Friday, September 25, 2009

Quotes

Fabian Cancellara fulfilled everyone’s expectations by winning the world time trial championship in fine form. Nobody else was even close to him. The man who came in second has this to say:

“Cancellara’s still from earth, but he was the best today. I tried what I could, I really happy with my performance.”

I like this quote, and it made me think of some of my other favorite quotes relating to bicycles:

"I thought of that while riding my bike."Albert Einstein, on the theory of relativity

As a cyclist and confirmed science nerd, I like that one a lot.

" I've read that I flew up the hills and mountains of France. But you don't fly up a hill. You struggle slowly and painfully up a hill, and maybe, if you work very hard, you get to the top ahead of everybody else." — Lance Armstrong

It’s kind of nice to know that it isn’t effortless for anyone. I can remember those days struggling along, gasping for air, sweating and being happy to hear the guy next me start gasping too. It made me feel like I wasn’t doing so hopelessly badly after all.

"I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty—five. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur? We are getting soft... As for me, give me a fixed gear!" — Henri Desgrange

Said the man who came up with the Tour de France. Ouch.

If you brake, you don't win." Mario Cipollini

Ride lots." — Eddy Merckx

Good advice from two of the greatest ever.

Get a bicycle. You will certainly not regret it, if you live. -Mark Twain

That one just makes me laugh.

Here are quotes from two people I don’t know (of course, they don’t know me, either) who’ve really got something.

The best rides are the ones where you bite off much more than you can chew--and live through it. -Doug Bradbury

Predawn ride, I pass my neighbor on a run. "Why are you riding a bike?" he asks. "Running gets you in shape faster." It's not about that. It's about how riding makes me feel. The speed. Leaning into gentle curves. Charging up hills. How strong my legs feel. Riding gets me fit. But thats just luck. I don't ride to get fit.-R. Todd Barker

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle I no longer despair for the future of the human race.-H.G. Wells

Same here.

Never use your face as a brake pad.-Jake Watson

Sound advice.

"Finishing a ride is mandatory. Finishing a ride fast is optional."- Anonymous

Been there. Done that. That was me at the end of the club’s double century ride. I didn’t finish pretty or strong, but I did finish.


And let’s not forget everybody’s friend, the wind. "

Wind is just a hill in gaseous form."-- Barry McCarty

"You never have the wind with you. It is either against you or you are having a good day."-- Daniel Behrman, The Man Who Loved Bicycles

"Friends Don't Let Friends Drive"

I don’t recall where I got this one, but I have to admit that I like it. I wish I had a T-shirt with that quote and a picture of a bicycle on it.

“Cycling has encountered more enemies than any other form of exercise.”-- 19th-century author Louis Baudry de Saunier

So it’s not just a modern phenomenon!

Well, my Lovely Lovely gets off work early today, and I believe that she’s going to swing by the bike shop and pick up a pump for me. I had a chance to go a nonbike shop and buy a pump that turned out to be a useless piece of junk, so I returned it, crestfallen, to wait out my long period of no air in the tire, but soon I’ll be on two wheels again, and then I’ll be a better person.

See you on the road.

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