This lament was originally published on my cycling blog, The Big Ring.
Dearest Lapierre,
I’d like to introduce myself; I’m Big Ring.
We spent 6,019 kilometres together this year. But it’s been awhile since we’ve hung out; 37 days as a matter of fact. So I can’t really blame you if you’ve forgotten about me.
It’s been a nasty run of weather and circumstance. Almost two straight months of rainy days, followed by three weeks of cold and snow and ice.
While others forge on with their knobby-tired, all-weather commuter bikes, or slip the studded rubber onto their mountain bikes, we can only gaze out the window forlornly as the clouds roll in yet again, and the roads are slicked with rain and snow and slush. I guess we just don’t have the Right Stuff to count ourselves amongst the dedicated, the stubborn, the foolhardy who pedal on no matter the conditions. We’re built for sunny days, dry roads.
The last two years we’ve lived a charmed life. But for the briefest of interludes, the pavement stayed undamped, the skies clear. We were able to stay acquainted.
Five weeks is a long time to be apart, sweet Lapierre. Too long, as the flakes fall yet again, and the roads are clogged with a viscous slop of dirty slush and ice. The forecast isn’t promising either; a brief spell of milder air with perhaps a glimpse of sunshine – just enough to tantalize us. Then the cold and snow descend once again. The annual FRF New Year’s ride may be in peril.
But you are never far from my thoughts Lapierre. Plans are in motion to give you new environs as you rest, to bring back elements of the former bike room from which you were usurped by the arrival on the scene of Little Ring more than four years ago. But as with anything home reno related, that may take me awhile.
In the meantime, we shall commune at the work stand, keeping you clean and fit should the roads ever clear…
Yours in sloth
The Big Ring
MARIO BARTEL 