A great unknown awaits the young men, bound by a common entity of steel, flesh and passion rolled together. Do they contemplate the future, or are they so encapsulated in the here and now that anything beyond the finish line seems like it could only be for old people? Have they any inkling which path they will take, or be guided towards? Maybe the only thing on their mind is just how badass their eyewear is.
What ambition burns within, do they believe they will be, or even seek to be, a cycling superstar; which of them knows it? Maybe ambition isn’t considered, not part of the equation. The simple act of pedalling a bicycle may remain one of joy, of freedom, or become a mistress so harsh that she is eventually despised, and thrown aside, banished to but a bitter memory of a time better forgotten. Who will be remembered, and who will even want to remember?
When a pastime becomes a job a certain element, that of detachment, is lost forever. Making your passion your profession is fraught with risk, and the balance of work/play becomes ever more critical to cultivating satisfaction within, lest you be eternally damned to harming the very thing once loved more than anything else. Keeping things Casually Deliberate is a failsafe, a safety net below the trapeze on which the real world swings precariously.
Stay passionate. Rock cool shit and ride your bike like it’s your lover. Everything will be alright.
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@Buck Rogers
Ha ha! WIN!
@ChrisO
And here's an athlete never caught doping, displaying grace and style on the bike. *cough*
Both sports have their cheaters, both fail at dealing with them. So?
Back to the difficulty discussion - those guys look like a pretty average bunch of "complete, not compete" folks. Visor on your helmet and Oakley glasses hanging from his neck? Two aero helmets out of 8 folks? A fair comparison would be these guys:
I heard people walk in cyclosportives!
Here is a photo from the other side of the career
Every once in a while at an organized charity ride I'm doing, some tri-chicks (yes, I know I'll get into trouble for using that kinda language, but it's way better than some terms that have been bandied about on this site), show up. Man, they scare me. They also ride bikes and gear I could never afford. Mind you, I take solace in the fact that I'm better dressed than they are . . .
@rfreese888
Well, the guy on the right's palmares are a wee bit scanty, but I get your point.
Speaking of M. Thevenet and M. Merckx, I read that the Tour might be doing Pra Loup next year, eh? It's been a while since "the showdown" of 75. It would be nice to see something similar in 15.
@wiscot Note the halo around The Prophet and the French 'blessing' streaming behind Le Blaireau. Bobet's face looks towards the past, Coppi's to the future
@Buck Rogers
I'm not anti-roadie. I'm a proper cyclist on my proper bike, and on my triathlon bike - well, I try to minimize the damage (and train with proper kit). The point I was trying to get across is that a triathlete overblowing the difficulty of his race is not that different from some of the posts and musings on this very site. Masturbating (for lack of a better word) about how hard you suck at three disciplines is the same as the self-congratulatory posts about riding in nasty weather. We all do it, some more and some less, but both are ridiculous when viewed by an outsider, and the length of our sleeves (or lack thereof) won't make our lycra-clad selves more appealing to the general population.
PS: The biggest percentage of high-end (road and mountain) bike purchases is done by... 40-50 year olds. Midlife crises have many ways to show. I worked for Assos - which is, after all, as snobbish-roadie as it gets. Our most popular sizes were XL and XXL, and most customers had a belly bigger than Robert Forstemann's quads and less hair than Bjarne Riis.
PS2: Spot on, by the way, about triathletes buying $3000 Zipps to improve by 3 seconds. It's quite satisfying to think my entire bike cost less than one wheel as I'm wooshing past. On the other hand, Weight Weenies.
Buck - NICE rant! I loved that. It's amazing how different sports have become in such a short, short time. What I've seen is that you're either an "all in" athlete now and you focus on one sport, go to coaching camps, have a coach, only eat Gatorade-approved foods, etc. Or, you're chubby, lazy, and can't jog and chew gum at the same time. No in between. Specialization, just like most other areas. It's fuckin' weird to me. I'm not even going to start on the fuckers who mocked and disdained sports for the first 35 years of life, then decided to give them a go, then went all in on gear and other shite, but still are just soft sonofabitches.
Speak of...my VMH's boss just won a Try in her age group. She told my VMH she wants to ride with me so she can train with someone faster on the bike. I hope this happens, so I can punish her like crazy for being so unkind to my wife daily at work. She's definitely not athletic, so I wonder exactly how competitive this Try was.
Frank - NICE! I love picking up something new, like shades, that just make you want to get out and ride. It could be anything, even new socks. But you get home, you don't feel like heading out, maybe, then you say, "Fuck it, I've got a classy steel steed and some goddamn Eyeshades. Let's roll."
@ChrisO
HA! Nice work, Chris. Nice work.
@wiscot
Man, you are on fire! And winter hasn't even set in to keep you off the road and busy entertaining us. Strong work.
I don't own or wear denim, so those pantalones make me extra-queasy.