Who’s the Newb?

I’m 50 and I live in Toronto, a city that has an uneasy relationship with bicycles.

Married, a parent, overeducated and comfortably employed.

I'm a dramatically ungifted athlete, but I love riding my bike.

Mostly I’m genetically lucky, because I’ve been able to maintain a modest level of fitness without really working too hard. (For the record, I'm 182 cm, +/-74 kilos / 5’11”, 165 lbs.)

The last few years I've been riding weekends with a few neighbourhood guys, and this year I decided it was time to kick it up a notch. So I've joined a local club, impulsively bought a racing license, and now I'm gonna learn to race.

Or as one of my riding buddies put it, I've gone over to the Dark Side.

That means starting with the oldest, slowest category available, which in Canada is Masters 3. Unfortunately, it's not that old (35+), and not that slow, judging by the winning (and losing) times in some of the races I'm thinking about entering.

I have no idea how this will work out; but I thought my experience might be useful to somebody else out there who might be thinking about doing something similarly goofy. God knows I have benefited endlessly from other people freely giving of their expertise & experience online.

Forza!