Why Ride?

I was able to combine the free time (lunch hour) and the motivation (70 degrees and sunny) together today to get out for a "real" ride.  Haven't been on the road bike for a few months and it's been grating on me.  I've been itching to get out and today I realized why.  There is no real substitute for the head space found 10 miles down the road.  Any road.  Being an early season ride there was the normal discomfort and pain.  It felt like there is lead in my wheels.  Overall it was a perfect ride.  As the season wears on it won't feel any different but that doesn't matter either.  If I can get out once a week I'm pretty happy.

So, part of what I garnered from today was a reminder of why I ride a bike.  The other was perspective on something that has bugged me for some time.  Not like it's a big deal but it's one of those niggling things like why people put handlebars barely wide enough to fit their hands on their fixie.....but never on any other bike.  Anyway, I realized there are two broad categories of cyclists.  Those that love to ride and those that love to compete.  In my town with the high concentration of cyclists, and a good part of them professional, I've met a few that have hung up the cleats so to speak and sold everything and walked away from riding.  I've never understood that.  I kind of thought that if you were a competitive cyclist then you loved to ride and the competition was secondary.  From my perspective this makes complete sense......warped though my perspective may be.  I have an easier time relating to those that simply love to ride and can't do without it.  I don't get the competitive angle anyway so I'm at a disadvantage there to start with.