ONYOUR BIKE REAL LIFE
Carina Hanson, 27, from Kingston upon Thames, knows the true meaning of it takes two to tandem!
Lugging the 70kg weight of the tandem bike up a steep incline, an argument was brewing.
‘I’m not sure about this. I think we should just turn around,’ I confessed to my partner Toby, now 34.
‘It doesn’t look like we’ve got that much longer to go from the map,’ Toby said, pushing on. ‘I don’t want to give up.’
Heaving the heavy bike up a 30% incline, over big rocks and rough terrain, we’d already been doing so for hours and had got nowhere.
It’s Valentine’s Day, I thought. We’re not about to have the biggest argument up here in the sweltering heat of New Zealand –it’s been the worst start…
Iwanted to give up and Toby wanted to keep going –we just couldn’t meet in the middle.
Getting teary, it was atest of our relationship.
However, thankfully, after 20 minutes, Toby had finally come to his senses.
‘You were right, let’s go back,’ he admitted.
It may have been Valentine’s Day, but this adventure was far from an easy ride.
‘I’ve decided that Iwant to cycle 11,500 miles around the world,’ Toby announced within the first year that we had put a label on our relationship.
Meeting through work back in September 2018, I quickly realised that the pair of us were likeminded in being active and wanting to travel.
However, when it came to Toby’s suggestion, I felt alittle downtrodden by it.
It was all about what Toby wanted to achieve –what was I going to do?
‘I’m not comfortable with you going off on this grand plan,’ I said. But Toby was determined and I knew that if I wanted to be with him, Iwould have to get on board.
And so, after many conversations, Idecided to take aleap of faith and agreed to do it with him.
But in true Toby style, he had to make things competitive.
‘We could try and go for a Guinness World Record –the first mixed tandem to travel across the world in 180 days,’ Toby suggested.
I decided to take a leap of faith and agreed!
It was aplan –acrazy one! When Covid hit in March 2020, it stalled our start, but it meant we could plan every single detail.
Ordering acustom-built tandem, we got to choose everything from the racks, lights and the crème de la crème of bike seats –it was even designed to split into two pieces for easy travel.
Planning atrip to Wales, where we rode 80km on the first day, it was the most I’d ever cycled.
In all honesty, the practice run went awfully –the heavens opened as soon as we got out of the car, we got soaked right through and ended up crashing twice.
Despite the twoday trip being an eye-opener, it made us change our equipment, too.
We
