I for one don't give a rip whether Ryan's misrepresented himself, or has solicited funds for seeming excess, or has hitched a ride part way. He's still a young college grad who's doing something on a whim that most of us can only look back wistfully and wonder what-if. I have nothing invested in the guy. Don't know him, never will. I'm not the least bit concerned that he might not make it, though I will feel some disappointment for him, however self-inflicted his loss may be.

What I'm trying to understand are the reactions of those who seem to be upset. For a moment let's assume the worst: that Ryan is deceitful and is looking for personal gain or acclimation. OK, but he wouldn't be the first. <shrug> Perhaps he ends up at the inauguration, perhaps with some media acclaim. Does anyone think no one before Ryan has ever been accorded more than he deserved?

I'm not looking to lionize him or befriend him, so I have no stake in it. And I'm wondering what stake some of us are putting in him. Are we upset that we've done far more and get no recognition? Are we afraid he'll be falsely set up as an ambassador for cycling? Are we afraid he'll make it when we never have? Are we seething that some upstart gets all the glamor? And this has never happened to you before?

Once more, it matters not that he legitimately reaches some goal. He's just a kid out riding a bike. Even if just a part of what he "promised", it's still a long ways. I suspect that at the end he'll be far more "one of us" than before he began. What's more impressive to me is how he's energized us. Some have been fortunate enough to be in a position to ride with him. Most of us are just living vicariously through him while weather, work, family, and life all keep us at home.

Despite what anyone has written here, I suspect that every last one of us would love to take tomorrow off and ride with him. We, too, just want to be some kid on a bike just riding along across the southern US. He's trying. Let him.