Yesterday I rode around 100 miles. It was actually 98, but I didn’t have the time to ride the extra 2. I would have, just because I hadn’t done a three digit ride in such a long time, but was at the repair shop for my van at closing and had to pay and pick it up.

The guys at the repair shop were into building race cars and were pretty interested in my bike. They couldn’t believe how light the bicycle itself was or the wheels. They were probably used to hauling around old steel Schwinns, so my bike was a shock to their knowledge. Anyway, when a guy asked how far I had ridden and I told him 98 miles, he couldn’t believe it. He kept going no way, over and over. He said lots of things, one about my ass and others, but one thing I remember is something about monotonous repetition.

I never considered it much, but I think that to the layman, cycling seems like it is all about repetition. Monotonous, I don’t know if they think that, but this guy did. Anyway, that is exactly the opposite of how I view the sport.

The only repetition is of the pedals going around and around. I figure I’ve ridden somewhere around 500,000 miles. With an average cadence of 90, that makes close to 150,000,000 pedal revolutions. But, what he doesn’t realize is that it is second nature. Nearly an extention of my body.

I rode out a road here in Topeka named Burlingame the day before yesterday. I’ve ridden the road probably close to 1000 times. For the first few years riding, it was nearly the only way I ever left town. Anyway, I never tire of the road. Cycling allows me to witness change first hand. The same road over and over again is never the same. The seasons change, the fields mature and recycle. I have been watching this new baby horse grow the last few weeks. Around every corner there is something that is the same, but always a little bit different.

This doesn’t even take in racing. Racing is hardly ever close to the same. I’m not much into redoing a race two days in a row, like I did a month ago in Dallas. That is just from a personal perspective. I don’t like to compare how I feel one day to how I feel the next day on the exact same course. But that wouldn’t mean the race is the same. Put the same 100 guys in the same race day after day and you’ll never have the same results. It is impossible. The dynamics of a bicycle race are unique only to that race, never to be repeated again. That is one of the thing that keeps me interested in the sport. The ever changing evolution of it makes it exactly opposite of monontous.

But, to realize all the little nuances and minute differences in each and every race/ride takes quite a long while of observations. It is one of the things that makes the sport so wonderful.

Is this what the average uninformed spectator sees at a criterium of 60 laps or more.

I was watching some silly Jim Carey movie last night and there was a line that said, “The world is a playground. We all knew that when we were kids. Somewhere along the way we lost that thought.” Or something like that. I was thinking about that later when I was walking Bromont and I think that is true to a certain extent. Many people forget that they can still do child like things and still be adults.

Quite a few years ago, the father of my high school girlfriend was thinking about getting a new bicycle. He called me up out of the blue and asked me about what kind of bike he should be looking for, etc. I told him I’d bring a bike over to his place and let him try it out. So, I loaded up a MTB bike and drove over there. I thought he’d be more comfortable with the upright position than that of a road bike He was in his 50’s and said he hadn’t ridden a bike since he was a kid. After I got over there and explained how the shifting worked, etc. he took off. I was surprised how unstable and frightened he seemed riding, something like a kid just learning how to ride. He was a pretty athletic guy, so I assumed he knew how to ride a bike. But, it he didn’t very well the first couple minutes.

Anyway, after a few minutes, he got it down pretty good and disappeared for 10 minutes or so. I wish I was literate enough to describe his facial expressions, in detail, when he returned. They were of pure joy and freedom. I had been pretty intimidated by the man for all my life. I’d met him when I was hardly a teenager. But, after seeing him relive his youth, and realize what he’s been missing, by riding a bicycle for only 10 minutes, I realized that he wasn’t that much different than me. It was a pretty good moment for both of us. That was the first time I’d seen someone transform right before my eyes. I’ve seen it since, a couple times, but nothing nearly as personal or to that extreme.

As cyclists, most of us, obviously, aren’t main stream. It takes a certain person to dedicate such a large percentage of their lives to something as “silly” and “indulging” as riding a bicycle. But, we’ve learned through the many, upon many, hours of pedaling, that the process of living a lifestyle of a cyclist is way more fulfilling than just pedaling around for an hour a day. Our fringe benefits apply to most aspects of our lives. It takes a certain amount of discipline to allow yourself not get caught up in the adult world so much and see the world through the eyes of a child. When you do that, it makes life much more enjoyable.