What, another guest post? Seemingly yes, but in fact we are keeping to our every-other Friday guest post schedule. We must Keep The Schedule! @Harminator’s post about pigs was the little seen “pop-up” article; a confluence of Paris-Roubaix, Orchies pigs and Jupiler beer. These things go very bad, very fast if not served quickly.
@Ccos is serving up some thoughts on suffering; coming from Rhode Island, he knows something about it. Right now his roads have a winter’s worth of sand and salt still on them. Every corner is dangerous. Every ride means a gritty bike. Every driver is already fed up with cyclists.
VLVV, Gianni
We cyclists are a unique lot. There are myriad reasons why, but the most striking is our habit of seeking out something that most people in their day-to-day, and even sporting lives try very hard to avoid. We seek out suffering.
We seek out suffering like no one else, not every time we ride, but certainly when we are trying to become better. Pain and suffering are not unique to the sport of cycling by any stretch of the imagination, and occur with great regularity in any number of causal and professional sports. Elsewhere though, pain or suffering is usually brief, unexpected, unplanned and many times leads to a time out or other some such break. Suffering for the cyclist, however, is a very different animal.
As cyclists, it is our approach to, embracement of, and dependence upon, suffering which makes us unique. It is the only way to become faster, stronger, thinner. Without suffering, we cannot improve and of course, without it we cannot ever win.
Talk of suffering suffuses our vernacular. Read any article of an important race or listen to any television commentator and something will be said of the suffering of the riders, of their pain, of their agony. You probably use the same words when you describe your epic rides especially if climbing is involved. Suffering is our unit of measure, our currency, and yes, our virtue. It is also the single most difficult thing to explain to the non-cyclist.
Our greatest champions have mastered suffering and only by doing so can inflict it on others. It is not unusual too to learn of the struggles of these people outside of cycling which have allowed them to endure the necessary suffering to become champions. Many toiled as farmers, laborers or miners when younger and there learned the toughness from which to endure their self-inflicted suffering later on the bike.
Well brothers and sisters that road can be paved both ways, because sometimes life can be 200 kilometers of potholes, headwinds and angry rednecks. Spending time in the pain cave, if you pay attention, can teach you many things about yourself well beyond how many watts you can generate. Suffering makes us tough beyond words. Sometimes we have to rely on this toughness to get us through events in life, which would otherwise cripple us. Rule #5 has applications off the bike too.
Of course, suffering has many benefits; it is why we seek it out. It leads to greater joy on the bike. Joy, which can come from the increased speed to win, from the gained ability to drop some jackass on a group ride or from the sheer pleasure of that moment when the suffering stops.
We are cyclists. We find the good in suffering and we are much better for it. VLVV.
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Ha, it's not actually that bad, Nate. Would just be more fun to be at home to ride in the morning and watch the race.
I'd bring a bike but it's so flat where we'll be that the most exciting part of the ride is wind, and I hate wind. And the group rides are always a nightmare. Really squirreling riding, odd accelerations at things like...the roll-out of town, and I've never met so many people on bikes who don't really seem to dig bikes. And wow, it's an orgy of Rules violations, almost like a duel to see who can rack up more on one bike/in one person.
Sorry, for that link. Too hard to resist.
These two lines, for me, are what set apart the bike riders from the cyclists. Most people I know (my wife included) will never get it, but that just makes me love it even more.
Great article.
@elmeltone
I agree that those statements sum up the essence of cycling. A favorite quote of mine credited to Bob Roll: "Pain is the coin of the realm in cycling" expresses the same sentiment more concisely.
@Ccos, good stuff. As many of us know, many of them don't get why we seek to suffer. In addition to dishing it out on the bike, off the bike, we don't sweat the small stuff. Nice to hear you're in the neighborhood. I grew up in RI, lived in SE Conn. for years, now in Branford, CT for about three yrs. Miss those roads. Maybe see you on the road sometime...
@Jay
I'm going to use that line.
@Steve-o Small freakin' world: I went in the other direction. I lived in the New Haven area, Branford included (great restaurants by the way) in my dark non-cycling years before venturing to the land of clear broth chowder, Del's lemonade and Tattooed people (lots and lots of tattooed people). And yes, non-cyclists just don't get it, nor ever will. Definitely see you on the road.
Great picture of Kelly, that man could suffer with the best. I remember reading about some of his training methods and there was something along the lines of riding as far as he could with the wind behind him and then turning around and trying to ride back quicker through the head wind. I 'suffer' in my own way, but I can't begin to imagine what the pros' go through - love watching them go through hell though!
The photo is Kelly going up Patrick's hill in Cork. Just in front of him was Sean Yeats suffering even more!! It's a classic photo of 2 real hard men putting it up to each other....
@Jay
Bob Roll is our Yogi Berra, 'cept thinner, faster and more gap toothed. Most things he says are gold, but what the hell is a "nine toothed assassin" anyway?
I ove eating cheeseburgers. And fries. And drinking bottles of red wine. And local fresh IPAs. I even like pop tarts and Lucky Charms. So, I know that suffering is good. Because after a good week of it I can still shed a pound or two despite 4000 cal dinners at steak houses on business. I'm not sure if I eat big after suffering on a bike as reward or if I suffer on a bike because I ate too much and have to pay. I guess a little of both. Obviously if I was getting paid to ride a bike I might take special care of diet. Meaning go hungry more often. But I'm perfectly fueled up for my CAT 5 career and local mtn bike races. Suffering on a bike brings dividends that I really enjoy. So I like it. At least my little level of it. Cheers all.