The Joy of Essex- Saturday 16th of October

Last club run I was on there seemed to be no distinction between "up" and "down", people would seeming use them interchangably, which was rather confusing, to say the least!

What happens when you're on a hill and "car up" (car coming from behind) is logically "car down" (car coming from below)?

Admittedly, this is a late contribution to this discussion, but when I was on a Lea Valley CC club run a couple of months ago, one of the older guys explained the "up/down" thing (which I'd not heard in rides with other clubs) to me in these terms: "up" means from behind because it's like the car (or van or whatever) is coming up your arse, whereas "down" means from the front because it's like the vehicle is coming down your throat.

Not sure whether this is actually where it's from, but the guy seemed pretty sincere, as though he were passing cycling lore on to the next generation, and, to be fair, there is a certain logic to it.