I want to hear from you because you are you, not because you are riding mega miles and elevation. I can admire those who can push themselves to ride long distances at higher speeds, but relate to them? Not so much... I've always been slow but can generally finish longer distances. I love cycling and I'm still a cyclist, even if I don't ride 20mph up a hill on a 28-tooth rear chain ring. Lovely photos by the way.
Love this post, VERY much. I’m not over on Instagram that much but when I am I’m in awe of folk like saddlesoresean completing the Pan Celtic (and the Magnum Opus) … but I love that Sean and I had a 70km café ride together this year … I love that me and Mrs Feasts cycled from our home in France back to the Gower to speak at Love Trails Festival - and home again, of course. I love that we’ve come to cycling late on - we have no backstory of long rides completed in our prime. It’s just the here and now. We gave up our car last year and cycle everywhere. Our 30 km round trips to the marché via the boulangerie are our best rides. Pedalling and pastries.
I love that you are so supportive of the regular folk in the community. Your voice is powerful - not just for what you’ve done in the past (and that is amazing) but for what you are thinking and saying now!
PS … the rides to the marché get shared here with gratuitous pictures of viennoiserie!
Thank you SO much for this post. Since I had a breakdown 6 years ago I have completely stopped cycling and I miss it so much but somehow just cannot start again. I used to cycle a lot and write about it too, now I neither ride nor write. Thank you as always for your inspirational and fabulous writing,
I’m still a cyclist, despite coming off my bike and breaking my collar bone on Saturday. Flying to Iceland on Tuesday, then on to Greenland to board a ship, for a cruise from the Arctic to the Caribbean. Having to wear a sling 24/7 is not going to curtail my plans or kill my joy! I’ll be back on my bike when I’m fit enough and till then…I’ll drown my sorrows with Dirty Martini’s and Champagne 🍸🥂
Oh no! So sorry to hear about the collarbone - what a pain. I hope you're enjoying the cruise (and the drinks). And you are most definitely still a cyclist, especially in my mind (having only ever seen you in lycra).
Emily, when I saw your post on IG I thought to myself, what a great idea. When this newsletter came out today, I forwarded it to one of my cycling mentors who, now in his late 70s, has been forced to curtail his riding. He says he was brought to tears, but very much identified with the sentiment. Thank you for keeping the community alive for him.
Well done Emily. I’m in my 70’s now and #stillacyclist but only occasionally get a nod from others when out on the lanes on my hybrid e-bike. I started with a home-made bike for a paper round in my teens and completed my first solo tour of Wales using youth hostels, aged 17. I loved to ride audax and LEJOG but now happy to just tootle around the local lanes when weather and knees permit. A few years ago I sold my Colnago to a chap who regularly takes it up and down cols and sends me the photos, which is nice of him even though I’m dead jealous. Kept the Pinarello I built for LEJOG and a mountain bike, just in case, but it’s the e-bike that gets me out and home again now. Best wishes.
Such a lot of wisdom in one post, Emily. I smashed my cycling goals in the first half of this year: my first 400km audax (London Wales London) and Ireland end to end. The following three months? Virtually nothing - and not because of illness. Life is for living and unless you’re a professional athlete it’s fine to take a break. You’ll most likely come Bach refreshed and raring to go. And sometimes it’s the mini adventures that are the most interesting. I’m planning an overnight cycle ride that will involve stories of Thomas Hardy, Britain’s first high speed rail line, the Napoleonic wars and a town that was destroyed twice - and much more.
Oh, that sounds like a very interesting route. What's the connection between all of those places? I'd love to hear more about it. (Also, congrats on London Wales London - I've wanted to do that ride for ages.)
Glad you thought it sounded interesting, Emily! I will be posting a blog and video about the ride, which I did this week. But briefly: young Thomas Hardy was involved in moving coffins from a graveyard that was in the route of the line into St Pancras in the 1860s; the original HS1 (channel tunnel rail link) makes it ridiculously easy and speedy to get from London to the Kent coast; the Royal Military Canal was actually built as a defensive barrier against a Napoleonic invasion; and Winchelsea, now a small village, replaced a major port destroyed by storms over 800 years ago. I'll post the link to the blog when published!
Thanks Emily! I originally wrote it up as a blogpost at robskinner.net (with video highlights) and LWL organiser Liam FitzPatrick suggested I shared it with Arrivée.
I’m so grateful that a friend who resonated with your post shared it with me. What a beautifully written and powerful story. There are no requirements to be a “cyclist” and when we can meet ourselves where we are on any given day perhaps we can remember what got us on a bike in the first place. Happy to be connected and looking forward to reading more of your powerful words.
