The Magic Road

There is a road very close to my house called Endymion Road.  It isn't named (directly) after the extremely sleepy Greek mythological shepherd, hunter or king, nor is it named after the poem by Keats (which I confess I haven't read, but which is presumably about said shepherd/hunter/king chap).  It's actually named, as are a number of other roads in the area, after a novel by Benjamin Disraeli, who was British prime minister in 1868 and again from 1874 to 1880, the same year that Endymion was published.  Disraeli died in 1881, which was just about the same time that Endymion Road and its near neighbours Alroy Road, Tancred Road, Coningsby Road and Lothair Roads North and South were laid out and built, all named after the later works of Disraeli - it is interesting to note that at least one or two of those novels were very much politically motivated, and he died shortly after losing power in a general election, so I can imagine that someone who agreed with his politics might have named the roads in protest at the new government.

I know, I know, what's all this got to do with cycling?  Well, Endymion Road is quite long and on a very, very slight hill, which goes up from east to west (more or less, it's not an entirely straight road).  This is the hill I've mentioned before, yesterday in fact, which I struggle with every time.  However, I only have to cycle up half of the road to get to the park - we come out onto Endymion Road halfway along and the park gate is at the western end.  Although this causes me frustration every time I ride to work, on the occasions when I get to ride home in daylight, I at least have the pleasure of coasting down the hill at the end of the day on the way home.  When I ride home in the dark, though, I don't really fancy riding through the park and effectively reversing my workward journey, so I carry on with the main road past the park and end up turning onto Endymion Road at its eastern extremity and cycling uphill again to halfway and the point where I turn off towards home.  So, at the moment, I get the dubious pleasure of cycling only uphill on this blasted road, which I find to be an absolute killer both at the beginning and the end of the day.

Some of you might recall an episode of "Father Ted" called Hell, in which the three priests go on holiday to some other priest's caravan.  On arriving (after a small misunderstanding, involving some naked people, about which is the correct caravan), Fathers Ted and Dougal look at a leaflet of all the things to do in the area.  There are two of them, St. Kevin's Stump (which turns out just to be a tree stump) and The Magic Road.  The Magic Road is a very special road on a hill.  It is special because if you put something at the bottom of the hill, it will roll up it - in fact, Father Jack's wheelchair is put at the bottom of the hill and it rolls backwards up the hill with the result being Father Jack falling off a cliff (after which he ends up on a yacht, surrounded by beautiful women).

Now, I think Endymion Road is kind of "The Anti-Magic Road" - it seems to me that it is twice as hard to cycle up it as it is any other hill in the world, even though it isn't very steep.  I think my life would be complete if someone came along and turned Endymion Road into The Magic Road, so that every morning and evening all I would have to do is turn onto the road and I would roll up the hill with very little inconvenience to myself.  I'm happy to leave out the cliffs, the yacht and the women, though.