Hope for us all!

I found this article "Crossing the Pyrenees" by Ken Worpole which he wrote following a bike trip in 1989. It should inspire all of us as we train hard for May 17th!
"I cycled from Bordeaux to Barcelona, a journey of nearly five hundred miles. I went because the trip included crossing the Pyrenees, a mountain range with which, for some reason, I am obsessed. At the highest point we cycled to 6,500 feet, and camped near a Spanish village which at night produced the clearest sky and brightest stars I shall ever hope to see. Cold, indifferent, achingly splendid. But it wasn't a feat of endurance. Everybody who started, finished. Some cyclists were in their sixties, others in their teens; several were overweight and in not very good health. But long distance cycling is not necessarily a matter of stamina but of resilience. It's boring, at times, deeply tiring, hot, frustrating, only occasionally taxing on the lungs, legs and bum. But it requires no superhuman strength, abnormal muscle development, use of steroids, Union Jacks, travelling supporters, training from birth, right-wing political views, knowledge of quiz games, trips to South Africa, dual passports, or any of the other paraphernalia of 'serious' sports. You can smoke, drink, eat carp with a grape sauce, stay up late at night, go dancing, finish on calvados and cigars, and still do it -- as long as you just love the symmetry of Reynolds 531 tubing, the grace and bounce of alloy wheels, and the sheer pleasure of turning two pedals which translate every ounce of human endeavour into four times its value through a simple system of gears and wheels. In short, you either like bicycles and cycling (I do) or hate them."

Mike