Well, I can say so with absolute certainty. To begin with, the modern safety bicycle wasn't even invented until about 200 years after he died.
As a youth, he invented the calculator, not the brifter.
I didn't mean to denigrate travel any more than I meant to denigrate knowledge of any kind. But like anything,
it's what you make of it. What good is the approval of some old woman in a foreign country if you can't even appreciate a good movie at home - a movie that has the potential to change your life if you let it?
I have no idea what may be worthwhile or what may be pointless self-indulgence for anyone. It could be travel, it could be rugby, it could be a university education, or it could be cycling. Nothing is necessarily pathetic, but it's not worthwhile or noble just because we think it's interesting or has some kind of prestige or because we "get something out of it" - we have to
do something with it besides talk about it and cross it off our list. Not that there's anything WRONG with that....
