L'esprit vs reality

Bear with me as I get through the following rant.  Sometimes, I just can't quite get back to the topic fast enough.

The topic of this blog is L'esprIit vs reality.  This is sort of a dual action topic.  On the one hand, there is my opinion about cycling, on the other my own battles with the sport.

L'esprit: Around this time every year, cyclists start to line the roads.  Some, like me, on bikes that are hardly showpieces, others fully eqipped to look the part of professional (with the slight drawback of having more than 2% body fat)  I love to watch this spirit of the sport.  During the World Cup, kids are out in droves playing soccer.  During  Wimbleton, as my mother the tennis expert notes, the courts are packed.  During the Tour, the roads are.  Every year, I think about joining them.  Couch cyclist, that's what I am, but this year I decided to try it.  I have two bikes, one is a mountain bike by Cannondale that I inherited from my mother.  The other is a road bike of dubious origin that I'll be experimenting with putting back together.  Still, the road is calling.  On the topic of l'esprit, let me just say that fans and couch cyclists and bandwagon followers of cycling create a Catch 22 for our athletes. On the one hand, we want them to be better, faster, and more agile than us. We build them up as demi-gods, but in the same moment insinutate ourselves so deeply into their lives they can barely breathe, desperate to prove that they are yet falliable.  On the one hand wishing them to be better than the rest of us, on the other, resenting rtheir talents and seeking to destroy their images.  That happy thought leads me to part 2:

Reality:  Now I have decided this is the year to actually ride my bike and hope on down to a wifi spot to do these posts.  I am saving the enviornment and getting in shape at the same time!  Unfortunately, reality sets in at this point.  First, I had a flat back tire first thing out of the garage.  Finally fixed that, only, on my very next ride, lose my front tube.  Not only did it go flat, the valve came out.  That tube is toast.  Also, with my penchant for injury, I really need a new helmet.  The cost of this endeavor continue to pile up, and that, my friends, is reality.  As for our athletes, I'll wrap this up quickly for anyone brave enough to get this far.  I do not remember Jan Ulrich for his doping.   I remember the  man and the athlete who went to battle every year against Lance Armstrong, and who joined in a chivalrous code of respect.  When Lance went down on the montains and Jan Ulrich waited, I could not have cared less about PEDs.  That was the spirit of the sport, not the reality.  While we go on about our lives, and sports fans find more main stream sports to follow, I hope a few stop to think about that.  If we lose the spirit by demanding reality, we are left with nothing.

BlytheLea L.E.

P.S. I welcome any feedback.  I might not agree with you, you might not agree with me, but that is what drives a good debate.  Keep cycling!