Great cycling adventures are not just for the beaters 

On the fear of dangling at the back of the pack.

Text: Ruth Koops van 't Jagt.

Tenerife Bike Festival 

This story begins with a message from Sander: whether I will go to the Tenerife Bike Festival wants. A wonderful programme awaits anyone with a cycling heart. Topped off with the Vuelta al Teide. Ever since I bought an old RIH with tube commands via Marktplaats for 20 euros when I was 20, cycling has been my great love. For me, cycling is adventure, quiet time and inspiration. Cycling pretty much saved my life during mentally difficult periods. So I knew right away: this is what I desperately want. YES, I WANT! But then I had to specify whether I wanted to cycle the whole (175 km, over 4400 hm) or the half (95 km, 2000 hm) Vuelta al Teide on the last day. And then that little voice started to stir.

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Not wanting to be the slowest

Now I am definitely not a couch potato. I am currently training for a Cross-Triathlon (1km swim, 35km mtb and 10km trail run), have an excellent VO2max and feel fit and strong. Still. When you start competing in bigger sporting events where the distances get longer and the intensity higher, something special happens. Even if you are quite fit and have trained seriously. Call it a kind of natural selection: the people who participate in these kinds of events are often blessed with a big tank of talent. And with me, that big bucket is more like a modest bucket. That meant, for example, that when I took part in the Hondsrug Classic (75km on MTB) a few years ago, I came in a group outside time. The finish arch was already torn down and we did not get a reminder. While we really were no cakewalkers. 

You cycle for yourself

So I have to say to myself regularly. 'Ruth, you cycle for yourself.' But that is sometimes quite difficult in a social environment where we beat each other up with ultra distances, megalomaniac averages, PRs and bowls. As if the value is mainly in speed. The performance relative to others. As if a ride is only worth something when you have beaten others, when you have gone really far or really fast. Or in my case: did not come last. After all, even Laurens Ten Dam's wonderful platform is called: Live Slow, Ride Fast. So when I had to indicate whether I wanted to cycle the half or the whole Vuelta al Teide, during the Tenerife Bike Festival, my inner critic climbed on the soapbox. 

'You're not going for the half, are you?' 

There stands the inner critic, looking pityingly at me from the soapbox, as I clicked half the distance in the entry field. 95 km and 2000 altimeters, it actually seems challenging enough. Besides, it will hopefully give me room to enjoy myself along the way. Looking around, consciously feeling the breeze along my bare arms and smelling the scents of the island. But the inner critic disagrees: she calls me a weakling. 'This way, you do choose the easy way, don't you?' Fortunately, this time I can silence her. And my trainer also confirms that this distance is the best fit. But she is vicious, that little voice. Because she just chooses a different strategy: 'You're probably one of the slowest suckers anyway. Just dangle in the back.' 

Great cycling adventures are not just for the beaters

So on this occasion I choose to climb on that soapbox to firmly contradict her: Great cycling adventures are not just for the beaters! What's more: if it doesn't all come easily to you, if you dangle somewhere in the back, you'll be on the bike longer and have given up longer than the first finishers. And more importantly, you'll have had longer to enjoy yourself. So let's make sure that the field of participants in greatest cycling adventures (with or without a race element) is wider and more diverse. That there is also room for the cyclists who might be among the last to enter. I hope I can make a small contribution to that. By going to the Tenerife Bike Festival as a not-so-talented cyclist, with all my heart, the half Vuelta al Teide cycling and so show: Great Cycling Adventures are for everyone. Not just for beaters.