For most of my cycling “career” I’ve been a middle-of-the-pack guy.
On group rides, I can take my share of pulls, then settle in comfortably in the midst of the peloton.
Even my best Strava achievements end up placing me somewhere in the middle of all the riders who have tested that particular segment.
I’m cool with that.
But this year, I have become back-of-the-pack guy. And too often I’ve been The Guy The Rest of The Peloton Has to Wait For.
On Sunday’s annual FRF Fondon’t, I was firmly ensconced as the latter. No matter how hard I tried to hang onto the group as we pedalled the flats through Pitt Meadows, and the rollers of east Maple Ridge to the Stave Lake dam, there would come a moment when I would lose contact and the group just drifted away. I couldn’t hold a wheel if my life depended on it.
On one of the hottest days of the summer, I felt bad every time the group paused at the side of the road to give me a chance to catch up.
Occasionally, our patron, or one of the other riders, would drop back to keep me company or give me their wheel; but, inevitably, we’d drift apart again, our peloton disappearing as an ever-shrinking dot on the paved horizon.
It was very dispiriting.
This hasn’t been a good season.
A new job with a bit longer commute and a different schedule, increasing demands for family time and miserable weather until almost July conspired against the miles.
So did the loss of Lapierre.
Because as much as cycling isn’t supposed to be about the bike, when you’ve got one you love to ride, that repays your efforts up hills with speedy, precise descents, that giddy ups when you want to go, you want want to ride it. As much as possible.
Lapierre was that bike for me.
And while the borrowed Cannondale allows me to get out onto the road, it’s not my bike.
It’s quirks aren’t my quirks. Its rewards are few and far between.
Lapierre’s replacement is on order. But a two week window has stretched to a four-week wait, and the season, like the peloton, is pulling away.
As with Lapierre, I’m buying this bike pretty much sight unseen and unridden, but with a great deal of research into her pedigree. I’m confident it’s a good choice for me. I’m hopeful it will be my ticket to ride back to the middle of the pack. Where I belong.
MARIO BARTEL 