Today the tour of Britain passed my house. They did this 4 years ago exactly to the date and there is a sign on the wall of my little shed which was at the end of the road and ‘accidently’ ended up falling into my shed after the race
There’s another sign at the end of the road which hopefully will accidently fall in today.
I was thinking about these high-level professional cyclists that arrived (many from overseas) to Nottingham this morning to ride another stage in the Tour of Britain.
It’s notorious this race.
The road surfaces are the worst in Europe.
It’s in September and the weather is often awful (and it has been for this edition) and it’s at the very end of a long season for these guys and they are tired and desperate for their October break where they can have a month off their bikes living a normal life and pretending to have friends and family they see regularly.
Until then though, they’ll wake up this morning at 7o’clock and get up and eat the breakfast they’ve got to eat whether they want it or not with stiff, sore bodies which are unused to walking and only built for cycling.
They get transported to the race start and smile and say hello to the people who come who are excited to meet them (day after day after day), they sign autographs and feign excitement or interest or enthusiasm as they’re just about to ride on the equivalent of cobbled roads and pouring rain in the cold.
Most of them (actually almost all of them) won’t win anything and they get to the other end of the day desperate for a shower and a massage and to eat something and to climb into bed.
And then they get up tomorrow and do it again.
I think genuinely most of these guys love cycling but they don’t like it every day.
I think how you go about your business defines what you get out of how you go about your business and that is what it is to be a professional.
Up again, in the routine, give the best you can and then turn up tomorrow.
In between that try to find some head space to look at what’s longer and further ahead while always understanding that what we do today is the building block for what comes then.
Blog Post Number - 3197
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