I was reading your post and totally understood your situation. Although I live in michigan, I'm a fairly serious cyclist even throught the winter, but last december things didn't seem right. My right leg was cramping terribly (no back pain), and when I was on the bike...I had no pain...but things went downhill quickly. By April, I could barely walk with my right leg in great pain and numb and my left leg begiining showing the beginning of the same symptoms. I went in for an MRI and they found two ruptured disks. by September, i needed surgery. They did a 2 diskectomies, laminectomyand fused L3 and L4. Five weeks late, my life is totally changed. The debilitating pain is gone and they expect me to be on my bike by late spring. I'm walking a lot and it's driving me crazy to not be riding, but so far, so good. This isn't necessarily the end of your cycling life.