On Friday, July 13, 2018 at 1:09:16 PM UTC-7, duane wrote:
On 13/07/2018 3:49 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, July 13, 2018 at 9:29:23 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-07-11 13:47, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/10/2018 5:04 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-07-09 12:48, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/9/2018 12:12 AM, Tim McNamara wrote:

European cities have some tendency to be more compact with shorter
rides
(1-2 km) for work and errands. American urban areas tend to be spread
out so that we can all have our half acre of lawn or more.

Where I live, a 2 km ride will get me to and from the library, our
dentist, the post office, the pharmacy and one convenience/beer store.
Hardware, groceries, restaurants, credit union or anything else is
further. I'm fine with that, but most Americans (probably like most
Europeans) will never ride 10 miles to get to and from their credit
union.


The Dutch and Belgians used to be different. 10mi, 20mi, big deal. But
can't say about today as this was 30 years ago.

Sorry, but if you mean that most Dutch and Belgians used to ride
something like 20 miles per day, I don't believe you.


Note that I didn't say "most of the population". Most of my friends,
yes. Or rather, nearly all of them. Most of the population I can't say,
of course.

Very popular was the "kroegen tocht" (pub run) by road bike, especially
among Belgians which is why I preferred to ride with them. 30-40mi with
here and there a beer. Dutch road bikers were often too competitive and
only concentrated on the sports aspects, many wouldn't ever consider
visiting a pub because that cost "valuable minutes".


Those Dutch guys should be stopping every five miles for a beer. What are they thinking?

And when we're talking about "the Dutch and Belgians," the assumption is that we're talking about a country average and not your cohort of pub-crawlers. I could say Oregonians ride hundreds of miles a week because that's what my friends do, but it hardly describes the state average.



Wait, I thought most people in northern California went to work on
single track fighting saber tooth er mountain lions, equipped with only
a largish rock and a roofing nail as tools but carrying multiple
growlers of the local plonk. Isn't that what they do "out there?"

I figured I was much too competitive to to be wasting "minutes" stopping
for a beer. We usually do that after the 100k or so...

The obvious premise is that "if you don't ride like me, you're a fanatical dope." I feel the same way now that I'm old and slow. When my son rides me off his wheel (every ride), I just say "oh, you only care about the sports aspects . . . I'm enjoying the scenery. Look, a flower!" The funny thing is that being super fit, he sees far more flowers than I do. I mostly see his rear wheel fading into the distance -- and that dark place just before heart failure.

How is it that someone can get a two minute gap in about ten seconds? It's bizarre. I'm going out with the old guys this weekend. It will make me feel better about life. With them, "talking pace" means actually talking and not gasping for air.

-- Jay Beattie.