Maybe Next Year

I may have mentioned before that over the summer I had been considering joining some women's training rides that a local cycling team offers to the public. Well, the summer is gone and I never did get up the nerve to join the rides. Now that the window of opportunity has officially closed until next year, I feel tinges of regret. I see the local teams training on the same exact routes I ride, and I catch myself staring at them with longing. Could that have been me, had I only joined the rides a month or two ago?

But then I mentally smack myself and return to reality: No, that could not have been me. Because there is a world of a difference between merely being able to ride a roadbike and racing.

As an academic I get annoyed when acquaintances, having spent a coupe of hours on wikipedia reading about the subject in which I hold a doctorate, decide that they are now experts in it and insist on debating some issue which they do not properly understand. So of course it's funny to catch myself being a hypocrite and exhibiting the same attitude towards cycling. Yes, I like the idea of training rides. But if I can't even ride with clipless pedals and have zero experience cycling in a group, the reality is that it is simply too early to be joining training rides and imagining myself on a team.

So... Maybe next year. Or maybe never. I am not a competitive person and am not usually drawn to anything that involves groups or teams - so it is rather mysterious that something like this would even interest me. Maybe by the time next year rolls around, it will all pass. In the meanwhile, let's see what the next three months of (hopefully) perfect cycling weather will bring.