Legit Bike Power...

The bicycle is amazingly simple, yet very complex. A unit powered by human energy both in terms of physical power and the emotional power to will oneself to ride... Whether you live to ride, ride to live, ride for a cause, or simply ride to stay in shape, we experience things that a very small portion of the world's population will. Being a cyclist allows everyone to feel superhuman. A fast efficient machine combined with aero helmets, sunglasses, fast-looking cycling kits, and tanned and shaved legs...if that doesn't describe super hero, I don't know what to say.

Every cyclist has had the feeling of being invincible. The feeling of power while time-trialing, the power that makes the cranks almost turn themselves, the power that makes us feel like Floyd Landis, Fabian Cancellara, or dare I say Lance Armstrong. The only difference is we feel this power not on the world's grandest stage or in the peloton in France, but on our hometown roads, by ourselves while climbing the local Alpe 'Duez, on a forest service road, or flying down main street. The point being here is we don't have to constantly hold ourselves against the standards of modern cycling heros, local champions, or even our teammates. (That is why they have races. A race is the time to throw down and compare your preparation, skill, and desire with those around and against you.)

It doesn't matter what anyone else does day to day because it is yourself you must hold accountable for preparation (or lack thereof). All dedicated cyclists make sacrifices and suffer the same amount when giving the engines full throttle. Whether you have the power to push 100 or 1000 watts as long as you are giving your best the suffering is the same You deserve the self satisfaction of testing the limits of your mental and physical attributes.

Each individual that puts in the time and makes the sacrifices to commit to a goal of bettering him or herself, no matter their motivation, no longer deserves to placed in a category of day to day comparison with another rider, again that is what a race is for. Those who give their best everyday without letting excuses or the fear of uncertainty hold them back, have achieved one of the greatest feelings on earth, no longer the feeling of being Floyd Landis or Jan Ulrich, but a feeling that allows us, for once our life, to be our own hero. Never, for even a second, let anyone place a doubt in your mind about the power of cycling or the worthiness of becoming your own hero.