Topic: General

The Wind Is Our Friend
by Leo Crocker Rogers

We say in cycling, "The wind is our friend." This is a Russian kind of saying, not that the Russians said it first, but it has the substance of a Russian concept. Let me explain. When we say, "The wind is our friend.", we mean to take what is negative in our cycling experience, and make it something we know will benefit us. This mental disposition elevates the performance of a cyclist. That which apposes is seen to be of benefit.

A friend, a good friend, is a person who sometimes apposes. For sure, a good friend helps us grow in ways that we would not grow alone. That is why he/she is a friend. The wind is our friend. As the saying goes, a friend holds our feet to the fire. A friend encourages, cajoles, challenges, and when we are down, tells us we have the strength to get up. When we get up, we are stronger. The wind is like that. It makes the cyclist persevere. Options are limited.

The Russians I know are tenacious people that know, at a gut level, about difficulties. Yes, they smile, but their smile is not a Disneyland, Mickey Mouse smile. The Russian smile is of resolve, always resolve. It is a commitment to ride strongly into the wind. When something goes wrong in Russia, their minds find a way to make good of it – not that they are oblivious to the difficulty. They know, but they do not let the circumstance become a reason to lose heart. With firm eyes, they say of some dumb thing, some mistake, some accident, some adverse condition, "We learn.", and they mean it. Experience says, "That is the way to survive." They speak positively of negative things because they are Russian. