Her graceful touch.
I get to certain parts of my training when I begin to crave his blows, especially in winter. Winter is the time of year when training is a time for reflection and spending hours on the bike. Thoughts of hill repeats and intervals don’t creep into even the dampest corners of my mind as I kit up and set out upon the road, just me and my bicycle, the rhythm, and the weather.
The rides are long, the intensity low and the lack of tactical objective is both liberating and concerning. I cherish the simplicity of this sort of riding; the weather is cold if not bad – but usually it is cold and bad. Just being on the bike means you’re training harder than most everyone else, which feels empowering. But there is a complacency that is unnerving; I’m unsettled by the question of whether I still know how to hurt myself. But this is not the time of year for me to push so hard on the climbs that I can answer that question for myself, so I begin to yearn for his hammer’s cruel blow, so I can prove that suffering is still where I thrive.
She arrives with the same abruptness that he does. La Volupté, yin to The Man with the Hammer’s yang, comes uninvited but welcome. Her visits are swift encounters, an angelic push to make the hill a bit shorter or the wind a bit less fierce. Before you realize she was there, she is gone.
But yesterday, she clung closely to me, pushing me along for the duration of my ride. The fluidity in my stroke felt other worldly, the lines I took into corners were as perfect as the gear I chose to exit them. The cadence always seemed in harmony with the terrain. I felt blissful joy at being on my bicycle.
Then the rain began to fall, lashing at me and chilling me to the bone. The sound of the rain rapping on my helmet was motivation; the sound of the spray from my tires onto my downtube was confirmation of my speed. I felt her next to me, acting as my personal conduit to The V. I pushed harder, I rode faster. But still I felt only the fluidity of the pedals spinning beneath me and the steady breath in my lungs. I was outside myself, an observer. Whatever was happening on the bicycle was going to happen with or without me.
The Man with the Hammer and La Volupté; bonded together as Pain and Grace. Pain is easy to recognize, easy to process, and easy to conquer. Grace, on the other hand, is elusive and easily mistaken. I have not felt so good on a bicycle for as long as I can recall, possibly ever. I work hard to be the best rider I can be, and the sport repays me in equal measure of what I put in. That is the beauty of it, the harmonious symmetry of dedication to a craft.
Yesterday, it was different. I was paid something forward, and I will not forget it. Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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@chuckp
Nice. Your bike looks mini in that picture - what size frame is it?
@RobSandy
Nothing wrong with a budget build. Or alloy frameset. I ride fairly regularly with a guy who rides a CAAD 10. Lots of bang for the buck. In the hands of mere mortals, probably just as stiff and responsive as a carbon frame. But the ride is probably a little more harsh (but tamed with a carbon fork); I know @Oli would disagree, but I think a carbon seat post can do a lot to make the ride more compliant on an alloy frame. With the F75, you've got yourself a great bike (especially with upgraded wheels). Yeah, you don't know what you're missing versus a comparable carbon bike, but you're probably not missing as much as you might think you are. Just ride it like you stole it!
I'm fortunate in that my wife works in the bike biz so I was able to buy a bare frameset and build up the bike exactly the way I wanted it, with the parts I wanted, and everything sized right (except for the original 3T stem but that wasn't my fault ... at least that's my story and I'm sticking with it). Plus I didn't have to deal with the added expense of upgrading wheels as I could just get the wheels I wanted.
@chuckp
After a year, I'm still really pleased with what I ended up with in terms of value for money. It has a carbon fork and as I said I replaced the original carbon seatpost with alloy, and I can't tell the difference. That may be possibly because mine's a 58 so the long alloy tubes have enough flex in them to dampen the ride anyway? I can certainly see the flex in the BB area when I'm on the turbo.
I ride it like a lunatic, any chance I get. I think I'd do that with any bike I had. I'm not the fastest up the hills but once I'm on the flat I can get my head down and ride people off my wheel. Damnit I want to go for a ride!
You are lucky, I've thought since it'd be nice to start with a frameset and build it up. But when I got mine I'd have had no idea what I wanted.
@RobSandy
It's a 54cm. In theory, the 51cm frame is supposed to the "right" size frame for me (I'm 5'8") if I wanted to build a true modern compact geometry bike. But Felt's geometry on the 54cm frame is identical to within 1-2mm (including stack and reach) to my custom Hollands "old school" steel is real (Reynolds 653) racebike. I have "short" legs and a "long" torso for my height so need a "small" frame but with a "long" top tube (my Hollands is 52cm with a 54.5cm top tube, which is the effective top tube length on my Felt). Because the Felt FC is a semi-sloping top tube, standover isn't an issue (it would be with a horizontal top tube) so it fits me "perfectly."
@Gianni
Yes, there is much talk of The Man with the Hammer from people who don't know what it actually is. It's like the Green Flash.
His hit is more than just a bonk, although it can start out that way. A bonk you can recover from by eating so long as you haven't overheated the engine room and burned out the guns.
For me, a bonk is a bonk, a visit with TMWTH is the trifecta. It should take the rest of the day, loads of beer, and lots of food to recover from a real meeting.
@frank
So true. I had La Volupte early last month - gorgeous fall day - 70 degrees, summer kit on. I think I ended up at 120 kms at an almost 29 kms average on a lumpy circuit. Truly one of the rides of the year.
As for the MWTH, back when I was a pedalwan, I'd do 3 hour rides on one bottle. I regularly struggled to make it home because I was almost dizzy with the knock. The gas light and the check engine lights were on solidly for the last 15 kms. Those rides I do not miss.
@RobSandy
Did I? Well it was a typical sunny South Wales day!
@wiscot
So funny. Those are still my favorites. I loved the last chunk of the Whidbey Island Cogal, alone, on empty, just turning the pedals over and cursing every hill I came across (which were plentiful).
TMWTH is where my mind and body start to play tricks on me. If I’m sitting my mind convinces me I will be in less pain if I stand, as soon as I try that my body informs my mind that it was wrong and I will be far more comfortable sitting. So I sit and my mind once again convinces me that I can still stand and I continue to suffer desperately alternating between seating and standing but with no relief. My body and mind continue in conflict but I have no spare mental energy to mediate the argument. The only battle my mind can contemplate is one more turn of the pedals.
@chuckp