Small steps

I was one year old when Geoff was offered a professional contract to ride in Holland. This is an astounding idea to me. We're talking about the paths our lives have followed and the choices we've made.

"Do you have any regrets?" "Naw, well maybe not coming to France to ride professionally or taking that pro contract in Holland." "What year was that?" A pause

"1965."

After my initial thought, my second; I have almost 20 years of good riding left in me. This is what occurs to me when I check the results every year after the Birkebeiner ski marathon. My first year completing it, I was proud of my 4:20 time. Until my brother called to congratulate me with "Nice job, Chris. But I see an 80 year old guy from Houghton beat you by 10 minutes."

Getting fit seems to be a game of great gains at first, highly motivating to be able to ride faster and faster, farther and farther. But soon, the gains are more incremental until they are so slight as to be imperceptable. The cruelest reality is how quickly the body 'detrains' if there is some kind of layoff. What I've learned and Geoff seems to underline by example is how much fitness can be kept over time if training is regular and continuous.

He says that racing for a young courer is 90 percent physical and 10 percent mental. But as the physical strength subsides with age, racing becomes 40 percent mental. Races are still won, but on wit not brawn. His roomful of cups and medals is a testament to this.

We ride on, talking, dodging traffic, dogs and other cyclists. No one passes us and that's not an accident.

2:09, 41.5, 1500ft