So I cycled from home in Dorset to Nice to meet my wife and daughter for our family holiday. Aside from a mechanical near the end and an annoying sore throat and cough which I picked up 3 days before finishing it was all ok.
Well, said sore throat and cough turned into a rotten chest infection the day I picked my family up from Nice airport and laid me low for the whole week and then my wife goes down with it too 3 days after she arrives.
I know stuff happens, but I feel friggin terrible at ruining the holiday 🙁
Lesson learnt. If you get a sore throat and cough don't expect to keep cycling without paying the price later on.
So on that theme of cycling when ill, here’s my story: a few years ago I attempted to bikepack the Offa’s Dyke/Welsh border over a few days. In the train up to Prestatyn I had a bit of a sniffle but figured it was just hay fever.
Didn’t feel too bad for the first couple of days. Day three, somewhere near Montgomery some kind of illness started to kick in. I set up my tarp and laid low for a day. Dragged myself out as I had run out of food and aborted the trip as I was feeling nauseous.
Made it to Clun about four hours longer than planned, checked into a B&B and stayed there for two days. During that time I couldn’t stand up without the room seeming like it was spinning and couldn’t lie down for the reason. Subsequently I felt like vomiting but couldn’t. Couldn’t eat. Could hardly drink fluids. Eventually managed to book an emergency doctor appointment in Craven Arms.
Booked a cab which was a tortuous journey with me stopping the driver, to dry retch every few miles. Finally got to the docs who he said I had contracted labrinthitis and gave me emergency antibiotics and lots of meds to take to recover. Since then, I don’t do exercise if I feel the onset of illness.
Did the National 24ht TT last week with a sore throat and a bit swollen glands. Didn’t go well. This week I seemed to grow a new gentleman’s vegetable as an infected abscess. Will be off the bike for quite a while.
Lesson learned. Hope the antibiotics work.
Well I picked up a cold last week and have has a chest infection for the last six days !! You would have been ill whever you cycled, drove, flew or sailed down.
I've forgotten the number of holidays I've had that I've been ill on, just crack on and make the most of it 👍
How long did it take to cycle to Nice? That’s a bloody schlep!
14 days. It was a great trip.
Did the 24hr World Champs with tonsilitus in 2014.
Came 77th, about 60 places lower than the previous year. Spent the next week in bed.
Any other race I'd have wimped out but I wasn't missing that one!
