M.A.M.I.L

So the above is the newest acronym I have come across and actually refers to myself but was not created just for me obviously.

I first heard the name during the aftermath of Bradley Wiggins victory in the Tour de France. Everyone has heard of it but GB has never had a winner. Now that we have one I can tell you just what a grueling endurance competition it is. 3v weeks of cycling all over France with some of the most fearsome climbs in the mountains of the Pyranees and the Alps. 

Of course in partisan style I probably wouldn't have bigged it up as an event until a Brit had won it! Until recently it has not been a sport we have had any success at. Plenty of road racing goes on in the UK but that sort of event just wasn't our thing. 

So from not ever having had a winner in 98 goes we got a 1st and 2nd place in the 99th. Many in the UK have placed this as the greatest sporting achievement by a British athlete. Mostly because of the physical endurance. 3500 kilometres (best part of 2200 miles in real money) in 3 weeks. Just makes my arse ache thinking about it. I once did 120 miles in 3 days and finished feeling like the saddle was in fact a very viscous razor blade.

As the celebrations carried on the commentator on ITV commented that at 32 Bradley Wiggins was now apart of the MAMIL tide. Middle aged men in Lycra! Middle aged men like myself (who I might add have  a revulsion of running)  are streaming onto the roads with their two wheeled transports and a job lot of stretchy underwear. I myself, do the world a favour and wear it under some baggy shorts.

I don't think I will ever be Tour material however. I get fed up with all the insects that I either swallow or strike me very roughly on my forehead. Tonight I was left spluttering on several occasions as I inhaled gob fulls of arthropods. At one point something really hit me with a ping and left itself splattered on my forehead. 

Oh the joys of the great outdoors!