Oof, I am very much in this place because of a traumatic brain injury 4 years ago that has led to several other health issues. I tried so hard to still be an ultra cyclist afterwards. Have finally (I think) decided to give in and let it go. It’s pretty wild to think I used to be able to ride 18-20+ hours a day for multiple days in a row… and now I can only ride up to 2h once, maybe twice a week. It’s all the capacity I have. “My community” has moved on without me, and I realize I was never really a part of it at all, aside from the accolades I had that people once admired and enjoyed me for. Being fast. It was all based around being a competitor.
I stopped fighting for my dwindling sponsorships this year and left social media. Finally let it all go. And am working on being grateful for what I had for so long instead of sad that it’s gone, and am so, so glad I took full advantage of my abilities while I had them. Trying to turn all my energy to helping others since I can no longer do the things myself.
At the very least I’ll never be someone who has to say “I wish I would have xyz…” but yea, it’s a process. Still getting used to the “former pro athlete” identity. 😉
Ah, big sympathies for all of this. And well done for finding positive ways of looking at your situation and moving on with life. I also frequently remind myself that at least I don't have to regret not making the most of my strength when I still had it. I also recognise the feeling of the community moving on - I don't think mine has as definitively as yours, but it does sometimes feel like it.
Posted #stillacyclist on Instagram a picture of my dog #FloydOfTheDay who came to help me support the WaterAid cycle ride on Friday. I wasn't riding this year, but being involved with the charity is something I love to do & we have a great team.
I realised a long while time ago that the combination of the desire of both the mind and body to push, to do hard things is fleeting. And that teaches us something about trying to find balance and to not tie up our identity in sporting goals but in what we can offer to the world. And you offer yourself and your words. That will always be enough.
I want to hear from you because you are you, not because you are riding mega miles and elevation. I can admire those who can push themselves to ride long distances at higher speeds, but relate to them? Not so much... I've always been slow but can generally finish longer distances. I love cycling and I'm still a cyclist, even if I don't ride 20mph up a hill on a 28-tooth rear chain ring. Lovely photos by the way.
Thank you!
Love this post, VERY much. I’m not over on Instagram that much but when I am I’m in awe of folk like saddlesoresean completing the Pan Celtic (and the Magnum Opus) … but I love that Sean and I had a 70km café ride together this year … I love that me and Mrs Feasts cycled from our home in France back to the Gower to speak at Love Trails Festival - and home again, of course. I love that we’ve come to cycling late on - we have no backstory of long rides completed in our prime. It’s just the here and now. We gave up our car last year and cycle everywhere. Our 30 km round trips to the marché via the boulangerie are our best rides. Pedalling and pastries.
I love that you are so supportive of the regular folk in the community. Your voice is powerful - not just for what you’ve done in the past (and that is amazing) but for what you are thinking and saying now!
PS … the rides to the marché get shared here with gratuitous pictures of viennoiserie!
Chapeau 💛
Ah, this sounds lovely. Pedalling and pastries - the perfect outing!
Just as you will always be a cyclist, you will always be a writer -- and will always have readers like me eager to hear what you have to say.
Ah thank you, that's so kind.
Thank you SO much for this post. Since I had a breakdown 6 years ago I have completely stopped cycling and I miss it so much but somehow just cannot start again. I used to cycle a lot and write about it too, now I neither ride nor write. Thank you as always for your inspirational and fabulous writing,
I'm so sorry to hear about the breakdown. But you are definitely still a cyclist - I'm sure you must have endless tales of bike rides of yore.
I’m still a cyclist, despite coming off my bike and breaking my collar bone on Saturday. Flying to Iceland on Tuesday, then on to Greenland to board a ship, for a cruise from the Arctic to the Caribbean. Having to wear a sling 24/7 is not going to curtail my plans or kill my joy! I’ll be back on my bike when I’m fit enough and till then…I’ll drown my sorrows with Dirty Martini’s and Champagne 🍸🥂
Oh no! So sorry to hear about the collarbone - what a pain. I hope you're enjoying the cruise (and the drinks). And you are most definitely still a cyclist, especially in my mind (having only ever seen you in lycra).
Emily, when I saw your post on IG I thought to myself, what a great idea. When this newsletter came out today, I forwarded it to one of my cycling mentors who, now in his late 70s, has been forced to curtail his riding. He says he was brought to tears, but very much identified with the sentiment. Thank you for keeping the community alive for him.
Ohhhhhhh this is amazing. Thank you so much for forwarding the email - and for letting me know his reaction.
