The 'Circle of Life'

Lately, I have started to realize that in my sport of cycling, I have finally come around. The funny thing about it is that you don’t realize these things until you are there, aka, when you reach a certain age.

When I started out I was an impetuous young buck, I was being always called out as for reckless riding and not doing any work.  On long rides, the more experienced riders would wait for me when I get dropped or fix my flat tire. Then somewhere along, I became the person who waited for the new guys and the older guys. And me and my contemporaries always thought that we were the best, and just thinking that thought made me want to cast the devil out of me at that time!

And then yesterday, it happened.

I haven’t been doing local races for a while although I ride for about 90 minutes 6 days a week. When I go out for a long ride on Sundays, I always rode alone. I love to start my ride when the stars are still out while most of my buds start their rides when Mr. Sunshine is out.

Yesterday, I got out later than usual. It was my first long ride in three weeks so I told myself to take it easy. My plan was to go to Mantalongon, Carcar for I wanted a long but easy ride. But I came upon team Quatro Hotel led by Bogart dela Rosa. I also noticed my teammate at Skylogistics, James Kho, one of the strongest rider in the team. I have rode and raced with Bogart but I have never rode with James.

Team QH’s route was Cebu-Toledo-Aloguinsan-Carcar-Cebu and just the thought of riding that route made me bonk! Team QH was made up of young riders so I quickly made up my mind to ride with them and test how I would fare with the young riders. I started to pick up the pace in Minglanilla but was then overtaken by James. The pace was so high, I wasn’t used to it anymore. I thought I was multitasking- looking at the traffic, looking at the riders in front of me, looking at the road- fortunately, my Garmin wasn’t working, so I couldn't look at the speed. I’m sure it was in the mid-40’s.

Turning right towards Uling didn’t slow down the pace. In fact, our group of about 12, was blown up. As Bogart came beside me, I asked him if this was the usual pace they would do on training rides. He said no and finally as we approached Balirong, it slowed down.

I finally was able to soak it up and then realized that I am now at the wrong side of my age. I was like them about 30 years ago. Rex Gonzales, the  one-armed rider who rode in one edition of the Marlboro Tour decades ago, who was also with us, was also complaining of the fast pace and how the young kids are stronger. I told him that you were this strong back then and now, its there turn. The proud lions call it as the “Circle of Life”.