashed, so quickly put my first aid training into action. Fortunately, she was only unconscious for a few seconds, but had a nasty head scrape and probably a broken wrist. My treatment was challenged by a lack of German, but a local nurse turned up, along with our local guides and a doctor on our ride. They took over until the ambulance arrived.

Talking of German, everything here is bilingual as we are close to the Austrian border. The valleys are full of vines and apples, the scenery continues to be exceptional and, despite threatening every day, the rain has not caught us. Unless you count yesterday when it poured during dinner and my clothes, drying on the balcony, got soaked.

Didn’t forget tweet #LangdonBikeRide, leave comments here or email benmillerx@gmail.com.