Essay: On the Missed Opportunity

Photo courtesy of Mike Maney Photography. Be sure to check out his work; he is a fellow cyclist in the Bucks County cycling community with multiple KOMs to his name.

(2020) There are roads cyclists can legally ride on, but choose not to out of an abundance of common sense. The adage, just because you can, doesn't mean you should apply to thousands of miles of roads that capture our imagination. They are roads that encourage us to daydream during some long road trip, the thought, “If only this road were closed for an afternoon…”

There is one road in particular, not far from the creakybottombracket.com office, that possesses the attributes of ‘can’ be ridden, but should not be. For years the road was dismissed for a host of reasons: it was quite the distance from the commencement, the road was choppy and hardly enjoyable, and it was/ is busy with traffic. It has next-to-no shoulder for a cyclist to safely navigate the roller coaster of a road. With blind corners it is hardly wise to risk it and ride anyway.

There have been ruminations to wake up early on a Sunday morning - or on any given holiday - and hammer the road’s distance. But it was the recent lockdown orders that caused us to stumble. The thought to hit our bedecked road - recently repaved mind-you - quietly slipped by at the same point in time when people were posting photos of empty highways and ghostly airports. We were sheltering from the pandemic with the rest of the country. We stayed indoors while the goal roadway likely remained untouched for minutes at a time. We could have toured the road with pleasure instead of racing it with anxiety. All the reasons the road was dismissed years ago were no longer applicable at the time. Yet we never thought to zip down its length just to say we could.

It is hoped the chance does not present itself ever again. Honestly, it is. If the country goes into lockdown again, that means things are not going well. If that’s the case, the hurdle that is the sought after road will remain unridden out of frustration. Despite cases rising and people working from home, road traffic intensifies daily. Soon the alarm will be set for some early holiday attempt, which translates into hitting the snooze button until the afternoon. That would be the time when we would commence complaining about not being able to ride the elusive road.

There are roads cyclists can legally ride that have a separate level of allure. Just because we are able doesn’t mean we can’t daydream to have the ribbon of asphalt to ourselves while focusing on the approaching tarmac instead of wondering how many cars are approaching from behind us. Even if we accomplish riding elusive roads, another one will take its place.