What?!?! I’m back! Did you miss me? What happened?
Well, it’s a long(ish) story! Let’s rewind twelve months. Last year in January and February I was having an incredible time on the bike. I was at a peak all-time cycling fitness, crushing personal bests up all my local climbs, having a blast at the Tour Down Under, generally riding at the top of my game. Then one day in early March I finished a ride, looked back at my bike, and then didn’t touch it for months.
I think perhaps I burnt out. I still don’t know. From March onwards there was simply no part of me that wanted to ride my bike. It was probably a combination of training hard with a single focus, what went on around the FulGaz sell-off and my work situation, and other life events. No part of me wanted to ride or have anything to do with riding.
For around four months I rarely touched the bike. I just couldn’t face it. I could feel my cycling fitness fading from the legs and lungs, but I had zero motivation or even any care to chase it.
That’s not to say I did nothing. I started going to the (home) gym and got into a routine of strength training. I walked a lot more. Spent more time with the wife. I started heading out with the motorcycle club more often. Other interests kept me occupied. My life and my “identity” was no longer built around being a cyclist. And you know what? It felt pretty good.
Sometime around August or September – after winter subsided – I started to ride again. Not for fitness and not for any goal or target, simply to try and find the love. I spent a lot of time riding the gravel bike on my own away from traffic and away from the world.
Bit by bit, day by day, I started to rediscover the joy that brought me to cycling in the first place. I wasn’t chasing numbers, I wasn’t trying to hit power targets in a training plan, I was simply out there enjoying the fresh air and building myself up again, one pedal stroke at a time. It wasn’t easy and it took a lot of forcing myself out the door at times, but I kept at it through the last few months of 2025.
Slowly, the love started to return… (TO BE CONTINUED)
Two Wheels with TC 
Welcome back.
I can relate to this. Covid shutdowns were the inflection point for me.
Pre-Covid my rides were all about accumulating kilometres. at least 12,000 kms annually.
Today my cycling is more relaxed. I ride for the physical and social stimulation. And the café stops 😆
One thing I have noticed is that the older I get, the faster I remember I used to be 😂
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Thanks! I’m definitely trying to focus more on the enjoyment of the ride, and less on how fat and slow I am now… 🤣
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I very much doubt that you are fat *or* slow nevermind both 🤣
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Good to see you back. I’ve had many spells off the bike. I regularly used to race a season then take the next one off. Just lost the love but it always came back. I’m always thinking of giving racing one last shot but deep down I know I’m done with it. Keep pedalling!
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I don’t have the inclination to race this year (or at least, I don’t have the inclination to put in the training to be fit enough to justify it). Maybe next year, who knows! Right now I need to ensure I enjoy my time on the bike and keep it sustainable. Hope all is well for you over your side of the world. 🙂
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I wondered where you’d been. Glad to hear you rediscovered BFUs (Big Fun Units – impossible to measure, can’t be compared to anyone else’s, essential if you want to keep riding when you’re as old as I am). Time to wake up and smell the coffee, the eucalyptus, the lilacs, the pines, the cow manure, or whatever there is to smell where you ride.
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Thanks. Yeah I’m definitely making a point of hitting those BFU numbers right now! 😁
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I can SO relate to this!
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I can relate to this having taken a full year off the bike. For me it was social, easy paced group cycling that brought me back. I definitely came back with a different attitude but just over a year later I’m getting the urge to push myself again. Good to see you getting the love back again 🙂
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I took the middle years of my life off the bicycle, thanks to work, commuting and work travel. And lack of motivation to make the time. Then while working a program a small group of guys I worked with organized a mountain bike day out. I had about a two month notice for the big day so go to work riding after work and on the weekends when I wasn’t at work. That was a beginning of coming back and learning how and where I could find the time. Long days at work and a long commute never left a lot of time. But, bit by bit I found time here and there, explored more of my world. Along the way a friend got a little interested so I loaned him a bike one day for a few hours of riding around. We then spent all our free time emailing back and forth about bicycles with me brain dumping my experience and we both discovering shops around we never knew existed. More and more cycling happened. Once we had a three week motorcycle vacation planned that went sideways when his battery broke a post off in the middle of nowhere on the first day and then during the rescue the transmission puked its lubricant. That ended up being a week or so with a dealer while they sorted warranty and causes and fixes. We rode our bicycles every day and contemplated skipping the motorcycle ride once his bike was healed and just continue riding the bicycles.
We did a shortened motorcycle ride, and came home wanting to go ride our bicycles.
That first step was all it took.
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