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OPINION
Isolated Incidents #7 Feeling Empty
Sat, Apr 25, 2020 13:14
2
Isolated Empty RoadRiding along in the warm spring sunshine, happily enjoying the clean fresh air, abundant birdsong and blissfully empty quiet roads. This is what riding a bike is all about.
Then the black cloud punched stomach sickening realisation that this bliss has taken hundreds of thousands of deaths, the collapse of the global economy, the lockdown of society as we know it, a tsunami of changes to our lives that we are still not fully aware of, that we may never truly recover from and a return to a normal that is going to be very different.
Still, riding along in the warm spring sunshine, happily enjoying the clean fresh air, abundant birdsong and quiet empty roads. This is what riding a bike is all about. For a moment of calm.
Jo Burt has spent the majority of his life riding bikes, drawing bikes and writing about bikes. When he's not scribbling pictures for the whole gamut of cycling media he writes words about them for road.cc and when he's not doing either of those he's pedaling. Then in whatever spare minutes there are in between he's agonizing over getting his socks, cycling cap and bar-tape to coordinate just so. And is quietly disappointed that yours don't He rides and races road bikes a bit, cyclo-cross bikes a lot and mountainbikes a fair bit too. Would rather be up a mountain.
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2 comments
I'm starting to feel guilty. My life has probably changed for the better:
1. Worked from home for years so lockdown is no different
2. I'm an introvert, not big on crowds
3. My job is in an area with high demand (reducing costs for large businesses)
4. Early morning cycling is awesome
5. I'm getting to spend more time with my son than ever, and at a critical age
6. No school run means no cheeky snacks
7. No in-person business meetings means no coffees, no nights away on the lash, no eating junk food.
8. I still get to go out and exercise, do something I genuinely love, and get a massive mental and physical health boost
9. Cycling hasn't been this good for years. Miles and miles without drivers trying to kill me
And yet the world has changed forever, and our lives will never be the same again.
It's the power of cycling that enables me to completely switch off, I'm so very lucky.
Right up until you get close passed by some yob in a Golf GTI doing 90MPH!