It was late in the ride, the section that follows the last sprint when the ride slows down enough that you can once again have a conversation. My friend Mo turned to me and asked, “Patrick, you’re fit, you’re smart, you’re good looking and you’re gainfully employed. Why are you single?
This was a Sunday morning about 10 am, in the winter of 1998. Both those details matter. The year matters because this was shortly after I’d moved to Redondo Beach, following my first divorce. (Yeah.) That it was Sunday morning matters because it bears on my response:
“Because my entire social life is over by 10 am.”
It’s true. I didn’t go to bars. I went to bed early so that I could join early group ride. Two of them started at 6:30 am. So, my whole social life revolved around group rides. I rode six days a week and I was on the bike by 7:30 am at the latest.
But you know what? I was fine with it. I was with the people who understood me best. Where else is there to be than with your tribe?
It’s fair to ask the question, though, whether a sport is really a reasonable starting point for building a community. Wouldn’t a church or other civic organization make for a better environment? While I believe great outcomes can occur with either of those, I can attest there were people in my Catholic Church who I wouldn’t have done business with. Which brings me to my proof for why cycling is, indeed, a great source for community:
The trust I had to place in the riders I traded pulls with in pacelines was enormous. We took each other’s lives in our hands. Even so, there are some wheels you come to trust more than others. It was out of my riding community that the rest of my social and business circle grew. I met my partner through cycling, duh. My graphic designer, my printers for Why We Ride, every illustrator I’ve ever worked with, all came directly through my riding connections. That’s been my story for the better part of 30 years. Cycling is the fabric that forms my community.
Mo had wanted to fix me up with another prosecutor in his office, he said, precisely because he trusted me.