I had to look it up. It seems to be part of the greater Dallas metropolitan area. I zoomed into the greater Dallas area then scrolled to the Netherlands. The Dallas metropolitan area is huge, like a third the size of the Netherlands from Amsterdam to the German border 
Same. Efficiency is primary driver. Lack of interest maybe inaccurate. Need to stay inside to get things done fast.
1 Like
I’m on the same boat, but I still love to ride. The training aspect has fallen off but funness has leveled up.
Long story short, I was laid off a few months ago and that really made me think about life. Thought of what was important and why I ride/ train in the first place.
I had plans to be at SBT this month, I lost any motivation to spend the money going out to Colorado for a week and all motivation to train. I’ve normally been someone who could train without any events.
Then suddenly I started going to Bmx tracks and pump tracks again which I did when I was younger. Realized how much fun it was (again) and really caught the bug.
I still ride my gravel bike 1-2 times a week, 2-3 hour rides to keep some aerobic endurance. I just lost the desire to train like I did for the past decade.
I also started lifting 2-3x a week, increasing weights and honestly feel the healthiest I’ve felt in a long time.
Who knows I might get back to training like I did before but right now I’m focused on overall well being and health.
Do whatever makes you happy at the moment is my only advice, life is too short.
5 Likes
I use the same back country training loops every time I go out as I refuse to add extra danger by using the busier regular roads.
Even then, always wearing bright gear and armed with my trusty radar I still have wicked moments with vehicles - usually tractors.
The wander lust of cycling left me long ago - all I want is to get a good workout in.
I would be indoors 100% of the time, following a plan or racing on Zwift but unfortunately for me I struggle with knee pains and hamstring troubles if I spend too much time on the trainer.
1 Like
Have been traveling (without a bike) and can’t wait to get home and get on the trainer……
1 Like
I’ve been saved so far as the new aeroad is out of stock until September!!
If it matters, I think the differences between 2025 and 2024 (or whatever the model years are called) are extremely ‘marginal’.
1 Like
I was so spoiled while living in a small town near the university I was at. The area to the north was agrarian, plenty of sod and beet farms, and everything was laid out in squares, and with nothing out there, very lightly traveled. I had two loops that I rode, and often saw less than a half dozen cars, but occasionally tractors and other farm toys.
After I left, a friend was clipped by a double gravel truck as someone found some rocks to dig up to make gravel, and there went the area, and now there are so many apartments out where I used to ride, I’m sure the traffic is through the roof. It’s sad to see a place that had so many memories be basically destroyed by creeping growth. Tragic. (That and gravel trucks)
I agree. If I was his girlfriend I would find the “get them an E-bike” comment very patronising. With a FTP of 180, she’s a good rider. Do a super hard workout the day before, then load up the bike with some panniers with a picnic ,and use a mtb or put gravel tyres on. Use it as a recovery day.
As for being bored with the routes around home, I agree and love my smart trainer. I’m lucky I live in a rural area and can get away from traffic, but it’s worth driving to a nice spot to explore some new areas.
I do that regularly, mostly off road routes.
But when it comes to “training” TR is best, and it’s very hard to replicate it on the road (and it is not that safe with traffic etc)
7 Likes
When I rode with my wife more I used to ride on my mountain bike with her on the road bike. I was still faster but with a couple mph difference vs 5+ mph difference was much better. At one point I even bought a fat bike just to ride with her. She did not care. Time together is better than no time.
At the end of the day we will always find reasons not to ride outside/inside or at all. Just need to push through and allow yourself these seasons.
1 Like
seems the new frame is actually heavier and the overall package weight drop is more due to going form 60mm to 50mm wheels. I like the adjustable bars and being able to add TT bars onto it as well. Easy way into doing some more TT without the hassle of having a TT bike.
I used to ride at park with a nice 7 mile paved loop. Completely flat and I could just turn my brain off and cruise. I think the most I ever did was maybe 8 loops
1 Like
As others have alluded to already, I feel quite relieved to read this thread and see it isn’t just me.
I don’t exclusively ride indoors but do 3-5 indoor sessions a week and 1 outdoors ride at the weekend when its possible, which is mostly but not always. I would say I enjoy the indoor rides as much as the outdoors ones, though in a different way.
One thing that’s become apparent to me is that I think I just enjoy the feeling I get after smashing myself via some form of exercise- and that feeling is pretty much the same whether its running, turbo sessions or outdoor cycling, so in some ways its all the same to me really. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate a good view and the sun on my face but see it more as a bonus rather than my primary motivation.
