The Wages Of Suffering

For a pro cyclist, pain comes with a certain amount of financial gain – but what about the rest of us? The Velominati’s Frank Strack has the answer

- Frank Strack

Dear Frank,

The Rules seem to suggest we should suffer on the bike because that’s what the pros do. Then I read an interview recently with a pro who said he doesn’t understand anyone wanting to suffer on a bike who wasn’t being paid to do it. I couldn’t help thinking he had a good point. Rob, Southampton

Dear Rob,

Atlas shrugged, and the skies fell. For an eternity he held up the heavens unwaveringly. But for this moment of weakness, they toppled irrevocably to the ground.

Without straining the metaphor too much, I’m talking about ‘will’. The will holds court over all other qualities of the human being. Strength, fitness, knowledge, insight: they are all subject to our desire to achieve them. When the mind is strong, the human body can achieve the unimaginable. When the mind is weak, we are like leaves in the breeze.