Without passion, without a mission, you'll always be just another rider in the peloton.
Until you establish a schedule, you're not really training - You're playing on a bike.
Support is contagious. Give yours to someone else.
Train hard. Rest harder.
If you never confront climbs, you're missing the essence of the sport. With ascents come adversity. Without adversity there's no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement, no sense of accomplishment, no deep-down joy.
Cycling is unique. No other sport lets you go like that -- where there's only the bike left to hold you up. If you ran as hard, you'd fall over. Your legs wouldn't support you.
What was supposed to be a summer of fun on the bike turned into a year, then two years. It certainly wasn't a calculated plan to have a career as a cyclist.
Pain is a big fat creature riding on your back. The farther you pedal, the heavier he feels. The harder you push, the tighter he squeezes your chest. The steeper the climb, the deeper he digs his jagged, sharp claws into your muscles.
To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain....at cycling's core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for an Olympic 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. Without pain, there's no adversity. Without adversity, no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement. No improvement, no sense of accomplishment and no deep-down joy. Might as well be playing Tiddly-Winks.
Mont Ventoux is a god of Evil, to which sacrifices must be made. It never forgives weakness and extracts an unfair tribute of suffering.
