Cycling is a passion

I was originally going to write today about how I became a cyclist and a cycling fan. But my sport will receive another 30 seconds of attention by the mainstream media this week (if that) for the wrong reason. Monday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced the denial of Floyd Landis' appeal of his doping suspension and subsequent disqualification as the winner of the 2006 Tour de France. With this unfortunate attention on the sport, I thought I would write about why I am passionate about this sport. I still don't know what to believe about Floyd and it really doesn't matter to my passion for cycling. For me, cycling is primarily about my participation and only as a secondary matter about being a spectator sport that I enjoy watching.

My passion for cycling is at its most basic level all about sensations. The ease of movement on two wheels is an amazing experience to me. When I straddle my bike, push off and just roll along for those first few seconds of the ride is when the magic happens. Sure its rewarding to ride faster, farther, or whatever than I have before, but it is that effortless movement through space that is what captures the imagination from the day you first learn to ride a bike. Everything after that is just a refinement of technology and training. In those first few moments of a ride, the wildly imagininative child in me conceives of the limitless places I could go or races I could win. After those first moments, the magic subsides and the purpose of the ride occupies my mind, the errand I'm running, the training goals for the day, etc..

The more "advanced" sensations of cycling also fuel my passion. The sense of speed and the physical effort required to achieve it, the satisfaction of avoiding a trip in a car by using my bike to complete an errand, the sense of pride or disappointment from a successful or unsuccessful race all are part of what I feel as a cyclist on any given ride. Whether or not a pro rider is successful in his quest for victory somewhere and whether he competes "honorably" does not effect this personal relationship with cycling that is the very essence of why I love the sport.

As a spectator sport, I certainly would prefer that bicycle racing be as credible and believable as possible, but even my relationship to that part of cycling is fueled by feelings and emotions that are largely in the moment and unaffected by later scandal. I suppose racing as a Master or Category 4, I may be up against someone who is doping in some simple (or not so simple) way. I would expect at my low level of the sport that they are few and far between. In any case, at this level I would propose that doping by any of my competitors says more about them than it does about my sport.

At the highest level, most sports are at least in part entertainment for the spectator. For me a large portion of that "entertainment" are the emotions and feelings I have watching the event. In 2004, I was fortunate enough to travel to France with my wife to see a few of the Tour de France stages that year in person. I was quite unprepared for the wave of emotion that engulfed me when the first riders passed. As we walked a few kilometers up the road to Plateau de Beille, the fans along the road, the location, and general atmosphere conspired to give me a sense of excitement about being at the Tour, but it was still in a slightly calculated and detached way. It was kind of like the logical mind saying to me "You're at the Tour, not just watching it on TV as usual". As the helicopters and lead cars approached, nothing really changed, but when the breakaway riders rolled by, the emotional mind said to me "You really are at the tour, how about if you get wobbly in the knees and shed a tear or two!". Being the obedient sort I am (at least to my mind), I complied immediately. The interesting thing is that it wasn't a one off experience due to the newness of it all. Several days later in the Alps, after having seen a stage start in the interim, I had the exact same emotional response when the riders rolled by.

What does all this emotional, rubber kneed experience have to do with doping? Those experiences at the Tour were what I remember about the sport and that trip. Whether any of those riders have been subsequently proven to have cheated or not (and some of them have), does not rob me of those very personal and intense experiences and memories from those days. Bicycle racing needs to remain credible and honorable to ensure its continued existence. Its existence gives me another aspect of cycling to be passionate about, but it is certainly not the only one or the most important one.

For me my passion for cycling will always start in those first few moments with a sensation of easy movement on two wheels.