Why we ride

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to why I drag myself out of bed at some ungodly hour almost every morning to ride this ridiculously expensive and uncomfortable piece of machinery that I call my bike. I mean, there are less mind numbing, less tedious ways to stay in shape. I could take a kickboxing class, play hoop or do any number of other things which wouldn't require me to wake up at 5:30am, dress in layers and layers of polyester, fleece or whatever is the latest, high tech wicking fabric and go out into the blistering cold before sun up. Sure, I get a kick out of slowly but surely becoming a better stronger, more competitive cyclist. I'm looking forward to racing the first half of the season. If you don't cycle or race, you couldn't possibly appreciate how difficult it is and how much effort it takes to be a truly competitive bike racer. In the beginning, you improve quickly, but at some point, it takes so much work to make small incremental improvements that you begin to wonder whether it's time to move on to anther sport. Luckily, I'm still in the "beginning" stage. But that's not it.

I definitely enjoy being able to eat pretty much what I want,when I want and not really gain weight - Although I will admit, spending 3, 4, 5 hours on the bike doesn't leave much time (or energy) for the weight room. In the words of that old comedian that played the homeless guy in The Wedding Singer, "I used to be much stronger!"

While those are certainly valid reasons to bite the bullet and keep riding, the real reason I ride evident from the shot above, a spectacular view of New Jersey taken Saturday morning at about 8:00am from the south bike/walkway on the upper level of the George Washington Bridge. I got an early start on my 5 hour endurance ride up 9W. The morning started off overcast, but as I started to make my way up Riverside Drive toward the bridge, the sun started to fight its way from behind the clouds and you could just feel the temperature start to rise. It may not seem like it when you're walking down 2nd Avenue wearing a big wool coat, but when you're on a road bike doing about 20mph wearing Hind artic tights and a Hincapie team issued winter jacket (made of the latest polyester/fleece wicking fabric of course) a temperature increase to 37 degrees, up from 32 seems like a heat wave. I know there's some guy in Wisconsin that may come across my rantings and say "these New Yorkers are real punks," but hey, that guy should get a life.

Anyway, as I started to make my way across the bikeway, I looked to my left and was just compelled to stop and take in the view. I ride across the bridge all the time, but in typical New Yorker fashion, I'm usually so preoccupied with one thing or another - engaged in conversation with my riding partners, thinking about family, work, money, career, getting back to the city - that I rarely take a moment to "see the sights, smell the smells" (an inside joke). But last Saturday was one of those rare times when I got out early enough to, at least for a few minutes, be alone and have the bridge and the scenery all to myself. I felt like I needed to pull out the trusty Nikon P2 point and shoot camera and capture this moment. I could just tell people how great the world looks from the south side of the George Washington Bridge at 8:00am on a Saturday morning in January, but they probably wouldn't believe it.

We ride because the world just looks better on a bike. (That's hot - That should be like some Lance Armstrong Nike commercial)