I rode the Giro de Peninsula. The Giro was described as 70 kilometers or roughly 44 miles of rolling hills. The course was so casual that,
“When you’re done riding, you won’t even realize you rode 44 miles.” – Brian Faith.
At first, I was going to journalize every minute and mile of the Giro … I had written down how nearly 95% of the riders had racing or touring bikes and I have a mountain bike. Which is much, much heavier than a racing bike … I compare it to a sport utility vehicle racing in the Indy 500 against Indy cars. But according to Faith this was not a race but a “ride” … though when most everyone is wearing jerseys from local racing clubs or simply wearing complete racing outfits i.e. Spandex shorts, team oriented racing shirts, and clip on shoes; one would think they were on the wrong “ride”.
I had written down that into mile six and climbing Crystal Springs road that runs parallel to highway 92, "this is DEFINITELY NOT A ... ROLLING HILL, I got hit by a car backing out of a parking spot. Luckily being always aware of my surroundings, I had seen the Buick pulling out and partially jumped off as he clipped the front end of my bike. More out of shock that I just got hit, I walked my bike up the remaining half a mile mountain road to Skyline.
Reaching the Edgewood Road 11 miles completed rest stop that runs on Canada road, I grabbed some watermelon and water only to find that my gears had snapped off. Yes, my gears had snapped off. The gears on the Ford Expedition had snapped off with 33 miles remaining … but according to Faith, “When your done riding you won’t realize you rode 44 miles.”
The remaining 33 miles took you along Canada road which was rolling hills for about 5 miles. Then we made the climb to Woodside road to Whisky Hill road (which should have been Whisky Mountain rode) and into our next rest stop in Portola Valley 20 miles into our “ride”. Just as a reminder, I had snapped off my gears so I was basically riding the last 20 miles of up hill climbs with 1 GEAR! Think of it has using your first huffy bike with the banana seat and tassel handle bars on a course where the other riders are using the Greg Lemond specials 15 gear shifting bikes AND they are still struggling!
So using my banana seated huffy with the tassel handle bars, I began the next leg of the “race” which consisted of 5 miles of rolling hills along Alpine road. And with a left on Santa Cruz and a left on Sand Hill going over the top of high way 280, I had just began the climbing of the Alps and Pyrenees stages of the Tour de France. Though this stage was only 5 miles, I imagine the vertical climb was closer to that of climbing Mt Whitney.
At this point, form consisted of driving not only your heel, knee, thigh, hip, shoulder and head with every down ward thrust but a mental game began to be played with every rider that passed and looked at you as though you were Ruprect the Monkey Boy trying to get your banana seat huffy with the tasseled handle bars up the mountain. They would double take, smirk, and even remind you that you were on the heaviest gear using the heaviest possible bike.
And during the 88 degree heat, the heaviness of my legs, the muscle exhaustion of my thighs, and the comic relief I was giving other riders, I realized that the now clichéd Lance Armstrong line of, “It’s not about the bike” was true. It wasn’t about the bike. It wasn’t about the bike at all.
It was about –
Knowing and accepting that this was my bike. This was my banana seated huffy with the tassel handle bars that I was scaling the Alps and Pyrenees with.
No matter how often I looked and analyzed other bikes from their sleek racing forms to their light weight frames and thought that is how I am suppose to ride, I was and always will be riding my bike. I could want, wish, pretend that I was riding those other bikes and thus be like the other riders but in the end this was the bike I had. And it’s my bike that I have to use to get through the 44 mile ride.
It was about –
Not looking back. Not getting engulfed with the last 20 miles of climbing, about getting hit by a car, or by loosing my gears. It was about not using getting hit by a car as an excuse to quit. It was not about using the failure of my gears to work as a justification or a definition of my situation. It was not about looking back at the hills I have struggled through but rather learning from them as maps of how I want to conquer the next set of hills I know I will encounter.
It was about –
Not judging nor creating value based on perception. Not seeing the slender athlete on his racing bike and thinking that’s what we all should look like because when we come to the rest stop and realize that strong lean look struggled through the last few miles, you come to realize he is just like you only in what looked to be a better bike.
It was about –
Understanding that every rider will struggle through the hills, the climbs, the Alps, and the Pyrenees and we are no different in that aspect. But what defines us and gets us through the struggle is how we chose to react to our struggles. How we decide I am going to push with my heel, my knee, my thigh, my arms, and my head rather than get off and walk. How we decide I am going to ride rather than be one of the many non riders who sit, criticize, and tell you how stupid you are for riding. It was about deciding to ride your bike only knowing that it was going to be a struggle.
It was about –
Laughing … being positive. We all need to complain, get angry, be down, or negative at times. But we can’t let those feelings define us or engulf us. We can’t use those feelings as excuses on why we can’t or won’t do something.
My chain broke … what can you do? I got hit by a car! … what can you do? My bike is ten times heavier than everyone else’s … what can you do?
We all have the same ability to choose to be positive and laugh. We all have the same ability to react to our situations. And as easy as it is to say rather than do, the doing is what defines us and how enjoyable our ride will be.
When the ride was done, my banana seated huffy with the tassel handle bars was exactly the way I wanted my first ride to be: Entertaining, Challenging, Fun, Silly, Awakening, and Long. Not much more you can ask for …
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