Synapse Articles & Blogs

Tomorrow is Easter, which means to many cycling fans it’s time for Belgium's biggest, and one of the hardest, pro bike races: the Tour of Flanders, or as the locals call it, the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

I once read somewhere, that the most amazing feature of the bike is that, like the very greatest teacher, it encourages you to find the answers from somewhere deep down inside yourself and not merely take them from someone else. I have also found this to be true as an educator working with students. And as many students know, and any successful bike racer understands viscerally, often finding the right answer takes a massive effort. It’s almost always anything but easy. 

Cyclists understand this process as “learning how to suffer.” This phrase refers to a person’s behavioral, emotional, and cognitive responses to discomfort and stress. Like or not, endurance sports are in essence about discomfort and stress. Therefore, they are largely about “learning how to suffer.”