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The bike to pint moment

PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World

Published: July 23, 2018

This past weekend hammered home for me just how absolutely magical it is to indulge in a couple mugs of ice cold brew after that proverbial perfect summer day of cycling.

And though such an occasion is rare, its ingredients seem so simple: The ticking of mile after mile after mile as the concept of time subtly loses all relevance and significance, the cranking and climbing and gliding and pushing, the legs tenaciously ticking away, up and down and up and down like tireless pistons, the body and the bike functioning together in perfect harmony, the surrealistic streaming of sights and sounds, the feeling of the wind, the pungent earthiness of the woodlands wafting through the air, and the absolutely wonderful state of blissfulness I perceive while savoring a temperature perfect, cloudless summer day atop the skinny saddle of a bicycle. Yes indeed, every once in a while all those elements haphazardly coalesce to reward me with a remarkable day of cycling.

I look at rides like that as transcendental occasions, events worthy of celebrating life. And what better way to celebrate life on a hot summer day than to tip a frosty mug of ice-cold beer after a magnificent ride. Now what ensues after that is what I call a “bike-to-pint moment,” where with each mouthful of frosty brew I flash back through snippets of the day’s ride, relishing all the amazing chance occurrences I’d just had the privilege of experiencing.

Yup, in my rather peculiar, cyclo-centric world, a BTPM occurs at the end of a perfect day in the saddle, the kind of day you dream about and long for, the kind of day you conspire so desperately hard to create, yet you’re so rarely able to attain. It’s the culmination of so many good karma events melding together that when the day actually does materialize, you can only interpret it as sublime serendipity.

Over the years, the BTPM has become a benchmark of my having reached a state of cycling nirvana, and typically I’d garner four to five of them per summer season - that out of all the hundreds of rides I’d typically do within such a timespan.

Yet much to my chagrin, this was the first BTPM I’ve had this year.

You see my cycling miles have been bit thin in 2018, so chances of blindly stumbling onto a BTPM have become much less likely. And in all honesty, I hadn’t done a ride longer than like 50 miles in the past seven months, so I felt a bit dubious about just how well I was going to fare tackling an 80-miler.

What’s more, I ought to mention the fact that I chose to do this season’s longest ride on a fixed gear road bike…with cyclo-cross tires…on the towpath…all the way down to Zoar and New Philly where the trail more resembles a mountain bike track. So suffice to say I’d probably set the bar a smidge on the high side with respect to acquiring anything that vaguely resembled the magic I feel in a BTPM kind of ride. No, seemed more like I’d kind of set myself up on the opposite side of the table - in the realm of a SF (sufferfest) kind of ride.

But being the hardheaded chap that I am, I felt I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do a long Saturday ride on a day when the temp and forecast were supposed to be near perfect compared to the previous weeks worth of sweltering summer heat.

Well, much to my surprise that long ride gradually morphed into what could only be described as pure euphoria. And despite all those pre-ride signs that pointed towards calamity, I ended up snagging a rare BTPM.

Just goes to show what a crap shoot it is when you’re attempting to ride a bicycle all day long, so many expectations, so many extraneous elements, and so many variables. Yet every once in a blue moon, despite what you want, what you believe, how you feel, and what you’re presented with, everything melds together in near perfect symmetry. For me, that’s what makes a bike-to-pint moment so special.

So here I sit again, scanning the long-range weather forecast, rearranging my work schedule, searching for the perfect cycling route, planning for all the logistics…and dreaming of my second BTPM of the 2018 season.


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