What’s the longest time you have ever had off your bike? Maybe you’re lucky, and it has only been a week or so while on holiday, or while ill, or while your bike is at the shop. I was lucky, with the longest time I’d been off two wheels in at least five years being the few weeks I’ve spent working on the Tour de France each year. Even those times when a week has gone by and I haven’t put on lycra, planned a route, and done a big bike ride, there will have been time spent on two wheels. Maybe cycling to work or the pub. Just getting out there.
Maybe you haven’t been lucky, and perhaps you have endured a longer period off your bike. I had this misfortune at the end of May, after stupidly breaking my ankle in a stupid way at a very inconvenient time. It meant I didn’t turn a pedal throughout the whole of June and July, spending most of that time in an orthopaedic boot.
News editor at Cycling Weekly, Adam brings his weekly opinion on the goings on at the upper echelons of our sport. This piece is part of The Leadout, a newsletter series from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. As ever, email adam.becket@futurenet.com – should you wish to add anything, or suggest a topic.
Although it allowed me to heal, it drastically limited my movement, saw the muscles in my left leg atrophy, and in general made everything a right pain.The recovering broken ankle and damaged tissue was the real issue, but to me it felt like the boot was at the heart of my problems.
If you haven’t had the misfortune of having a serious injury as an adult, then let me pull back the curtain and state the obvious: it is awful. As an – until then – able-bodied man in his 20s, it had a huge impact on everything, from the smallest tasks to my greater sense of self and independence.
What would normally be a simple thing to do, like walking to the end of my road or going to meet my friends, became a herculean task involving painkillers, crutches, taxis, and a lot of time. It’s given me a new sense of solidarity and empathy, for anyone who is going through the same, or has a similar experience permanently.
Throughout June and July, the two peak summer months, the fact I couldn’t cycle was a constant source of frustration. My bike sat there in the corner of my living room, taunting me with the fact I couldn’t use it, gathering dust, its tyres slowly deflating. My friends went on bike rides, some fantastic adventures while others enjoyed short spins or trips to places. I felt as deflated as my tyres.
It didn’t help that I had felt almost as fit as ever before the injury came, and then had to sit and lose all that hard-earned progress. I even went to Copenhagen, that paradise for two-wheeled living, and had to make do with hopping around.
Thankfully, my ordeal has now come to an end. It didn’t happen suddenly, but gradually. First I found myself able to walk again, and then, last week, able to cycle. I started small, on my ‘pub bike’, (a single-speed I need to show more love to) and I simply cycled to the pub and back again, but it was something. In fact, given it was 4km long, some assumed on Strava that I’d returned to running.
That first time I pedalled, starting making revolutions – reasonably pain-free – I cried. This wasn’t just a return of something that is a big part of me, but a return for my independence, my ability to get around.
This wasn’t cycling for fitness, necessarily; this was cycling for freedom, something we easily forget when we reduce the activity to its professional peak or go on our club rides at the weekend. It’s something that is important for me but also is across the world for a host of different people, from those who rely on their bike to get to work, to school, or just to the pub. Having access to two-wheeled life again was revolutionary. The bicycle is an emancipatory machine, a low-cost and low-carbon option for travel. It was here before the car, and it will be here afterwards – it is the future.
This might all sound very grand, but this is what I’ve missed about cycling. Zooming around, getting places quickly, all under your own steam. Of course, I have also missed the ability to go on longer adventures, to explore, and to get up hills quickly, but that will come in time. I went on my first clipped-in ride since my accident last week; it was just 40 minutes and 15km long, but I am making a comeback. Soon, I’ll be toasting having the wind in my hair and moaning about bugs flying into my face, all while having the most fun I can have: going on a big bike ride.
Cycling is the best, and we shouldn’t take it for granted. That’s what I have learned over my injury and recovery, and a new found respect and sympathy for those without the fortune to have life on two wheels. Let’s keep spreading the message, and get everyone on bikes.
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