To achieve her new cycling speed record of 296.01 kmh (183.932 mph), Denise Mueller-Korenek took to Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, towed behind a jet vehicle, until her giant chain gear bicycle could be pedaled. Drafting behind a fairing, and following thousands of predecessors, she currently stands alone, under conditions few would ever have an opportunity to duplicate or want to. Going so fast for only a moment? Recall someone who nearly doubled that speed racing down a volcano slope. What about elapsed unassisted point to point maximum? A century ago 6-day velodrome racers were happy to lead field and take home a payday. So many conditional records! Why risk certain death for pride marred by an asterisk?
What constitutes a life? They falsely say, when all is said and done, more will be said than done. They undervalue commonplace actions, commuting, cooking, eating, gardening, metabolizing, preparing, producing, reflecting, reading, respiring, shopping, sleeping, web surfing, and working, which quietly consume most of your time alive. You hardly get to speak aloud with little incentive to converse with yourself other than mentally. Life is a series of preparations for moments that never arrive alongside catastrophes and tragedies thrust unavoidably upon you. Wise weather whatever adversity overwhelms workers and worrywarts.
Count your blessings this July 4th. While every other national holiday celebrates some celebrity, event, group, or hero, on this those united rejoice The Four Freedoms - from tyranny and want, of religion and speech - ratified by UN and USA as the cornerstone of fairness and justice. But is it just an illusion? It's the perfect time to evaluate by hitting streets on a freedom machine. A billion people go by bike to absorb free vitamin D, avoid traffic, blast flab, boost mood, breathe fresh air, build muscle, buy confidence, cut costs, exercise mind, explore surroundings, extend life, meet locals, thumb nose at automotive paradigm and unexamined conventions, and transport self through space/time. But terrorists and tyrants want to dominate and intimidate, and steal your transportation independence through random gun violence sanctioned by congressional greed and corrupt policies.
Nam June Paik may have coined phrase “electronic superhighway” during 1970’s, but has internet fostered a homogenous or smarter population? Ironically, more facts mean fragmentism, normalization of lies, overthrow of consensus, polarization of politics, and reactions based on too few truths. Before 2000, David Bowie called Internet “the new rock and roll”, and predicted its potential will be unimaginable, “as exhilarating and terrifying as an alien lifeform.”
You’d think that side streets with 4-way stops at every intersection would be safer than main avenues with relentless traffic, but you’d be wrong, since so many motorists disobey speed limits and traffic controls where they think nobody notices. Aggression, impatience, and scofflaw defiance are symptoms of sociopathy.
“[Bicycling’s] like being a bird flying in a sky filled with airplanes: the deafening roar of their engines, their impossible speed, the cruelty of steel, the inescapable menace, the looming sense of catastrophe, your own little wings flapping in silence while theirs slice thunderously.” Jill Lepore, “Bicycles Have Evolved. Have We?” The New Yorker, May, 2022
Peloton, racers, time-trialers, and triathletes compulsively share a need for speed. Look at peloton's furious pace averaging 35 mph during last 10 miles of Etape 4 of Tour. Behooves long distance riders to recall Vélocio’s (Paul de Vivie) Seven Randonneuse Commandments:
1. Take infrequent short stops, so as not to break momentum.
2. Light and frequent meals: Eat before feeling hungry, drink before feeling thirsty.
3. Never go so far as to reach abnormal fatigue, which results in lack of appetite and sleep.
4. Cover before getting cold, disrobe before getting hot, and don't be afraid to expose skin to air, sun, or water.
5, While riding, abstain from meat, tobacco, and wine.
6. Stay within your means, especially early when tempted to force yourself because you feel strong.
7. Never pedal expecting to build self-esteem; remain humble.
And keep your knees in, not flailing out and wasting force. If you consider such advice generally ignored by champions, you’re already a “cicli-junkie” in need of obsession therapy. It’s never just a weekend century, but several days a week of endurance training building up to each randonneur event. Don’t these ring wraiths have wage slave jobs to preclude perpetual practice?
The Last Rider (Alex Holmes, dir., 2023) chronicles champion Greg LeMond's nadir year (shotgun victim) and storied Tour de France comeback in 1989, his second of three general classification wins of the July Classic, yet again in progress. To date, Lemond is the last and only American accredited to have won. The director met the retired champion during production of Stop at Nothing (Alex Holmes, dir., 2014) , about now-disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, “a man who set out to destroy anyone who questioned his reputation," so made another documentary that instead casts a positive light on cycling heroics. Why is there no statue of Lemond, who made his presence known when they unveiled Major Taylor’s Memorial in Worcester, Massachusetts? France erected one to the late twice winner Laurent Fignon, the competitor Lemond beat.
Tour de France: Unchained (Jamie Batten, dir., 2023), aka Tour de France: Au cœur du peloton [Inside the peloton], is a French language, English subtitled, Netflix series released this June. Both were timed, obviously, to promote interest in world’s biggest spectator event attracting up to fifteen million fans, since free to public, and viewership on broadcasts of one hundred and fifty million. NFL Superbowl sells less than one hundred thousand tickets, though viewership exceeds one hundred million. FIFA World Cup Football draws up to three million spectators, except when hosted in a desert state, though once set a record for viewership at one and a half billion.
"After a long day on my bicycle, I feel refreshed, cleansed, purified. I feel that I have established contact with my environment and that I am at peace. On days like that I am permeated with a profound gratitude for my bicycle. Even if I did not enjoy riding, I would still do it for my peace of mind." Paul de Vivie, cyclotouriste and publisher of Le Cycliste
“There comes a time in every little girl's life when her momma says, ‘Girl, do your best, [be]cause one day you may come to find that all of your life has been a wicked ride.’” Melody Gardot, Wicked Ride, Some Lessons, 2006
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