'Cycling' is Unimportant. Riding a Bike is.

I read Lance Armstrong’s book, It’s Not About The Bike, wore one of those yellow bracelets for a time, and laughed hysterically at his cameo in the 2004 film Dodgeball.  But when it comes to admiring Armstrong for his feats of strength on two-wheeled machines I’ve come to love—I never felt it.

This week he was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories. The president of the International Cycling Union, Pat McQuaid, told a room full of reporters that cycling “has a future” and another quote said cycling had faced its “greatest crisis” in dealing with this issue.

I know McQuaid was probably referring to professional cycling exclusively in the comments, but the hyperbole from all of these articles seems like a bit much, especially since ‘cycling’ often gets confused with ‘riding a bike.’ One headline on CNN's web site even had the eye-rolling headline, 'A Hero Falls to Earth' - and they weren't talking about Felix Baumgartner.

From time to time, a friend or acquaintance will ask me about something going on in professional cycling. I usually reply with an “I have no idea.” The cycling I do—fixing up old bikes, traveling with bikes, riding bikes to work/the grocery store/completely aimlessly—has nothing with the cycling Lance Armstrong did. I’m more worried about funding for bike lanes, the obesity rate among young people in this country and people who text while driving to even think about people who are paid to ride on bikes—worth more than the Blue Book value of my car—as fast as their muscles (and/or performance enhancing drugs) will allow.

Though I’ve never idolized Armstrong or others like him, I do have several heroes in the cycling world. My dad is at the top of the list for teaching me how to ride a bike and letting go of the seat at the exact moment when I was done with those ridiculous training wheels. When, at 12 or 13, I wanted to convert an old, banana-seat Schwinn Stingray into a bike that would float on water, he loaned me the tools (he also loaned the tools again when the first version, created by suspending the paddle-wheel equipped bicycle between two foam pontoons, broke apart and sank).

My other cycling heroes today include parents who teach their kids to ride—and make an effort to ride together.  The guys at Domus who are learning to fix bikes as part of the Trafigura Work & Learn Business Center—and the people who donate gently broken/unused bikes and bike tools to them. The huge guy I once saw on a bike path in Cleveland pedaling a single-speed beach cruiser with a lot of difficulty but even more determination.  Heroes also include anyone who stops to help a fellow cyclist with a flat tire they don’t know what to do with. If you keep your eyes open, it's easy to find a hero-or even be a hero-in the real, untelevised, unsponsored and acronym-free cycling world.

Lance Armstrong may have “fallen” but cycling sure hasn’t. Thanks for reading and thanks for riding.

Mike Norris is the founding editor of DIYBIKING.COM, a site dedicated to casual cycling, random builds, and bike travel. He lives and works in Stamford and owns one 3,300 lb. SUV and 10 and 1/5 bicycles. He can be reached at connecticutmike@gmail.com