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feature
IMG_077215 things every cyclist loves — explore the best bits of riding your bike
Here's our pick of 15 things that we think every cyclist loves. Are we right or do you disagree? Let us know down below.
1 Reaching the top
Even if you love the climbs, there’s something about reaching the top that gives you an instant boost. Whether it’s Alpe d’Huez or a humpback bridge, it’s a job well done.
2 Riding with a tailwind
WInd Power (CC BY 2.0 reynermedia|Flickr)
Ride with a tailwind and you feel unbeatable, like your legs and lungs got stronger in the night. Very, very occasionally the wind will change direction during a ride and you’ll get a tailwind on the way out and a tailwind on the way back. On these days you think you're Eddy Merckx.
3 Dropping your mates
The fact that they’re your mates only makes you want to drop them more.
4 Green traffic lights
Traffic light tree (CC BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevandotorg)
Remember that day when every traffic light you passed was on green and you just sailed through? No, because it has never happened. One day it will, though, and then your life will be complete.
5 France
Le Semnoz-Crêt de Chatillon (CC BY NC 2.0 will_cyclist|Flickr)
Yeah, the cycling might be good around your way but France is the gold standard. Le Tour, of course, the Alps, the Pyrenees, Paris-Roubaix… Mind you, there’s Italy too. And Belgium.
6 New bike clothes
Yes, you’ve got your old favourites but you can never have too much new stuff. Don’t blame me; I didn’t invent greed/avarice/capitalism.
7 Light stuff
It doesn’t matter how many times you’re told that being aerodynamic is more important than shaving off a few grams, light kit always puts a smile on your face. That applies to your frame, handlebars, wheels, shoes, body… Pretty much everything, in fact.
8 A clean bike
Clean bikes are faster. Well, they might be. They certainly look faster. On the other hand, a dirty bike shows you’ve been riding it, so that has it’s merits too. Confusing.
9 The sound of a freehub
Some freehubs sound so ace you’ve just got to stop pedalling and listen to them ticking away from time to time. Not for too long, mind. That’s just slacking.
10 Trying a new route and it works out
I’ve got a hunch that this road will join up with another one that I know. I try it and it does. Hurrah! Just call me Mr Garmin.
11 New bar tape
Every road bike can be improved by the application of new bar tape. Fact.
12 Beating other riders away from the lights
Hectic street racing in Oxford (CC BY 2.0 Tejvan Pettinger)
It might not be the Olympic final but every victory counts. You're Le Patron until the next set of lights.
13 PBs
(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Sean Rowe|Flickr)
Even the least competitive cyclist likes to beat their time from point A to point B. Better your personal best by a second and you feel brilliant, miss it by a second and you feel crushed, yet that’s only a difference of two seconds. That’s just the way it is.
14 Coffee and cake
They’re pretty much essential.
15 The post-ride shower/bath
(CC BY-SA 2.0 vallgall|Flickr)
The more achy your legs, the better it feels.
Go on then; what did we miss?
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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There are people who believe that.
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Either due to normal fluctuation or reduced levels of cycling i.e. not a real reduction.
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154 comments
"Hot and overcast. I take my gear out of the car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafe's. Non Racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me."
That quote from "The Rider" says it all.
Riding a section of road the Tour of Britain just went down, then having loads of school kids cheering as you pass...the volume increases as you wave and smile!
Going for a ride after having taken 2 sinutab for sinus trouble
-now you know why pseudo ephedrine is baned!
Out on a lone ride, big headwind and rain lashing-getting it tight! Then the PSNI helicopter appears, hovering quite low- suddenly I am no longer grinding around Craigavon but a solo break in a Classic- even the crappy parts of the road are suddenly pavé! Enough energy for a surge for home, feeling like I should apply for Belgian citizenship, challenging the wind and rain to do its worst.
Arrive at home, have a great shower then upload Garmin to find I beat my personal best on the wee draggy climb home which had been set on a sunny day with a tailwind!
