GO FIRTH
George ‘McNasty’ Berwick: “He’s the only cyclist I know who can pee while riding a fixie”
On hearing about today’s ride around the Firth of Tay on the east coast of Scotland, friends in the Audax Ecosse group suggested I call in on one of their members who lives on the route. Everyone, it seems, has a story about 80-year-old George ‘McNasty’ Berwick. “He completed Paris-Brest-Paris with a dozen tins of beans in his saddlebag.” “He rode the last third of a 1500km audax with a sheared down tube that he bodged together with zip ties. He was 69 at the time.” “He took his wife to visit his favourite cave on their anniversary.” “To mark his 60th birthday, he rode around the coast of Britain in 24 days.” “He’s the only cyclist I know who can pee while riding a fixie.”
With a palmares like that, it would be rude not to pay this legend in his own lifetime a visit. But I’m curious about one detail – how he acquired his nickname. “Oh, you’ll see,” is the answer.
George Berwick’s house is halfway around my loop that starts and finishes in the handsome city of Perth. I’m riding solo - it’s a bitterly
