The Seven Commandments

Welcome back to 2012 to all those that have been enjoying an extended summer break..on and off the bike!

Commiserations to those that that took the word  'break' literally and broke bones...last count one collarbone and one leg (ouch!).

I was looking for results from those brave souls that attempted the Alpine Classic yesterday, and while feedback on the event is yet to be posted, I did come across the seven commandments of long distance cycling.

I particularly liked number Commandment Number Seven:

Seven Commandments for long distance cycling

Velocio (Paul de Vivie) was the apostle of cyclotourisme in France at the turn of the century. His main passion on the bike was gearing & climbing mountains. At 50 years of age he was still riding up to 20,000km per year. He was killed in an accident with a tram in 1930 aged 77.


He left us with his Seven Commandments for long distance cycling, all of which are still very relevant to Alpine Classic riding.

• Keep your rest short and infrequent to maintain your rhythm.
• Eat before you are hungry and drink before you are thirst.                                                                                                          
• Never ride to the point of exhaustion where you can't eat or sleep.
• Cover up before you are cold; peel off before you are hot.
• Don't drink, smoke, or eat meat on tour.
• Never force the pace, especially during the first hours.
• Never ride just for the sake of riding

 I looks to me as if the old Paul had something pretty strange going on with his drive train setup too.