The Long Way Home The Cycling Independent

Back in the mid-2000s I suffered the deepest bout of depression I’d ever experienced. To say I was despondent is like saying King Kong is a big ape. I was too broke to afford counseling and in my state, I was struggling to connect with anyone. What got me through was my bike. Once I found myself on the other side, I realized that what really kept me engaged and feeling wonder were the canyon roads in the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu. Dropping down those roads did something for me, something significant enough to make me start asking questions. That began the quest that ultimately led me to a book called West of Jesus in which I learned about the neuroscience of flow states.



It was Steven Kotler’s West of Jesus, a book ostensibly about surfing, that gave me an education in neuroscience and unlocked the mystery of a drive within me that I’d identified, but couldn’t name. I saw how it applied to cycling and in June of 2016 published a feature in Bicycling Magazine that broke down flow for cyclists and also explained why group rides go too hard to be recovery, but not hard enough to make riders stronger.

For this episode John Lewis reads three pieces about the intersection between endurance sports and enduring life's harder moments.

This week’s episode features my cover story from Peloton Magazine’s second issue, titled The Annus Mirabilis, the Greatest Season Ever. Digging into Merckx’s record was pure entertainment and writing the feature was as much fun as I’ve had writing any article I’ve published. In addition to Wikipedia, I scoured Rik Vanwalleghem’s biography, as well as Bill McGann’s Story of the Tour de France. 

I never took up cycling to learn anything. I started riding bikes because it was fun. That was enough. But I began to see that as I learned more about the sport, it became more enjoyable. So I started learning. There came a point when cycling began to teach me about me. But I was surprised when I found that sunny, 75-degree days ceased to hold any lessons. I soon realized all the best, deepest lessons came from the hardest days.



I wrote this in 2017 as my marriage was unraveling. I knew we were in danger; I didn’t know we were in the death throes. I can say that this day was significant for me in that it showed me how hard I’ll work for something I want. It helped me survive the isolation I felt in my own home. There are times that I’m still mystified that something so hard, something that can take so much out of me can buoy me through my most desperate times. We writers write to say something true about the world; sometimes those truths show most clearly in our own doubt—Padraig.

In this week's episode we have a feature of Patrick's that ran at Peloton Magazine, New England Genesis. It concerns how a kid from New Jersey got turned down for a job in a bike shop and how his disappointment resulted in him learning how to build frames in England and how the company he worked for when he returned helped to spawn many of the best-respected names in frame building in the Northeast. That kid from New Jersey? None other than Richard Sachs. Patrick says he worked on this feature for more than 10 years, chasing the many threads and interviewing the many personalities included.

In this episode John Lewis leads with a piece called By Accident. It's about being hit by a car and all that comes after it. Anyone who has tangled with a car will be able to relate.