I always loved cycling... albeit the fact that I had fought with my parents for making me learn cycling. I was kinda forced to learn cycling during my summer holidays of my 5th grade. I guess I feared the pain of falling. But nothing ever can be achieved without pain. I learnt cycling and before long, I was arguing for my own cycle, not keen on using a ladies cycle of my sister. With my cycle, I went to my highschool, my under-graduation and my graduation as well. During my under-graduation, I also lied to my parents about two people forcing me to go all the way to Ranganathittu from Mysore on my cycle.. though it was my plan through and through - the adventurous spirit I guess!!
During my first work experience, We had cycles to go round the campus and I did that at all times of the day.. It was a BPO and I had the opportunity to cycle at any time of the day / night that you could imagine. A break from work meant that I was on a cycle going round the campus, just to return in time and sweaty to resume work from the break, whereas my colleagues might have spent the same time with a cigarette or tea or both.
After say 10+ years, I bought a cycle out of self interest to have the exhilarating feel of breeze / wind cooling out the sweat on your face after using your own effort. There is no other way to feel this fresh.. no jogging, no swimming or running. The only way that you will get this feel of exhilaration is with a cycle. To be truthful, I always wanted a cycle but was dilly-dallying about my decision to buy. I bought it when my cousin too wanted a cycle for himself to travel daily to his workplace - which was 4 kms away from his house.
When I bought the cycle, I was all gung-ho on starting cycling immediately. I did but somewhere down the line, I felt all alone in this area of ups and downs. I gave a big gap to the utilization of the cycle. To add to this, I was given enough responsibilities at work to be busy and to travel to the US, which ensured that my cycle in bangalore was collecting dust.
I was introduced to like-minded cyclists on a group called "A B C" - stood for Adventure Bicycling Club on Whatsapp. To my surprise, the group had about 20+ folks of all age groups starting from 12 to 35/40 and one specific person who was 50+. That is a vast age group difference. The average age of this group might be around 20. That is the number of teenagers / youth in the group. I, unfortunately, have to accept the harsh truth that I cannot consider myself as "youth" anymore.
ABC has some highly dedicated cyclists who want to ride in all possible cycling events. It also has some regular cyclists who go on regular weekend rides (conducted every sunday by ABC for free). It also has some cycling enthusiasts who get involved in the planning of the ride but chicken out at the last moment coz of the distance involved and the challenges of the ride (like me).
My first ride in a group was into the Bangalore University campus - off-roading with Mak and Ravi, both of ABC, Mak being the guy who not only sold me the cycle but also motivated me to ride regularly and taught me about the gear / cadence ratio importance. He was the person responsible for adding me to the ABC group.
One of the rides that I joined - the only ride with ABC - was to the Sulikere Lake, a distance of 15 odd kms from my house. The ride was fueled by cold butter milk bought near Ullal Upanagara and water bottles in our own bags. The ride was with folks - average age of whom was no more than 17. I was the only guy out of shape and out of age in that group. We rode well.... and Well, I forgot the old adage of "Slow and Steady". With all the enthusiasm and assumptions that I too belonged to that age group, I pedaled very fast only to exhaust all my energy before even 25% of the distance was met. Lack of experience and gap in cycling led me to retire myself from the ride and show a sorry figure to the youth. It made me come face to face with the harsh reality that not only my hair was becoming white, I was getting old!! I have always kept tabs on the rides of this group. Regularly - almost on every sunday / holiday, these folks go for rides and share the pics on the whatsapp group as well as upload the same on their FB page.
Riding in a group makes you feel more confident and the innate competitive spirit of the human mind makes you achieve what you considered to be impossible before trying it out. I am sure to join a ride of the group to some unimaginable distance sometime in the near future..
Till such a time... RIDE ON!!!!
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