For the love of cycling.
It matters not if you are a road race cyclist, a tri-athlete or a Mountain bike rider, being part of a club is important.
It is important for several reasons. First and foremost it is great for your mental well being. Joining other like minded individuals stimulates and drives each person to improve themselves and their strength of mind.
"You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins."
Secondly, cycling is arguably one of the best forms of exercise known to humankind. Cycling can be a gentle aerobic work out, or it can be a powerful breathtaking muscle building blast. A ride can be as little as a 5 minute pop around the corner to the shop or a 100 mile Gran fondo on a hot sunny summers day. Either way, doing this exercise with like minded individuals will help you. You can't fail to lose weight as you travel along your cycling journey. Ones weight has a great affect on how well we perform on the bike. Therefore cyclists tend to be fairly fit and reasonably trim. Whilst cycling it is estimated we burn 64 calories per mile, which is not a bad pay off for doing something we feel great doing.
Being driven and encouraged to surpass your targets is one of the best things about being in a club/group. You can wake up in the morning not fancying doing anything at all. But because others are depending on you, and because you depend on them, you will step over the line and join the group. Once you are out there the encouragement and driven character of others will drag you along and give you an enormous sense of well being.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re sprinting for an Olympic gold medal, a town sign, a trailhead, or the rest stop with the homemade brownies. If you never confront pain, you’re missing the essence of the sport”
Where you once used to cycle 10 miles in a hour, you now find yourself aiming for and getting closer to a 20 miles in an hour target. When your feeling tired, someone will be there in front of you pulling you along. Subsequently when someone is feeling the pace and you are feeling good, you pull them along. Afterwards you can sit down for a isotonic pint in the local pub and debrief each other on how it went. Cycling is a win win sport for people who want to achieve things in life and improve their life.
“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking”
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