A few years back I was pedaling across a three-mile-long causeway out west in what is probably one of flattest sections of the US outside of Utah. The valley is surrounded by mountains with the Pacific Ocean to the west and 30 miles ahead on this flat, straight, road is a cut in the mountains thorough which the road passes. If we recall our high school physics and Mr. Bernoulli and add in the strong breeze coming off the Pacific, we know the causeway always has a wicked headwind.
I was riding a speedy road bike with 700x23 tires and I was folded in half in the drops trying to minimize my aerodynamic drag and keep my speed in the 20mph range into this wind. The Garmin said my heartrate was just about maxed, and I was having a rough go of it.
I started to question myself. What exactly was I doing? Why was I on the bike? Was this any fun?
Right at the breaking point, I had an epiphany. I'm certainly not training for anything. Why was I obsessed with maintaining my speed in these difficult conditions?
In that moment, my cycling life changed. I had learned, after so many years, the difference between riding and training. I love riding a bike. Why was I beating myself up to go fast and hard? Do I really care how many miles I ride OR do I care how much time I get to pedal? My tires got wider, my position more upright, my bags got bigger, and my enjoyment tripled.
It's easy for a cyclist to fall into the trap and consider the glamor of professional racing as the epitome of the sport. There are no helicopters with television cameras following me to the grocery store. There aren't many advertisements in cycling publications featuring 250lb riders in Converse riding to a construction job with a circle saw lashed to a Tubus rack. Worldwide, there are millions of riders using their bikes for things other than racing and thousands who race.
I sincerely doubt a car dealer hears, "I am not going to race Nascar" as the first thing out of a customer's mouth. Yet it happens almost daily in the bike shop. "I'm not going to race."
If you ride a bike, you're a cyclist. Racing a bike is cycling. So is riding around the block with your kids, from the train station to work, or down to the farmer's market on Sunday for some carrots. Riding twenty minutes on the Ironton Rail Trail? Yep, you're a cyclist.
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