Europe
I’ve been told that I’m lucky.
Spain itself is about the size of Texas, and Europe is, for argument’s sake, about the size of the US.
I’ve been told that traveling around is cheap and easy.
As of yet, I haven’t really had the chance to travel too much. I went to Andalucia by bus, but that was all included in my program, so I didn’t have to worry about travel arrangements.
I’ve been told how many amazing things there are to see and events there are to go to..
I am lucky enough to be able to go to some incredible cycling events while I’m here, but at what cost? I’ve spent the last month and a half here without a bike of any sort. I envy crap that will hardly roll. I will continue for the next 2.5 months without a bike as well.
While it may be true that I wouldn’t be able to ride my bike now at school due to the cold and the snow, that only offers me a little consolation. I spend my time below ground on public transportation, at the mercy of whichever computer is controlling the temperature and whichever fluorescent lights decide to flicker or go out. Above ground, it’s probably bright and sunny and in the 70’s.
You don’t really appreciate things until they are taken away from you. At Etown, I would walk by my bikes on a day like this and think, “Damn, I should really get out for a ride.. or I could go take a nap..”
If I could just walk out of this room and hop on a bike, I don’t think that there would be anything that could get me to turn around. I truly understand what people mean when they say it takes heart to compete in the higher levels of any professional sport. Anyone can train day in an day out… that’s for sure. But right now, I feel like I could get on a bike and take any one of them on. There wouldn’t be anything to keep me from the next pedal stroke.
I suppose that first pedal stroke that I take in May is going to be the best one of my life.
Picture it:
4 months without a bike of my own.
5 days of following one of the most prestigious bike races ever
3 days of the largest bike show in Spain
2 days of World Cup Trials Riding
1 day of ProTour XC Racing
~100 days of staring at bikes in shops
All in pursuit of a ride of my own.
I have a couple of leads on some used bikes here, but for 100 euros to buy the bike I want, then 140 more to ship it home, then 30 more for enough chains and locks to keep it, it just doesn’t seem worth it.
On one particularly inspired night last summer, after a long days ride or maybe a broken rib or two I wrote the following. It’s what keeps me going:
There is nothing on this earth that can mimic the feeling of going fast under your own power, cranking, leaning, charging, hurting, coasting, burning, or flying.
Nothing.
Now, that’s not exactly what I’d planned on saying for this entry, but it just sort of happened. It made me miss riding so bad, that I am going to go for a run I think.. It’s the best thing that I’ve got. I’ll at least get the hurting and the burning in.. who cares if Spaniards will look at me funny, don’t they do that already??
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Keep your head up, may isnt that far away.
Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling. —James E. Starrs
Chasing records doesn't keep me on the bike. Happiness does.—Lance Armstrong
When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.
Want me to send you my bike?
You know if I could, I totally would.
Miss you.
So here's my stupid jersey girl comment of the day...what about joining a gym and riding an indoor bike, i know it's not the same but it's still a bike, do they have gyms there? what about a gym at the college? just some suggestions
Post a Comment