Why Cycling?

I am an avid cycling fan who used to race bikes all over the globe in my earlier years, and I am now trying to become more dedicated to my present cycling endeavors. Many of my friends and co-workers wonder how I got hooked on cycling, so I decided to start my blog with precisely that story. My father is a French professor at IUPUI and one of the perks of his job when I was a kid was to take students to Europe for study abroad programs. In 1986 we spent the summer in Dijon, France at the University de Bourgonge. I was 10 years old and back home in the states I enjoyed playing baseball, backyard football, and shooting hoops as most 10 year olds in Indiana did at that time. However in Dijon I quickly noticed that there were no baseball fields, no basketball goals at the parks, and none of the sporting goods stores had an American football. I quickly made friends with the English speaking children of other teachers and professors that were also there on study abroad programs. First I met Sean who was 13 years old and from Ireland. Lamberto was from Milano, Italy and he was 12 years old. Claudia was also 12 years old and she was from Dijon. Ryan and Julia rounded out our group they were 10 year old twins from Quebec, Canada and they spoke both English and french fluently. The six of us spent the entire summer together some times with Nadine (Claudia's younger sister) and Dan ( my younger brother) in tow, exploring Dijon and kicking a football (which means soccer) around campus.
Then came July, Sean came us to with a cycling magazine that previewed the Tour de France. Sean began telling all of us that his fellow Irishman Sean Kelly was going to win the Tour that year. Lamberto chimed in with how Sean Kelly did not stand a chance because his fellow countryman Maurizio Fondriest was surly going to win. Of course Claudia had to step up and tell us all about the great Bernard Hinault, the Frenchman who had won the Tour de France five times including last years race. I really did not have any indication of what was the Tour de France, I had heard of it and I knew that raced bicycles but that was about it. Sean thumbed through his magazine and found a page with all the riders and what team they rode for and what country they were from. I spoke up and asked if there was any from America, everybody laughed a little and Sean told me that there was at least one. Greg Lemond was an American who had almost won last years Tour de France. Sean flipped a couple of pages to a picture of a "blonde headed Californian phenom Greg Lemond" as the caption below the picture read. Well I guess I had found my dog in the fight. On that same page found Canadian cyclist Steve Bauer which made Ryan and Julia happy, we all finally had a rooting interest in the Tour.
We would get the newspaper everyday and scan the pages to find out how our respective riders were doing in the race. Everyday was like a lesson in cycling and the Tour de France. I learned what a time trial was, how important mountain stages were, race and team tactics and so on. It was fascinating, after a very exciting July that culminated with Tour de France victory for American Greg Lemond, it was safe to say I was hooked.