Every year on Memorial Day weekend a big pack of cyclists race the train from Durango to Silverton, 50 miles and three mountain passes away. The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic has become a famous race over the years, and top cyclists come to compete in it. This year the women’s field included a few Olympic hopefuls, and a cyclist who has competed in every summer Olympics since 1980. The main event was cancelled because of snow–first time ever–so people competed in a Criterium on Sunday and a time trial on Monday.
My beautiful niece Katie, who skied in two Olympics, took up cycling a few years ago and is very good at it. Whenever there is a big cycling event in town, she stays with us while she races. I love to see her, but I never understood why she wanted to spend her time off work travelling to compete–she’s not trying to beat someone else, or to become a world champion. But these pictures showed me something I hadn’t understood before.
The pro women raced for forty-five minutes around a course set through Durango’s downtown; I took photos each time they rode by. The cyclists are going so fast that I couldn’t really see what was going on until I looked at the pictures later… and then I saw why she was out there.
I think she’s racing because of the way that it makes her feel inside. She’s totally focused on this moment, this curve,
calm, and fully engaged.
For those 45 minutes, she was a pure being.
It was like a Pow Wow with less stylish costumes.
yes. I think that is it, exactly. that is why I ride, and why I do aikido: for those moments of pureness, where your body just works. And in riding, when I am a pure being that is in unity with my horse, who exists in that place of pure-in-the-bodiness her whole life. And for those times when she is in unity with me.
In Iowa, we have RAGBRAI (The Registers Great Bicycle Race Across Iowa) which isn’t so much a race as a traveling bicycle reunion. The riders start by dipping their bicycle tire in the Missouri River, on the west side of Iowa, and finish when they run the front tire into the Mississippi River, which is the west border of the state. For a week, 10,000 people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities pedal across the rolling hills while battling the wind and weather. In the evening they look forward to concerts and home town cooking done by church ladies.
Last year Lance Armstrong took part, causing quite a stir. I helped serve a chicken and noodle dinner at the First United Methodist Church in Newton, Iowa. I never saw Lance, except for a rally he held to promote his “live strong” initiative.
I’m no bicycle rider, but I fully embrace Paula’s comment regarding horseback riding, a lost love I hope to reunite with soon.
There is a bike ride in Texas called, “Hotter than Hell” ride.
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article n Horse Criterium at Beside the Stream, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.