Good read re upsurge in cyclists of a certain vintage via The Economist

[in4]

https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-long-and-winding-road

[Andre Jute]

When I was a whippersnapper, I heard a revered veteran at The Telegraph refer disdainfully to "that man in the thornproof suit". Once the great man had ignored me for selling out and earning in advertising about a hundred times what he did in Grub Street, and passed loftily by the genuflections of my miniskirted dollybirds (whom I had told in advance to twitter about him, since they didn't know from Adam why he was important to intellectuals -- "We work in PR."), I asked the smiling publisher (the fellow who worries about whether the income from advertising will be enough to pay the journalists and the rent) who was intended by the sneer. "Not so much who as what, a class of journalist," he said. "They gravitate to The Economist. So it's shorthand for a tree-hugger from a good university. They are born middle-aged."

Now that i'm such a(n early) middle-aged tree-hugger myself, I suppose it will do no harm to admit (grudgingly of course) that I enjoyed an article in the thorn-proof suits' magazine. Most of the Irish hedgerows are extremely thorny gorse, so a thorn-proof suit might even be apt cycling wear.

Thanks, Ian.

[JimK]

Thanks for the link...

Got to say, when I read about all these amazing exploits... people back off from their pinnacles and still what they do is so far beyond me! I've never been any kind of athlete, that is one aspect. I am not Type A or competitive really at all, that is another aspect.

My little ride today https://ridewithgps.com/routes/15178893 was plenty to get me good and tired! The big excitement of the day: out by the Westinghouse Western Zirconium facility - a huge thing - what do people do with Zirconium? I can't even think of where it fits on the periodic table of elements... it is an element, isn't it? - I stopped for a little snack, after two hours of riding - and a security guy stops to interrogate me. Gads, I am like four feet off a public road. "Do you know you are on private property?" Well he took some pity after I showed him my snack: emergency rations meant to be kept on lifeboats! - and didn't force me to cross over the road to the scrub along the cattle ranch barbed wire.

I like to explore the territory and that's what really pushes me to ride more distance that I would if it were just the same routes again and again!

[JimK]

"Western Zirconium manufactures products for the commercial nuclear fuel industry and the military. " ah, I see!

[Templogin]

"Out of my comfort zone" was the most interesting line of the story for me.  At 56, 30 pounds overweight with asthma, or possibly COPD, I can't ride the 17 miles to work with any load on the bike without having to stop.  Getting out here on the bike can be difficult due to the almost relentless winds.  Mainlanders come here on holiday, young(er than me) fit men come here to ride their bikes and I can almost guarantee that they will all say the same thing, "you can't train for this".  But I am not committed enough to sit on my 18 speed Tern, it's rear wheel connected to some resistance gizmo and cycle away in the front room.  Cycling is about getting out there, fresh air in the failing lungs, sights to see.  Neither can I resist the pan full of sausages, too many cakes and sweets and all the other temptation so prevalent in my environment.  Tomorrow I ride from Aberdeen to Braemar, between 59 and 63 miles, depending which route planning app You want to believe.  I have 11 hours to do the trip, but can't imagine I will make it.  I don't know whether I will just run out of energy, the legs will give up on me, the butt pain will be unbearable or some other malaise, but there is a bus route following my route, or perhaps vice versa, and this one takes bikes in the bowels of the vehicle.  It's an easy escape and guarantees that I get to my accommodation in the shortish window when you are allowed to arrive.  When I return to work I will tell my colleagues that I only managed to do x miles, they will all say that they couldn't have managed half that distance and will look at me as some sort of athlete, albeit a misshapen one, and I will feel a fraud in a way, but secretly pleased that I managed whatever x miles was.  I am not doing this to extend my life, and it certainly makes no difference to my waistline against the competition to increase it, the only reason is to take me out of my comfort zone.