Who gives up..?
A certain cyclist started in a high-ranking race. His club mates with him.
It was terribly cold. Spring. 2-3 degrees above zero, practically from start to finish it rained! About 3 hours of racing.
A large peloton, over a hundred competitors.
No contact with the leaders. Fighting not to freeze!
A strong competitor, in top shape. Trained all winter by the best coaches in the country. Top quality care in the school of sports mastery.
And he gives up!
I can't do it anymore. He says to his club mate.
Are we staying?
Okay.
And they stayed.
I think he talked this mate into it a little.
The mate was also fed up with it, of course, but maybe he would have ridden it to the end.
The competitor looks, the peloton is moving away. They're riding with a club mate. It's even warmer from this lonely ride.
And he throws it to his mate.
"Nooo. Get on the wheel. We'll catch up maybe”
(I mean, ride after me, we'll try to catch up and we'll see)
Unfortunately, my friend stayed, he couldn't keep up with the imposed pace (he later complained a lot).
And the rider was chasing the peloton by himself, for a few dozen kilometers. He had no idea where the peloton was, whether it made sense. He didn't see anyone in front of him.
He was chasing, that is, riding alone, all the time at about 40-45 km/h
He felt warm.
Great, steady, lonely ride.
He liked racing in the rain.
He caught up with the peloton a few kilometers to the finish line.
As fate would have it, a strange gap appeared on the left side along the entire length of the peloton.
Practically without changing his pace from the chase, he bypassed everyone and rode on alone.
About 2 km to the finish line he caught up with a escaping group of 4-5 cyclists, who were ahead of the peloton, and setting a fast pace he was left alone with one opponent.
He almost won, but his rival was stronger and overtook him just before the line :)
Such a story.
You can stay. Sometimes it's hard.
You have to catch up, catch up.
But as you can see, you don't necessarily have to give up.
You had to work hard, but that's what the rider needed.
In the peloton, it was simply too "easy" for him and he couldn't warm up.
From the most hopeless situation you could imagine, the race of this rider's life was born..
Who gives up..?
He's chasing!!!!