(Plus the commentators in my head were Kirby and Kelly, not Liggett and Sherwen which was an added bonus!)
Beer. That is all
The fact that my wife was still prepared to get back on the bike, having thrown it into a bog, as we battled our way to Belmullet into the teeth of an Atlantic gale.
Coffee and cake should be separate entries. It undervalues each of them if they are lumped together as a single benefit
Possibly the greatest feeling comes as a result of a number of the above (e.g. cresting a climb), and that's the knowledge that by riding you are living, not merely existing.
That moment you casually look down at your 'puter and realise you're cruising at 25 mph.
Filling every available pocket with food from the breakfast buffet in a French hotel and no one bats an eye even as you clip clop out to your bike.
Filling every available pocket with food from the breakfast buffet in a French hotel and no one bats an eye even as you clip clop out to your bike.
The sound of hard tyres on smooth tarmac. Just SMOOTH tarmac
Actually one of my best days was tailwinds from Fort William to Bonar Bridge. Tailwinds up the Lochs and a beautiful day. This was preceded by one of the worst days, from Glasgow to Fort William. Head winds and rain all day, a rockslide increased the mileage of the longest day. I practically went potty going through Glencoe at 11mph and couldn't break 15mph going down hill, with 40 miles still to go and 7hrs recorded in the saddle.
My line was if day the from Glasgow to Fort William made you question why you ride, the next day was the answer....
Beautiful people in the bunch with great tans and killer calf muscle definition!
Sun but not too hot
My continued disbelief after almost 30 years that an inert machine weighing the same as a fat house cat can deliver so much joy and endorphin rush!
When it's your mate who gets the puncture.
When you're going down a hill fast and there's a bend at the bottom and you're not quite sure if you're going to get round and then you do.
Leaving the coffee stop in a bunch and wending your way home.
At the end of the club run when you wave goodbye to your mates and say 'see you next week.'
When the package from Wiggle arrives.
The first sight and sound of Sean Kelly for the new season.
Removing mudguards, not wearing gloves or over-shoes and leaving the winter jacket at home because spring has sprung.
Chasing after a ride who's just passed you and then passing them.
Saying 'good morning' to a Dulwich Paragon rider and getting nothing back (in joke).
Not bothered about cake. Does that make me strange?
Oh, and one of my favourite things is nice flat and smooth tarmac. Round here it is all big chip top dressing and pot holes.
The work.
Enjoying turning the cranks.
Anything else would be unnecessary.
The work.
Enjoying turning the cranks.
Anything else would be unnecessary.
It's a state of utter mental clarity and physical prowess. No idea why it's called that though.
Oh yes... possibly one of the most overlooked but most beneficial reasons...
Waving to the husband as I ride off, knowing he will have cooked something great and tidied the house when I get back. Cos we're a partnership.
The process of struggling to gain fitness after injury and illness, then that magical first ride back when you're out, the fitness is back and the ride isn't just a continuous struggle
When Dan Lloyd or Matt Stevenson replace Sean Kelly, much better commentary alongside the legendary Carlton Kirby.
That ride can't come soon enough
YES & YES.
Number Two. My commute starts and ends with a steep climb because I live in the middle of a hill. Every morning I dread it, every morning I feel awesome at the top.
Also riding in bad weather.
A cool sip of liquid in between breaths
agree with all but dropping your mates, I go out riding in a group for a reason and thats not to leave them all behind to make me feel better.
Agree except for pre-agreed proper hills to zoom up, naturally waiting at the top and then carrying on leisurely.
I really like pulling someone in to the faster group and coaching them into riding in the middle of a good group. Their sense of achievement when they get back to base after a longer/ faster ride than they thought they could do is great.
I also like to turn on the hurt in the last 10 miles of the club run but not every week!
just feeling fitter and fitter as the year goes
Also the feel of new bib shorts that cost you a fortune !
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