Is it just me, or does this annoy anybody else??

[Apollonius]

Like, you Ganymede, my wife looks a lot younger than she is and a lot younger than I do. This phenomenon of being "looked after" also applies on the road. She is a good bit quicker than me up the hills and never gets close passed like I do. The cars whizz past me close, and then see the blonde ponytail sticking out of the back of the helmet 100m up the road and give her loads of room. I wish I could get ahead of her and I might get some protection!

 

[ColinJ]

How long did the 141 miles.take you? You surely timed it out of curiosity??^^
And well done by the way! My longest was 45 miles and my legs felt like jelly

12 hrs 45 mins including my stops, and getting lost when I foolishly decided to switch my GPS off and improvise a change in the route. (I got misdirected by a sign. When I went back to the junction, I realised that some idiot had turned it to point the wrong way!)

 

[marcusjb]

In long-distance cycling, you soon learn to never tell the truth when someone asks you where you are going. If someone asks where are you going, you answer with the next town along. That might be as far as 30 miles away and will bring cries of amazement that someone can ride all the way to XYZ. "Here Rita, this bloke here says he is riding all the way to Nowheresville! That's 25 miles away! Impossible!"

Trying to explain to people that you are riding 400 miles or whatever in the weekend is just not worth it's while.

"are you doing it for charity?" also does my head in as an answer - why can't I just ride my bike a long way because I enjoy riding my bike and looking at scenery?

 

[John the Monkey]

In long-distance cycling, you soon learn to never tell the truth when someone asks you where you are going. If someone asks where are you going, you answer with the next town along. That might be as far as 30 miles away and will bring cries of amazement that someone can ride all the way to XYZ. "Here Rita, this bloke here says he is riding all the way to Nowheresville! That's 25 miles away! Impossible!"

Eh, try doing that in Belgium

When Mrs M and I did our Tiny Tour, English folk and Americans would express amazement that we'd even contemplate as much as 40 miles per day, carrying luggage, by cycle. OTOH, Belgians and French people were disappointed by our lack of ambition, expressing surprise that we were travelling such minor daily distances

 

[JasonHolder]

This^ ill be using this from now on.

When I told my uncle I had done a 200mile ride to Watford and back, he asked what I went for, I said "just a ride", he gasped "oh boy" and hung up.

 

[marcusjb]

Eh, try doing that in Belgium

When Mrs M and I did our Tiny Tour, English folk and Americans would express amazement that we'd even contemplate as much as 40 miles per day, carrying luggage, by cycle. OTOH, Belgians and French people were disappointed by our lack of ambition, expressing surprise that we were travelling such minor daily distances

Totally different attitude when in France etc. - especially when riding PBP where all the locals flock to the roadsides to cheer you on - riding 750 miles in 3 days is something to be encouraged rather than ridiculed over there. People would encourage you all the way with cheers of "Bonne courage", "Bonne route monsieur" etc. They would understand you were doing something hard, ask you if you were tiring yet and how fast you were going and so on - but never ask you if you were mad.

Whereas on LEL, locals just had no real appreciation of what riders were doing. Apart from one little lad - I was just over 30 hours in, somewhere near Lockerbie and stopped for an ice cream - he was sad to hear that Chris Froome wasn't in our "race", I tried to explain it was different to his kind of racing (trying to explain it wasn't a race wasn't going to work!) and it was too long for someone like Froome to ride in one go, so immediately he worked out I must be a better rider than Froome, so why hadn't I ridden in the Tour de France? Cheered me up anyway.

 

[brand]

When I say to people that I am doing a challenge, such as a sportive etc, their response is "you`re mad"

It feckin` annoys me, why not say "good luck" or give some encouragement??

My announcement of LEJOG was a classic example, along with other pathetic replies such as "I wouldn`t even want to do that in a car!"

To those who don`t ride, HOW ABOUT SAYING SOMETHING POSITIVE......GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

Maybe its being in a rural area but I never get negative remarks about cycling. Far from it. If anyone says your mad it is to do with me cycling home after a few..ish beers. Also not sure why you would be worried if they said you were mad. Sounds more like respect for your ability to do it.
Lots of people in the pub say they think I am mad to ride to a pub 24 miles from my home (not regularly). But it is said as in a "respect" way. Are you sure that is not what they're thinking? By the way do you ride your bike in the city? If the answer is yes....your mad!!

 

[John the Monkey]

The other day I told my friend I was riding a century.

He said he doesn't even "drive a hundred miles and you're gonna ride it!"

Then he asked me how many days I would take!!!

Four, I reckon.

If I cut down on the cake stops, like.

 

[jefmcg]

The response is "How much are you going to sponsor me then?"

"are you doing it for charity?" also does my head in as an answer - why can't I just ride my bike a long way because I enjoy riding my bike and looking at scenery?

Yup, this is what I hate. I'm doing it because I want to, and I'm not pretending that doing it is altruistic. In fact, I continue to be mystified as to how doing a fun, interesting or challenging thing has become worthy as a "for charity" item. So worthy that it's acceptable for some of the money that people presumably thought was going to charity actually ends up paying for your holiday.

</rant>

 

[Ganymede]

Like, you Ganymede, my wife looks a lot younger than she is and a lot younger than I do. This phenomenon of being "looked after" also applies on the road. She is a good bit quicker than me up the hills and never gets close passed like I do. The cars whizz past me close, and then see the blonde ponytail sticking out of the back of the helmet 100m up the road and give her loads of room. I wish I could get ahead of her and I might get some protection!

I get that too! (I also have a blonde ponytail which should, without unnatural assistance, be gray) - also I do often have a wicker shopping basket strapped to the rack, which kinda lets people know that I'm not a "real cyclist" (NOT starting a debate about what's a real cyclist, I'm a cyclist who just happens to do short distances in normal clothes!).

 

[youngoldbloke]

Reminds me of the time we stopped at a cafe for coffee and cake and the assistant behind the counter asked how far we'd cycled ... 'oh, about 30 miles' replied my friend'.
'What, in ONE day!' came the incredulous reply. We found it amusing.

 

[yello]

Oh get over yourselves! You love it!

 

[yello]

Oh get over yourselves! You love it!

 

[Smokin Joe]

Non cyclist - "You rode cycle races then, did you ever ride the Tour de France?"

Me - "You played football, did you ever play in a cup final"?

Non cyclist - "Eh?"

 

[GrasB]

Yup, this is what I hate. I'm doing it because I want to, and I'm not pretending that doing it is altruistic. In fact, I continue to be mystified as to how doing a fun, interesting or challenging thing has become worthy as a "for charity" item. So worthy that it's acceptable for some of the money that people presumably thought was going to charity actually ends up paying for your holiday.

</rant>

Who said the sponsorship had to go to charity