As the season draws to a close and I take some time to reflect upon what has been a fantastic year for cycling, and British cycling in particular, to be just a small part of the cycling scene makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I am by no means claiming any greater involvement beyond the fact that I have been into cycling seriously for a number of years, and to a greater or lesser degree, most of my life before that.
Yes, I get out on the road as often as I can, in all weathers, I follow the big, and the not so big, races, I keep up with all the peloton gossip and I bleed my wallet dry just to buy the latest kit.
Friendships have been forged and lost on the road, blood-ties stretched to breaking point before coming back from the brink, and many, many troubles put right after many, many miles out devouring the tarmac and thinking them through in the Zen like state I ascend to on a good ride.
I don't think there has ever been a time when I haven't come back from a ride feeling better than before I set off, and at times, frankly it has been a real life saver...
Now, as cycling moves ever closer to the mainstream in the UK, and let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, we still have a way to go - Cav's rainbow stripes have hardly caused a ripple in the national media - I, and many others like me, can lift my head up a little higher, jut my jaw out a little further and puff my chest out a little further, to my VO2 max even, and revel in the fact that I was there first.
The BBC are suggesting that cycling can become the number two sport in the UK, displacing tennis, cricket and rugby. Football is unassailable. That would be some achievement, but a thoroughly deserved one if it were ever to happen. With the London Olympics fast approaching, another world-beating performance on the track and road could prove to be the tipping point when cycling finally becomes our national sport...
The BBC are suggesting that cycling can become the number two sport in the UK, displacing tennis, cricket and rugby. Football is unassailable. That would be some achievement, but a thoroughly deserved one if it were ever to happen. With the London Olympics fast approaching, another world-beating performance on the track and road could prove to be the tipping point when cycling finally becomes our national sport...
In (almost) the words of Brandon Flowers' The Killers, we have to ask ourselves, "Are we human, or are we cyclist?".
I will be on my bike, looking for the answer.
I will be on my bike, looking for the answer.
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