Biggest regret you have in cycling

For some of us, so does cycling!

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Haha yeah thatā€™s the downside of TR, missing out on sketchy training sessions like that.

Wish I hadnā€™t stopped in college. Was a nationally competitive junior racer prior, raced one year of collegiate but couldnā€™t get good grades and race at the same time, so I more or less stopped altogether. Was able to find the balance and start riding in grad school, but took a while to shed the pizza/beer weight and get racing again. Then another few years (and my wife having a baby) to find TR and really get fit. Itā€™d be interesting to see where I would be without essentially having to start over.

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Not staying in the sport for longer at a high level. In 2000 I was winning Pro1/2 races in CO, won the Tandem National TT Champs, and went top 10 in a few national level crits. I was 30 and felt that I wasnā€™t getting any faster and it was time to get a real job. The following year a whole bunch of division III teams sprung up and my peers got jobs in them.

Wish Iā€™d gone 1 or 2 more years.
-Hugh
my blog: ex-prosays.blogspot.com

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Wish I would have found D.B. Cooperā€™s knapsack earlier in life.

Cā€™est la vie!

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Not pursuing cycling as a kid even though my favorite thing to do was ride and my favorite gift as a kid was my bike. I was a talented runner, an untalented soccer player, and enjoyed basketball, but for a lot of reasons related to growing up in the Midwest US, cycling just wasnā€™t a thing.

Got a bike again at 27, started tris at 28, been training and riding and racing in some capacity for 14 years and wish it was twice that on the bike.

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I regret that I used to make fun of guys who wore spandex.

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Not joining a triathlon club. until I was practically 34. Lots of fun! Now Iā€™m about to finish my coaching training (just the assessment to go) and am the club secretary of one with more than 200 adult and 50 junior members.

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My first reaction to this was similar to others, ā€œI wish Iā€™d started earlierā€. But then I wonder if Iā€™d started earlier in life would I still have the enthusiasm for cycling that I do now?
I think having done the football thing (Aussie rules) and the party days as a student mean I have a better appreciation for how good it feels to be fit.

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You canā€¦and you will.

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Thatā€™s a good observation. Cycling as a serious pursuit has a short shelf life. Maybe a few years af improvement and some racing and folks bail once they plateau or just fall out of it.

But that means lots of killer deals on used bikes on eBayā€¦

Haha it always amazes me to see some of the $10k plus bikes for sale that have barely been touched.

I think one of the reasons I love cycling is not just the riding but the social aspect it provides and also the challenge of being disciplined. I think itā€™s easy to forget that waking up early and riding for 1-2hours before work, watching diet etc is considered completely insane in most circles yet in our bubble itā€™s just the done thing.

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Yup. Wish Iā€™d have found cycling in high school.

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Quitting 20 plus years ago then coming backā€¦

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My second biggest regret is buying a bike with a matte white finish (there were no alternative colours/finishes available for said bike). I think the only way to get it clean would be to strip it down, sand it to the bare carbon and repaint it :laughing:

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Acting like a tough man and refusing chamois cream :)))))))))))))))

Not being lean. I love pizza. Sometimes I eat it for breakfast.

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Choosing the wrong parents

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Two of them:

  • Not having spent at least a couple of years completely focused on the bike to try to become a pro when I was U23.
  • Stopping riding bicycles (not even for a casual ride) for 15 years after I stopped competing.

Conversely, I spent too much time trying to get on a domestic pro team when I was younger. I was a graduate student so I would ride all day, then do my research at night. Burning the candle on both ends for a few years made me stop racing for 4 years after graduation.

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