Part of the "unspoken fellowship of the commuter" is the fact that we ride in nasty weather, we ride through traffic, we ride with panniers or backpacks and still enjoy it. It's not recreation: it's more. Kind of like riding long miles in Rando, part of it is the challenge of commuting as much as you can. I remember last year, whenever I rode every day, I would feel a massive sense of accomplishment that I had a "five-day week."

It's a whole different mindset from the racing crowd.