The Quest for Speed

What is it about speed?  Why are we so obsessed with it?  We humans, and particularly, we Americans, seem to have this obsession with going fast.  Just about any form of fast is good.  We seek to run faster, to build faster vehicles, to get to that place that is known as fast.

We cyclists are no different.  We seem to be manic about speed.  Good golly, about the first two things that non-riders think to ask when encountering a cyclist are, “How far do you go?”  and  “How fast can you go on that bicycle?”  The whole of the bicycle industry sells things based on their ability to make a rider faster.  We follow the doings of pharmaceutically enhanced “Pros” with intensity.  Almost any group ride with more than three members will, at some point, turn into a competition. 

The phrase “competitive cyclist” is redundant.

Don’t think so?

Try this scenario:  Two riders are out on individual solo rides.  They happen to be on the same road, traveling in the same direction.  If they come into sight of each other, a contest begins.  Can the trailing rider catch and pass the leading one?  Can the leading rider hold off this challenge?  It’s a secret and undeclared challenge of speed.

  I’ve had folks “secret race” me while I was both of us were commuting!  Good greif!

In some part I understand this.  I love those moments when I feel the speed.  The blistering descent is a pure joy.  Those moments when everything comes together on a long solo ride, the road is smooth and relatively flat, the breathing good, and the bike surges.  Wonderful!

I say I understand it, but I do not know why we are so intrigued with the act of going faster, nor why cycling has this strongly competitive dimension.

This week we explore speed, in several of its dimensions.  What does it mean, and how do we generate it, handle it, and use it.