You've trained for months, put body and mind through the wringer, bunked off work commitments, shirked family duties and gone on to make the finish line of the big bike race that you'd been targeting for the previous 12 months. Then, a brief rush of euphoria, which might last a couple of days if you're one of the lucky ones, followed by a far longer period of feeling flat and despondent.
Your close family and friends can't understand why you're not on cloud nine after achieving this all-encompassing goal that has consumed your life for so long, but among cyclists it's a common, if seldom talked about, phenomenon.
"Whatever the distance of the race, if you have trained hard for it and felt it was important to you, then once it physically ends you might have a psychological hangover in the shape of post-race blues," says sports psychologist Dr Josephine Perry (performanceinmind.co.uk). But what, exactly, are these blues and what can we do to mitigate against feeling this dejection?
Bicycle blues
Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard lecturer in positive psychology, came up with the idea of 'arrival fallacy'. This, he says, is the idea that "once we make it, once we attain our goal or reach our destination, we will reach lasting happiness". For the few lucky ones, such as multiple Haute Route finisher Christopher Brekon, the achievement of finishing does indeed provide a lasting afterglow. "I do find that I can live off the memories and the thrill of the event for several weeks," he says.
This story is from the Summer 2023 edition of Cycling Plus UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Summer 2023 edition of Cycling Plus UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Objectives of desire
Ned ponders his affection for cycling on a ride from London to Minehead
ONE OF A KIND
Project One combines premium-quality customised bikes with an endless palette of colours and designs from the creative experts at Trek. It's a winning formula. Here's why...
Trek Checkpoint ALR 5 Driftless
£2,700 Aluminium bike-packing-friendly gravel bike
Gower Peninsula, Wales
A rider powers up the Cefn Bryn ridge on south Wales' Gower Peninsula.
Slow commotion
Downing Street targeting 20mph zones is attacking popular policy
Black Series Multistrada
£5,629 British designed, all-road speedster
Helmetcam militia
Hey, bad drivers! Want to be in the movies? Then smile as you close-pass us while on the phone
Rolling horizons
2018 Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas tells us about the joy of discovering new routes
ENTER THE DRAGON
It's one of the toughest sportives in the UK, but did climb-loving cycling author Simon Warren have the legs to slay the beast of a sportive route in 2023?
LOFTY GOALS
Higher, harder, longer... the road-sportive calendar gets ever more extreme. Here are 10 of the toughest single day rides to enter for 2024