Thank you for the clarification and I do appreciate your input, but if you noticed, I didn't quote any comparison you made, I used the word infer: To derive by deduction or by induction; to conclude or surmise from facts or premises; to accept or derive, as a consequence, conclusion, or probability.

And I'm not trying to argue here, but it is still my opinion that stretching should not be left out of any athletic exercise. However, I do agree that stretching incorrectly can do more harm than good... I found a nice link to bicycle specific stretching here: http://www.totalbike.com/November1999/stretch1.html

But it appears that water intake is something that everyone agrees to be very important as well as taking it easy for the first 5-10 minutes.

Anyway, last month was the first month for 5 days a week, 25 miles a day riding. I lost a little under 10 pounds. Is this going to slow down once I'm in better shape or am I going to have to make an effort to raise my calorie intake?