We are all a bunch of wimps.

I was driving last night down Military Rd. in Arlington, on my way to pick up my mom at the metro. It was dark and really cold out. I was complaining to myself how cold it was even just inside the car, when I saw coming the other way in the dark someone on their bike. Not someone out training just commuting home. When I thought about it I realized I see this stuff all the time, but just at that moment it really stuck with me. Maybe it was because the day before I had been out in the cold for three and half hours and seen a dozen recreational riders, that racers usually rip on, but not a single bike racer out training.

At this moment that I saw the rider coming towards coasting down a hill in the twenty degrees and dark I realized that most of us bike riders really are a bunch of wimps. Any time we do a cold ride we chalk it up as epic and talk for weeks about how funny it is that there were no "freds" out when we were doing our epic two hour ride in a partly overcast 35 degrees, with some super high wattage spin ups. All I can say is that these commuters are way more legit. They ride through rain and shine in the truest sense. Also, I am guessing that when they get home they do not brag to their girlfriend how hard core their commute was and how if they can just get 1 more watt per kilogram they really have a chance at winning tradezone next weekend.

Maybe it is time that us bike racers toughened up.