Yes we will have to “wait and see”. Not sure I will be around to see the distant future, but I am glad some are still hoping for the best…we need you. I think my longtime affinity for dystopian sci-fi and Adbusters is a gruesomely pessimistic combo….you should ask Erik sometime about my panic attack and phone call to him while I was on bike tour…I am thinking robot-wars, microchips, and virtual enslavement….but I don’t want to live in Sim City. I sincerely hope things go your way….or that there are at least some colonies where people are free to live that way.

“Is it necessary to go so far so fast?” –I hope you can appreciate my sarcasm…i try to make it overt…..sorry but its going to take a lot for guilt about energy expenditure to override the freedom i feel when i ride my bike. getting really far out on the bike is pretty much all i want to do with my life.

I often look at those that chatter and flatter from harsh perspective; That is my bias and bad. I do not take personally what is said in these discussions; I take it for granted that others do not as well. My apologies.

Lauren,

If a person riding does not race, they do not win. In the situations you have given for consideration, the attitude betrays the intention (of-course the events remain the same regardless). Sum-said sum-seen, expectations might even agree (though only coincidentally).

Perhaps I am the fool that hopes for the best, as opposed to those wise for expecting the worst; must be a “wait and see” sort-of thing. Walking might become the “in thing” in some future fashion.

As far as flogging yourself goes, I wonder: Is it necessary to go so far so fast? Consider that guilt to be honest without measure; I do not see the need in going to any extreme in order to prove it

You cannot argue that winning is absolutely impossible if you enter a competition with the “ride to ride” attitude. Some people happen to “ride to ride” pretty darn fast. Also, I know some very strong riders who choose not to race at all but ride very fast and could be quite competitive if they ever did choose to enter a race.

“Someday people will walk again”- I am really not so sure…it seems like technology is on a trajectory towards people existing in virtual reality pods where we don’t have to move at all to interact with the world or obtain the resources necessary to survive….Arthur C. Clarke’s sci-fi visions coming true?

“I too derive pleasure from riding my bike, but it is a guilty pleasure.” – Really? Me too, after especially long rides I feel so guilty I go home and put on a hair shirt and flog myself.

“brown nosed bonehead”- Lets not resort to name calling or ad hominem approaches to debate. Mickey might have a brown nose but he is no bonehead…

But without logic or reason, you deem me incorrect arbitrarily. That works too. God bless the internetz.

You sort-of sound like a brown-nosed bone-head. Anyway, not everyone is blessed (or burdened) with excuses. Even after all that logic and reason (which you have executed fairly-well) you are not correct.

I’ll answer your questions in order.
Yes. You do what you do, whatever reason is your choice. Yes. For those that ride to ride, winning is not an option.

I agree that bicycles have both utilitarian and recreational function, but these observations are only (derivative) after-the-fact attempts to negotiate the value of a human-made machine as if the bike has any real merit or worth without people. Someday people will walk again, and it is okay

I too derive pleasure from riding my bike, but it is a guilty pleasure, and for that guilt I cannot afford to want or need to keep my bicycle any more than I can afford to lose it.

As for the whole carbon footprint of the single day of el tour, well that can be misleading in itself. Focusing only on people who live in Tucson and drove 10 miles from their house to the course, what if training for el tour inspired them to bicycle commute the other 364 days a year. Yes, they drove to the course start the day of the race, but the other 300-some days should override that. The important thing is that it gets more people on bicycles and perhaps the scale and publicity of the race is enough to get more people watching to try to race the following year.

In short, not everyone is as young, fit, or has the endurance and extra energy that you do. Not everone has the free time to devote to touring to the race start or lives within a reasonable distance in order to reasonably do so. Also, not everyone is blessed with beautiful Tucson weather, and a reasonable bike route to and from the start.

And really, if people have the money, why not let the 56 year old retired dentist hire a personal trainer, buy a custom titanium serotta, fly it down, and hire a chauffeur to drive him to and from the race course? It’s still one more bike on the road for most of the year, and I’m sure he’s having the time of his life while maintaining excellent health for his age. It’s either that or he buys a new hummer or escalade.

I agree with the idea of riding to training rides and to races if you physically are capable of it, but really, if I wanted to win, why handicap yourself?

“Ride to ride” or “race to win”….why are these two philosophies incompatible? There are people capable of “riding to ride” who just happen to be strong enough to win as well.

As far as what a “bike really is” I believe that it is both a utilitarian and recreational machine. It is useful as transport, but riding bikes is also my greatest joy in life. What I was trying to point out is that some people who ride seem to perceive the bike as a “toy” or solely recreational.