Saturday 28 May 2011

"When the goal of a ride is about the experience..."


In 2005 I was living in the South of France and desperate to become a professional cyclist. My days were spent eating, riding, sleeping, counting my watts, watching my calories and, in my spare time, working for a bike touring company to fund my quest.

I often guided our North American guests on rides around the local area. They were captivated by the beauty of the region, happy to dawdle around, stop at a boulangerie, cruise through the vineyards. I couldn’t relate, lost in my world of aerobic thresholds and PowerTaps. A year later, after a series of crashes, illnesses and with the stinging realisation that I didn’t have the physical capacity to make it as a professional cyclist, I returned to university in England. To me, cycling had become a rigorous, ascetic, scientific exercise and, now it was clear that I’d never reach my goal, I had no desire to pursue it further.

I stayed in touch with what was happening in the cycling world but began to sleep in longer, enjoy an extra coffee on a Sunday morning in place of heading out for a training ride, or speeding off in the car to another non-descript amateur race. My road bike began gathering dust, tires deflating slowly as it languished in the spare room.

The variety was refreshing, but it didn’t take much to revive old memories: walking past a group of cyclists gathering on campus before a ride, watching the Tour de France. Despite this, it was the end of 2010 before I turned a pedal with any sense of purpose. This time, there was no PowerTap, no heart rate monitor, no cadence sensor. I adjusted the gears on my old 9-speed Dura-Ace and headed out for a ride. I dawdled through the lanes, took in gulps of cold winter air and let my head write a few cheques on the hills that my body was in no state to cash.

To some an over-hyped poser’s brand, to others the embodiment of epic authenticity; whatever you think of Rapha, I couldn’t agree more with their assertion that “When the goal of a ride is about the experience instead of the speed or the distance, it changes everything.”

Rapha Continental – The Movie from RAPHA on Vimeo.

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