Very boring cycling things

Whilst I’m always inspired by what people do, create and experience in the cycling world, there are a number of things, seven specifically, that are really boring in my view. I know that what is boring for one person can be very interesting to another, but still, there’s some stuff that I reckon either have been, or are, globally boring in the cycling world.

Boredom is a universal thing for all human beings, and everybody can relate to the subject. It’s not a very positive thing to write or talk about, but sometimes, boredom leads to amazing things because it’s got people thinking or behaving positively differently. We need novelty to break us out of boredom. We also need information or experiences that will ensure that we are paying attention to drive away any chance of boredom. Even people that are the most passionate about their interest, job or hobby can get bored with it at some point until something re-lights their fires. This is also true for us cyclists as we get bored with some of the cycling stuff that kicks around, so brace yourself for my top 7 most boring cycling things………

Posting your Strava rides on social media. FFS! Nobody cares about anybody else’s Strava times unless they are uber-competitive, which are people who fit into the ‘all I can ever do is winning’ category, and the most competitive types follow each other anyway. For everyone else, keep it in your phone. It’s really not interesting, and it’s very boring!
The debate and ludicrous UCI directive that pro-cyclist’s socks should be a certain length. Really? Has the UCI not got enough to do without setting up ‘official sock scrutineers’ at every race? Not only do I think it’s a boring rule, but everybody in the cycling world banged on about it for months. Boring!
High performing flap-jack recipes. Totally boring! Firstly, everyone likes a certain type of flap-jack, so following the latest, high performing Vegan recipe isn’t going to re-invent the flap-jack wheel for you, or the rest of the cycling world. Secondly, over-packaged and marketed varieties don’t taste natural, even if it does say ‘organic, free from, non-GMO, no artificial flavourings etc etc’. Don’t accept any flap-jack with an Olympic performance claim with it either. Everyone knows that the bestest base for flap-jacks includes; good oats, real butter, Demerara sugar and Golden Syrup. On top of this, you have the freedom to be yourself and chuck in whatever else you have in the cupboard, or fancy.
The 27.5 inch MTB wheel size versus the 29er, or even mixing the two in Mullet fashion. It really doesn’t matter, just get back on a good old 26 inch wheeled MTB and you’ll see why both are much better, and it’ll save magazine space for something more interesting. It’s very boring!
The on-going discussions about aero-dynamics and the opportunity to spend a shit-load of cash on something light and aero. Distinctively boring!
Very amateur GoPro cycling videos. Absolutely boring! Most watchers have the attention span of a gnat whilst flicking through social media stuff, so overly-long, shaky picture, no story-line, monotonous commentary, a soundtrack that will make your ears bleed types of videos are headed for boring city central.
There is no number 7, because it was too boring even to type out!
Professional road racing is very boring because the stages are so long! Fact! This is because top legend, Peter Sagan said it’s boring in a Spanish media interview, so it must be boring.

As this is my post and my site, I’m going to turn cycling hypocrite and show you the Strava picture below, now known as the ‘re-think route’. I know what I said a few paragraphs above about Strava images, but this is poignant and relevant, and not boring. Trust me please.

Thinking differently gets rid of boredom, and cycling is one of the few things that helps move my head to a new space. After 10 weeks of working from home, or affectionately now known as WFH, my lunch hour normally spent with colleagues etc, suddenly became bike ride space and is a proven Skype-meeting-boredom-breaker. I’ve had some really great ideas in my cycling-lunch-hour.

I’m lucky in that I can leave the house and do just over 17kms in under an hour on very hilly single track. I do it in different directions and add in some cross routes as well. This means that the image below has become very special in what it represents, which is fresh air, sunshine, rain, different views and different thoughts. It is truly energising and NOT boring. I would never put this image on social media though, because that would be very boring wouldn’t it.