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“To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain… at cycling’s core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. If you never confront pain, you’re missing the essence of the sport. Without pain there’s no adversity. Without adversity, no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement. No improvement, no sense of accomplishment and no deep-down joy. Might as well be playing Tiddly-Winks” – Scott Martin
As Scott Martin so eloquently puts it, pain is a key ingredient of cycling. Most cyclists will admit to an amount of masochism. Most professional cyclists will see it as a requisite to simply doing their job. Even a fairly lazy occasional touring cyclist as myself would admit that when it comes to biking, where’s there’s pain there’s pleasure.
Heading off to Provence on Sunday to hopefully climb the Ventoux; lashings of pain are therefore thankfully guaranteed.
The much-feared, much-respected – almost mythical ‘Ventoux’ has the capacity to chew up and spit out both amateurs and professionals alike.
My bike is already in France, and has been for the last 2 weeks. My preparation for climbing the ‘bald mountain’ has, therefore, consisted mainly of eating Easter Eggs and the odd ride into town on my wife’s bike to pick up groceries.
I’ll let you know how I get on with my studies…
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