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@BringMeMyFix
I'd always intended the final tale to be a fairly unabashed metaphor for the journey from birth to death. It had to be the grimpeur really - always seemed the most metaphysical aspect of cycling.
It was when writing the intro to the grimpeur in the prologue that I decided the project 'had good sensations in the legs'. Perhaps my favourite couplet…
"A dancer when he stands upon the pedals,
The mountain looms, the grimpeur duly treadles,"
…was a signal to me that enough linguistic duality was going to present itself over the course of the project. The double meaning of loom was exciting (you know, to me the writer - sad, but true) and I hadn't known beforehand that the word 'pedal' was a direct descendent of 'treadle', even though it's fucking obvious when you stop and think about it. It popped into my head on Sunday morning when I was 'weaving' up a gradient at that slower out-of-the-saddle cadence.
All seems such a long time ago now.