In any event, all turbo sessions in my mind are just credit rolled forward for whenever I next do an outdoor ride, so never wasted.
I’m sure that indoor rowing has been a sport in its own right for ages now so I don’t see why cycling would be any different.
I still do events but mostly either trail running races or duathlons so its rare that I would need to cycle more than 50miles for those. In any case I’ve found that if I want to ramp up mileage or endurance for long rides its really quite easy to just throw in a couple of steadily increasing long rides ahead of a big event/day out and it comes quite easily.
5 Likes
This year i had a close encounter with death during one of my workouts. A car overtaking another didn’t even bother to check the opposite side of the road or to brake when he saw me. All i could do was “accept fate”. There was no shoulder on the road and nothing i could do to avoid being hit. Car went past at about 70km/h and hit me with the side mirror on my arm. I literally saw my life flash before my eyes…
After that day i gave up on riding my road bike for my workouts. I only use it for indoor workouts and for when i take part in races…
With that being said, i don’t want to do all of my workouts indoors. I much prefer to ride outside, so what saved me was MTB.
Fortunately i have a “forest” with some hills (10 to 15mins climbing time on my MTB) 10mins away from my home.
So i can do pretty much all of my workouts there. (For longer intervals i either do them indoor, or i drive to a place where i can do 30 to 40’ intervals).
So MTB pretty much was the answer for me. I can still do my workouts outside without having to deal with the stupid drivers and traffic,etc…
If you have a MTB i highly recommend you try that and see if you “fall in love” with riding outside again. If you have the possibility to ride on proper MTB trails near your house ofc…
4 Likes
But even with a MTB, you can run into peril. I was on a trail clearly marked ‘NO HORSES’, and came around a corner nearly nose to nose with a horse. I was able to stop, and glad the horse didn’t freak out, and was too shocked to yell at the clueless rider, but that could have been bad. On another ride I nearly ran into a Dodge Powerwagon driven by another clueless human. I’ve also found wire stretched across trails, logs piled on well traveled trails, someone digging ditches across trails, and one trail that was loaded with stolen street signs. Others have reported trash (garbage) dumped on trails. It’s insane, absurd, stupid…
This kind of crap was epidemic just a few years ago, pre-pandemic. Cops caught a few of the perpetrators. One was an old man who was mad because he thought cyclists were ‘destroying the trails’. 
(I did hit a piece of barbed wire stretched across a trail on my dirt bike. I was on my way to work in high school, was on time, but had some scratches across my arms. The piece of fence wasn’t attached at one end, so made to rake across my arms. OMG!! I jumped off as quick as I could, and rolled up the wire, tossing it deep off the trail)
People that do this stuff should be jailed!
2 Likes
I guess the scenarios you described depend on where you live in the World…
The place i mentioned on my post doesn’t have horses and the trails i ride on have 0 cars because cars aren’t allowed on that part of the forest. It’s only for pedestrians or cyclists…
So it’s literally heaven for cyclists. Nothing to worry about when it comes to danger.
1 Like
My all time shouty moment happened 20 yard from my house. Clipped in , set off, down to the lights then mr pond life comes up behind me in his AMG beeps and hollers to me get off the road as I turn right. Shook me up a bit for the rest of the ride.
Mean people suck! Yeah, one encounter with a troll on the road can cloud the whole rest of the ride. I wish people could put aside their own anger and stupidity to envision what it would be like to be on a piece of carbon, or metal, wide open to the world, and be threatened by someone ensconced in a metal box. Car-bicycle accidents should be charged as attempted homicide and the driver should lose their license for life. The coddling of killer vehicle operators is heinous. I would say similar for car-motorcycle accidents too. Unless you can prove negligence on the part of the cyclist, you lose…
I went to Florida to see my mom, ironically the last time I saw her, and turned on the TV in the hotel room to news of a couple on a tandem being run over with the wife DOS, and the husband dying shortly after I turned on the TV. And there was no idea who was driving the weapon that ended their lives. I heard later that the guilty person was arrested, charged with a meaningless charge, and released. Kill a cyclist, get a wrist slap? I read an article that said that some mean people actually TARGET cyclists because of the ineffective levels of prosecution for those that kill. Some police jurisdictions treat car-cyclist accidents/killings as a nuisance. Yes it bothers me…
And harassing cyclists seems to be easy to do and avoid accountability. One guy here was terrorizing cyclists for years before being caught.
He said he lives in Germany. There they top out at 25kmh. He lives in the flats, so probably rides >30kmh the majority of times.
1 Like
There are also speed pedelecs which are much faster, (45km/h) trying to draft them can be a real challenge