Bike clubs are great

We just got back from our first meeting of this bike club that Brenda has adopted.  Ya gotta love a bike riding club where the guy who gets the “spirit of cycling” award is 80-something years old, the guy who is in charge of the club’s 6-day safari ride in the spring and the century ride in the fall is well into his 70s, and there’s a 91-year guy sitting 2 rows in front of us. 

I know—you’re probably thinking, “You mean these guys still get out and ride bikes?”  And I think that’s just it.  I think the operative word there is “still”.  Clearly these are people who didn’t wake up one morning on their 75^th birthday and decide to go buy a bike and start riding.  These are people who’ve been riding for years and years and years.  And how cool is that about bike riding?  Check out a masters swim team sometime (“masters” is the old-guy part of the swimming population) and you’ll see a bunch of guys in their 30s or 40s.  Take a look at the people who belong to any of the running clubs in your area and see how many of them are 70+.  But cyclists?  There are a lot of retired people at those weekday morning rides…  (I’m just sayin’…)

I did a century ride a couple of years ago.  It was the 30^th anniversary of that ride, and one of the 2,000 riders who made up that event was a guy who’d ridden in all 30 of them.  Yeah, he was 90-something.  I love that.  I don’t know when I’ll take my last ride, but if I live into my 90s, I hope I can do it riding.  And the only thing cooler than that would be if Brenda is out there still riding into her 90s too.  Here’s hoping...