I'LL PUT MY MONEY ON HARD

IF I HAD TO BET WHICH RIDE WOULD HAVE STAYING POWER, I'd put my money on the hard ride every time.

There are lots of nice, cosy, chitchat sorts of rides all over the place.  I've never seen one last.

It's the rides and races that make you see stars and huff-n-puff slobber all over your top tube that stick around for generations.

The granddaddy of OC is Como Street, a ride so old the street doesn't even exist anymore.  And the original riders... forget about it... they were WWII vets.  But, what they started roars every Sunday.  In another lifetime, me and a 100 other guys were "going long".  This was late 80's - black bibs and bright jerseys.  Local pros and visiting pros would show up and cut us down.

It was terrible.
And awful.
And we loved it...

... because it truly tested us.  Told us where we stood.  Pushed us beyond anything we thought was possible.  It was before HR monitors and Power meters.  You knew you were going hard as hell because all you could hear was you... blowing up.

So, when I posted this "If you are looking for an easy ride tomorrow, this isn't it" I knew I'd get takers.

For some of us,
only legendary rides
will help us comprehend
the legend inside.