Well done Emily. I’m in my 70’s now and #stillacyclist but only occasionally get a nod from others when out on the lanes on my hybrid e-bike. I started with a home-made bike for a paper round in my teens and completed my first solo tour of Wales using youth hostels, aged 17. I loved to ride audax and LEJOG but now happy to just tootle around the local lanes when weather and knees permit. A few years ago I sold my Colnago to a chap who regularly takes it up and down cols and sends me the photos, which is nice of him even though I’m dead jealous. Kept the Pinarello I built for LEJOG and a mountain bike, just in case, but it’s the e-bike that gets me out and home again now. Best wishes.
Oh, I really love that he keeps you abreast of your bike's continuing adventures. And hurrah for e-bikes!
Such a lot of wisdom in one post, Emily. I smashed my cycling goals in the first half of this year: my first 400km audax (London Wales London) and Ireland end to end. The following three months? Virtually nothing - and not because of illness. Life is for living and unless you’re a professional athlete it’s fine to take a break. You’ll most likely come Bach refreshed and raring to go. And sometimes it’s the mini adventures that are the most interesting. I’m planning an overnight cycle ride that will involve stories of Thomas Hardy, Britain’s first high speed rail line, the Napoleonic wars and a town that was destroyed twice - and much more.
Oh, that sounds like a very interesting route. What's the connection between all of those places? I'd love to hear more about it. (Also, congrats on London Wales London - I've wanted to do that ride for ages.)
Glad you thought it sounded interesting, Emily! I will be posting a blog and video about the ride, which I did this week. But briefly: young Thomas Hardy was involved in moving coffins from a graveyard that was in the route of the line into St Pancras in the 1860s; the original HS1 (channel tunnel rail link) makes it ridiculously easy and speedy to get from London to the Kent coast; the Royal Military Canal was actually built as a defensive barrier against a Napoleonic invasion; and Winchelsea, now a small village, replaced a major port destroyed by storms over 800 years ago. I'll post the link to the blog when published!
Thank you! Also, I've just read your LWL write-up in Arrivée, and I REALLY enjoyed it.
Thanks Emily! I originally wrote it up as a blogpost at robskinner.net (with video highlights) and LWL organiser Liam FitzPatrick suggested I shared it with Arrivée.
I’m so grateful that a friend who resonated with your post shared it with me. What a beautifully written and powerful story. There are no requirements to be a “cyclist” and when we can meet ourselves where we are on any given day perhaps we can remember what got us on a bike in the first place. Happy to be connected and looking forward to reading more of your powerful words.
Thank you so much! (And thanks to your friend for introducing us.)
Oof, I am very much in this place because of a traumatic brain injury 4 years ago that has led to several other health issues. I tried so hard to still be an ultra cyclist afterwards. Have finally (I think) decided to give in and let it go. It’s pretty wild to think I used to be able to ride 18-20+ hours a day for multiple days in a row… and now I can only ride up to 2h once, maybe twice a week. It’s all the capacity I have. “My community” has moved on without me, and I realize I was never really a part of it at all, aside from the accolades I had that people once admired and enjoyed me for. Being fast. It was all based around being a competitor.
I stopped fighting for my dwindling sponsorships this year and left social media. Finally let it all go. And am working on being grateful for what I had for so long instead of sad that it’s gone, and am so, so glad I took full advantage of my abilities while I had them. Trying to turn all my energy to helping others since I can no longer do the things myself.
At the very least I’ll never be someone who has to say “I wish I would have xyz…” but yea, it’s a process. Still getting used to the “former pro athlete” identity. 😉
Ah, big sympathies for all of this. And well done for finding positive ways of looking at your situation and moving on with life. I also frequently remind myself that at least I don't have to regret not making the most of my strength when I still had it. I also recognise the feeling of the community moving on - I don't think mine has as definitively as yours, but it does sometimes feel like it.
Posted #stillacyclist on Instagram a picture of my dog #FloydOfTheDay who came to help me support the WaterAid cycle ride on Friday. I wasn't riding this year, but being involved with the charity is something I love to do & we have a great team.
I keep thinking I should try and do more work supporting other people's rides - thanks for the reminder!
I realised a long while time ago that the combination of the desire of both the mind and body to push, to do hard things is fleeting. And that teaches us something about trying to find balance and to not tie up our identity in sporting goals but in what we can offer to the world. And you offer yourself and your words. That will always be enough.
Wise words indeed. :)
“If you ride at the speed of your youngest child” 🙋♂️
And I’m still a cyclist even though I can’t keep up with my oldest anymore