What really happens when you #STOPPEDALING

Intro

This intro is not about pedaling. This article is about the moments between races and trainings, when you actually #stoppedaling. This article is about the necessary, but healthy disruptions, friendship and life.

Cycling always meant for us more than just a means of transport. It’s our way of life. We train, we ride, we race. We get on that saddle and we are hooked for hours. And then we do it all over again, on and on.

During our last LookBook shooting, in Catania, Sicily, something happen. As we were having a break, in a small, chic, local cafe, I found myself thinking “Wow, I really needed this break from all. It helps me find my way back to my inner balance, from the fast-paced rhythm and adrenaline infused days of racing.”

We were all sitting around the table, joking about the food in front of us and watching each other’s reaction as we were tasting it, one by one. We were suddenly paying attention to small things, we were listening to each other’s little incidents from the shooting and we were all anchored in the moment. Wow, ain’t that something? Just look at us!

That’s when it hit me. We need this. We need rest and time for ourselves as much as we need the racing and riding and the adrenaline. We need to #stoppedaling.

“Rest isn’t the absence of training, it’s an important component of it,” says Andy Wadsworth, director of My Life Personal Training and an elite cycling trainer. There won’t be a cycling life without time spend with family and friends and the time for resting.

#StopPedaling should be also a way of life or a part of our cycling life. It’s a necessary step for rest. Mental and physical. All the refuelling it’s done in between trainings.

I know, it’s always easy for us to get carried away. We push ourselves close to the edge in every training, more and more every day. We sometimes forget to take the necessary breaks and rest, overlooking the fact that we need to give ourselves the opportunity to discover other little joys of life.

But no more. I will #stoppedaling. I will take a moment to look across the horizontal line, to take it all in, to laugh witj my friends and to get to know the culture and the people from all the places I will go through. After all, this are the moment that create our #cyclingmemories.