The Take No Prisoners ride
There's a local bicycle club - I mean tribe - that I go out and ride with once or twice a week. I started riding with these guys a couple of summers ago to try to get better in the bike leg of the triathlon and the things I've seen, learned, and experienced will probably be the subject of several future blog posts.
On Tuesdays we have the TNP - the Take No Prisoners ride that features three loops where the strongest riders really turn on the speed and the rest of us hang on for dear life. The whole thing works out to about 45 miles if I ride from home.
Since I've had a Tuesday night class for the last 2 semesters I haven't been out there, but since school ended I've been able to do TNP a few times and each one is an investment in getting a little bit tougher. TNP is where you go to get strong - country strong.
So I dedicate the following poem to my tribal cycling brothers and sisters:
Take No Prisoners
We will gather at the Shellron and joke and fret with the rattles of our machines
We will dodge Dodge pickups driven by faceless drivers who hate us and don’t know why
We will be dogged by country dogs and slurry skinny wheels in dirt and rock
We will suck the baked air and bellow in code and dive into graveled corners
The wildflowers in the ditches will bow down as we pass
And when we hit the 2038 slope we will be passed by a surging swerving maniac
Suicidal, quixotic, alone we will attack for momentary respect
Until the machine spits us out the back like yesterday’s chewed gum
spent, pitiful, domesticated and repentant
We will love, admire, and hate each other
We will be cowardly, petty, noble, and heroic
We will drain the last drops of plastic flavored water and limp home
A whole life in two hours
And tomorrow’s tortilla will have a holy bicycle browned into its surface.
