Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
Cycling is growing - Hooray!
It's almost the new Golf, people spending all day in silly clothing.
Now on a Sunday morning there are cyclewaynekers everywhere, like marauding groups of 2 wheeled Piranhas moving en-masse. But here's the thing, they're all identikit, clones, like they have all fallen out of the same pattern book ... and they're so terribly earnest.
3 things have brought me to this point:
The other morning I arrived earlier than usual for the Freewheeling run to see Abingdon's other club depart for their Sunday constitutional. In some ways it was heartening to see 20 plus cyclists but saddening to see every one in pristine matching club kit, obligatory helmet, 'cycling shades' and latest big brand plastic bikes. Several of them waved at me from across the street and I had no idea who they were, each one a pea in a pod, each identical.
The TdF is much the same, it's impossible apart from the numbers or a facial close-up to figure out who is who, you only see their mouths and chins, they could be anyone out there.
My BIL has recently started cycling for fun and fitness, in Surrey on a hybrid and the one thing that puts him of cycling is being identified with the earnest pseudo-racer, lycra-clad Strava chasing MAMILs, and I'm starting to see his point. Mrs FF has a similar view.
Now, I'm speaking from a point of hypocrisy here, as to the layman I probably confer to the stereotype except for no helmet, plastic bike or designer shades, but somehow I don't feel I belong to the modern Sportive/Pro-emulating herd for whom cycling is about stats and the latest gizmo.
No, I guess my heart lies more with the everyday commuting and shopping cyclist, those that frequent the CTC, the Audax fraternity, our Freewheeling group and the diverse bunch that are The Fridays. People that have grown-up with cycling in their blood, for whom cycling is so much more than burning-up the local club-run, the latest gear and associated bragging rights.
I may not have managed to express my thoughts clearly, but the upshot is that I'm increasingly finding that the rise of the clone-cyclists not only puts other people off, it's starting to work on me .....
It's almost the new Golf, people spending all day in silly clothing.
Now on a Sunday morning there are cyclewaynekers everywhere, like marauding groups of 2 wheeled Piranhas moving en-masse. But here's the thing, they're all identikit, clones, like they have all fallen out of the same pattern book ... and they're so terribly earnest.
3 things have brought me to this point:
The other morning I arrived earlier than usual for the Freewheeling run to see Abingdon's other club depart for their Sunday constitutional. In some ways it was heartening to see 20 plus cyclists but saddening to see every one in pristine matching club kit, obligatory helmet, 'cycling shades' and latest big brand plastic bikes. Several of them waved at me from across the street and I had no idea who they were, each one a pea in a pod, each identical.
The TdF is much the same, it's impossible apart from the numbers or a facial close-up to figure out who is who, you only see their mouths and chins, they could be anyone out there.
My BIL has recently started cycling for fun and fitness, in Surrey on a hybrid and the one thing that puts him of cycling is being identified with the earnest pseudo-racer, lycra-clad Strava chasing MAMILs, and I'm starting to see his point. Mrs FF has a similar view.
Now, I'm speaking from a point of hypocrisy here, as to the layman I probably confer to the stereotype except for no helmet, plastic bike or designer shades, but somehow I don't feel I belong to the modern Sportive/Pro-emulating herd for whom cycling is about stats and the latest gizmo.
No, I guess my heart lies more with the everyday commuting and shopping cyclist, those that frequent the CTC, the Audax fraternity, our Freewheeling group and the diverse bunch that are The Fridays. People that have grown-up with cycling in their blood, for whom cycling is so much more than burning-up the local club-run, the latest gear and associated bragging rights.
I may not have managed to express my thoughts clearly, but the upshot is that I'm increasingly finding that the rise of the clone-cyclists not only puts other people off, it's starting to work on me .....
.
