Originally Posted by WCroadie
Very well put Patentcad, I just started racing the end of last season and now I am a fiend. I absolutely love it. The people I've met have been very encouraging and friendly, especialy the dudes on the team I joined. I cannot wait to get out on my bike and ride, the winter/weather makes it tough now, I have to settle for indoor rides weeknights now but saturadys and sundays I am on the road.
I wish I had more time to devote to racing but a wife, child and job make it tough. I'll be a cat 4 soon enough and if I never make it to cat 3 oh well, I am doing it for a challenge and fun.
Yeah, it gets under your skin, particularly the camraderie. And my kid is older now (13), but many of the friends I started racing with @ age 33 are still at it - at age 45-50++. Which shows you how much fun it can be. And even many of those guys who don't race much any longer still come out on weekends to mix it up with the guys who do - some of whom are literally half our age.
It doesn't suck to be 50 or SIXTY (we have one amazing dude in our local peloton who is 62 yrs old and can still hang most of the time) and still be riding 30mph - instead of lying around complaining about your aches and pains or your hangover on Sunday morning. You can continue to try your hand on the race course into your 60's - the aforementioned 62 yr old wins the small (but somewhat active) 60+ category at the popular TT's. The largest group @ those races is the 45+ cateogry - my group : ).
Is that denying advancing old age or just trying to 'use it or lose it'? Who cares? We all ENJOY it and it adds value and immense quality to our lives. What anyone else thinks - that is their affair, isn't it? A few years ago I was 40 lbs heavier (back injury induced 5 year layoff/circle jerk) - and every now and then I run into somebody who hasn't seem me in years. They'll say WOW you look GREAT!! - and compared to how I looked 2 years back, I'm a different person. And it's more than just physical. Very happy now.
Thank God for cycling. Am I obsessed with this? Yeah, OK. I rode over 12K miles this year. And it didn't seem like that much because I absolutely loved it. And why wouldn't I like something that's fun, gets me outdoors every day, keeps me amazingly fit (particuarly for a middle aged man) and adds all this quality to my life? It has gotten to the point where I can enjoy riding in the freezing cold, the rain, and I hate to admit it, the occasional snow squall.
Do I care how fast I ride? Yes and no. You get philosophical about that when you realize that whether you're a slowpoke fred or a Cat II there is ALWAYS somebody faster than you - and of course, slower than you. So if you start getting your chamois in a twist over that stuff just forget about it and RIDE, and try to remember why you love doing it. I'll bet that it's not tied up in your last race result, no matter how cool racing can sometimes be. It can suck too. But it has served its purpose in my riding experience, and it has been overwhelmingly positive.