Kevin Henley - the unauthorized biography !

Kev thanking Irish Paul for the 20% climbs at Slieve League !

Warning - This is not to be read to children as a bedtime story or by those with pacemakers or a predisposition to violent gagging!

I have woken up with worse (pre Monika of course) but never when sober so the sight of KH in the morning can be take a bit of getting used to looking like someone who's taken an awful beating in a world championship heavyweight fight!

Sitting with a vacant stare at the end of his bed a remaining neuron or two kicks in telling him that a)he's still alive and b) he's about to endure all over again in this supposed cycle trip of a lifetime

KH eventually comes good as his voracious appetite kicks in resulting in him destroying all that's edible on the breakfast table - KH I"ll never eat a full English breakfast" has not only done so but done so daily with relish - the fruit bowl doesn't stand a chance and evaporates before your eyes while a bout of hurricane like wind signals that the feeding frenzy is over!

KH will pretend to look at the map of the days ride but his absence of glasses and myriad of questions during, immediately after and about
midnight when I'm trying to sleep and he's writing up his diary, would suggest this effort
is designed to make me feel good about his contribution to the days team navigation!

Packed up and on the bike the man transforms with his love of all things cycling evident. His warm up includes a no. Of stretches and the first 50kms of riding it is by about then that the creaks and groans have died sufficiently to allow him to enjoy the remainder of the days
riding

KH gets through the day by constantly reminding himself that 20% climbs, crap weather, poor
road conditions and long distances are in fact fun and certainly much preffered to enduring the pain of listening to his beloved Bulldogs suffer although regular emails from Bob anl
Winton do a damned good job of just that!

Providing bitumenitis doesn't kick in KH makes it through the day and is able to recall all makes of cars, buildings that could do with stained glass windows and on occasion a bit of scenery - in Kevs words "hey that's what the video camera is for"!

Dinner is another frenzy and usually starts with the nightly ritual of asking the barman
(if our meal is in a pub) whether he has pepsi max or a pint of fresh orange juice - of the 34 asks to date pepsi max 0 - OJ 1 and that was only after the owner raided his kitchen

The night is spent reminiscing the days ride and KH trying to avoid breaking his neck tripping over my clothes as I just empty the bags figuring that the Leedham method of actually putting
them away is far too time consuming

In all seriousness the guy who is about to turn 64 in 2 weeks time has done an amazing effort clocking up 2000kms and getting up each morning looking forward to a repeat days riding no matter what happened the day before - well done Kev!