Gleefully hypocritical!

I was just thinking back to when I started cycling again. I don't mean a few weeks ago, after sitting on my arse and getting fatter during the winter. No, I mean in general again. Like a lot of us, I used to cycle as a means of transport when I was a child, learned to drive, stopped cycling and didn't go near or even think of a bicycle for many years. About four or five years ago, I decided (And I still can't think why) I wanted to buy a bicycle for myself. With that in mind, I went along to the nearest large sporting goods type chain store and bought the cheapest adult bicycle they sold. Needless to say, that bicycle is now no longer in use and would be completely inappropriate for my purposes but it is what got me onto the saddle again and showed me how enjoyable cycling could be.

Anyway, as ever, I'm wittering off the main subject. The reason (If you could call it such) for this post is that recently I've been thinking about how much of a hypocrite I've been since I started cycling. One of the first things I remember thinking when I started my recent foray into recreational cycling was 'Pffft! I'll not be wearing any of that lycra'. For starters, thinking 'pffft' is foolish enough in itself but even more silly is not wishing to wear something which would be more comfortable and save my knackers from too much of a jiggling. Needless to say, I had the world's cheapest pair of paper thin lycra shorts a mere few months later. Mind you, I was enough of an idiot to unstitch and remove the chamois because I thought it 'looked silly'. A bright red arse, bruised bollocks and a rash down one's gusset is obviously a thousand times more attractive than a slight bit of padding in one's shorts.

If you've read this far, you may wonder why this came into my head lately. Actually, you probably haven't been wondering that at all but thanks for reading this far. It shows great patience and possibly a little hint of self-abuse. My recent hypocrisy has been twofold. Well, one was a few months ago when I bought team kit to wear. It's something I thought I wouldn't do as I only cycle recreationally and didn't feel I was in a position to wear team kit. However, the vast majority of competitive cyclists who wear team kit probably aren't in CSC, Liquigas etc. themselves and I do enjoy cycling as a sport to watch on TV and be amazed by. The lat bastion of stubbornness was truly crushed only a matter of days ago when I began wearing those, slightly silly but very comfortable, useful and kind of cute in a goofy way, little cycle caps. They're something I had snidely scoffed at in the past. After all, I do know best and all that, don't I? What do you know? It turns out that's not the case and people wear certain cycling clothing for practical purposes and not so much for the aesthetics.

In summary, I've been a hypocritical oaf and am glad I'm no longer the snide sneerer I once was. Long live the slightly silly looking cycle cap. Let the fools laugh all they want as the peak protects me from a diet of greenfly.