A Rutland couple who met through a broken bicycle have today celebrated 60 years of marriage.
Gerald and Pam Hodson-Walker, now aged 83 and 81 respectively, first clapped eyes on each other when he stopped to ask her if she needed help with her bike.
Mrs Hodson-Walker, from Stretton, told burtonmail.co.uk: "I had a problem with my bike and Gerald stopped to help me.
“It was not very chivalrous. He made a very rude joke but I didn't mind. He made me laugh."
They met again when Mr Hodson-Walker turned up at the door of her family house when he was working for Radio Rentals.
"Then it seemed to gather momentum,” she said. “Every time he came to the door I was always there ready to open it. We just clicked and we both had a love for bicycles.
"We thought nothing of cycling from Stretton to Matlock on a Saturday afternoon. If we had a spare moment we would be together. We were joined at the hip and that's how we liked it."
Of their engagement, she said: "It was just one of those things. It was a forgone conclusion really, we were out at Skegness and we saw a nice ring and bought it.
“I asked if it was a proposal for fun and he said yes, all right. It wasn't planned but it was lovely all the same," she added.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.