Happy day, bike
In 2018, the UN declared June 3 as World Bicycle Day. Today we pay tribute to the “steel horse”, that beautiful device that connects us with the inner child, with the fantasy of playing at being Rigo, Nairo or Egan and with a sport that takes us to discover landscapes, raise our pulse and overcome our limits…
A Frenchman, the one who invented you, named you velocipede. What a beautiful name to begin your story with. Then, over time, they called you a bicycle, then they knew you as a bicycle and today we lovingly call you “bike”, or “cycle”, or “donkey”. What does your name matter, with your two wide or narrow wheels, tall or short, smooth or wrinkled, thin or cheap, white or black; we love you very much.
You are very similar to the beginning and the end of life. Because we met you, still stumbling through existence, with the support of a third wheel that helped us walk the first few meters. And we will say goodbye to you, still stumbling through existence, with the support of a cane that, like that wheel, will take us through the last few meters of the road.
You are like love, with its ups and downs. With you we conquer the heights like we reach a first kiss: struggling on the slopes, seducing with patience, quickening the pace when appropriate and launching the attack at the right moment. Likewise, when we reach that goal, you teach us that after the goals often come the sweetness of a good landscape, the calm of a flat route and the relief of realizing that we will be together for a while, in a long stage.
And well, it's not because we love you so much, but you're a lot like living. Because if our journey through the world were an ascent over you, not everything is rosy. We also suffer along the way, we have to see that others may be riding with the help of a lighter bike, our chain gets stuck at times, you have forced us to stop, you sometimes throw out one or three gears, you disappoint us with a puncture and there are slopes we want to get off.
But you teach us that, fast or slow, we are all headed for the same destination. That it doesn't matter if it's on an all-terrain bike or one with a carbon frame, that what matters is to pedal, pedal, pedal and end up thanking you for being our companion in battle, our ally in history, our goal and our path, the protagonist of that movie we got into the day we decided to climb on you, that what does it matter if they call you velocipede, bicycle or bike, for us you will always be the love we want to be with until our legs and hearts give out.
Thank you, dear bike.
Cristian Marin - Alternating current