Shaun McKenna enjoys some respite from the farm

To say that I was taken aback is a bit of an under-statement, as it's not what you'd expect to be witnessing, late on a Sunday afternoon on the streets of such a beautiful, North Yorkshire, picture postcard village.

Wendy and I had escaped for a few hours and decided that due to the inappropriate behaviour of two of the dogs, which we won’t talk about, we would take only the third dog with us and so along with Elsa we jumped in the car and set off in search of some peace, alongside a nice walk of course.

After a brief discussion to consider our options, it was decided and off we went en route to Thornton Le Dale. After arriving and parking up, in the very reasonably priced car park, we followed the footpath which has alongside it, the babbling brook, running through the village, reminiscing as we walked about the many adventures we’d had along that same route with the kids, when they were small.

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We sat and watched the world go by and did a spot of people watching too, which is always fun. Anyway, before too long we were heading back through the village, the long way, towards the car park. As we walked we could see a little bit of commotion going on further along the footpath in front of us and initially didn’t have a clue what was going on, other than it involved two men.

Things soon started to become clearer as one of these two men then walked past us. Without wanting to appear nosey we asked if everything was ok, and without even breaking his stride, the man just replied, “It’s ok, he’s hammered!”

The plot thickened. That’s when we noticed, as we had now got past the parked cars and could see things more clearly, that in fact the second gentleman wasn’t on his own. He had with him, his bicycle, but not only that, he was also staggering all over the road in a manner which suggested very strongly that he was a little worse for wear, after one too many sherbets!

Things then started to get entertaining, as the man in question, who had now turned the way we were going, towards the car park and was now attempting to not only get on to, but ride his bike along this busy highway.

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We needn’t have worried at all, as only seconds later he was laying on his back in the grass verge with his bike on top of him. He rolled around for a moment, not unlike an upside down ladybird, but soon managed to turn himself over on to his hands and knees.

At this point I must complete the picture which was now in front of us, as this wasn’t just some local out on their old cronk of a bike, but in fact this local was decked out in all his multi-coloured, figure hugging, racing lycra gear from head to toe.

It was at this point that a lady, walked past us pushing a young one in a pushchair and as she did, she just uttered the words… “He’s at it again” and walked on by. Well, we couldn’t believe what we were seeing and between the point that we passed him and reaching the car park, this ‘wanna be’ Bradley Wiggins, must have come off that bike at least half a dozen times.

The moral of the story must be, to choose wisely your mode of transport when nipping out for a swift half on a Sunday afternoon.