January 2017 | 57
doing so and remember that they are wild animals , albeit ones who are used to being in close proximity to humans , the park accepts that people will and can come through their gates after dark .
The darkness and the silence of the park at night can play tricks on the senses . I have a theory that it actually helps you climb hills . Cyclists who enter by Roehampton Gate heading for Richmond have to grind up the gentle but longish incline leading to Sawyer ’ s Hill . During the day it ’ s easy to flag as the gradient kicks up just a tiny bit just before that Sheen Cross mini roundabout . Once you ’ ve relented , it becomes psychological and before you know it , the energy can drain out of your muscles , leaving you floundering towards the junction at a snail ’ s pace . The effect is exacerbated if , as you are slowing down , a peloton of ‘ whippets ’ swoosh past . But – just like the deceptive electric brae in Scotland which plays tricks with your perceptions of gravity and gradient – ascending this hill can seem effortless - at night . Pedalling up here in the pitch dark , with no visual reference points and no overtaking cyclists , it ’ s possible to get your head down and concentrate purely on turning the pedals . I ’ m convinced that night-climbing like this is faster .
It ’ s on virtually this same stretch of road that one of those rare moments of night terror can sometimes assail me . A fan of the American zombie series , The Walking Dead , there ’ s one scene which has been incorporated into the opening titles . Two of the main characters drive past a field in which , in the distance , a lone , longhaired zombie , shambles slowly through knee-high grass . At the end of the episode the characters return , driving in the opposite direction and the solitary walker is still there shambling slowly through the fields oblivious to the fresh meat in the car .
Iain has been pedalling through London and Richmond Park since 1989 . Along with his fellow Gurning Grimpeurs , he ’ s raising money for Bloodwise – the UK ’ s biggest blood cancer charity – in memory of brother-in-law , husband and father , Mike . You can help the Gurning Grimpeurs by visiting : justgiving . com / fundraising / gurneurs
Occasionally , just occasionally , when I ’ m cycling past the meadows near Roehampton Gate and the aptly named , Bone Copse , I imagine that that longhaired ghoul is out there on the sport fields , stumbling in his undead way towards me . That ’ s when I give my imaginary Meg a dig of the spurs and increase those pedal revs . It becomes a desperate gallop to get to Ham Gate and out of the darkness in one piece . The sense of urgency induced by this imaginary threat is encapsulated in the phrase , “ Deil tak the hindmost ” – artfully employed again , by Rabbie Burns , in Address to the Haggis , to describe the speed and greediness of diners who gobble their food as if their very lives depended on it .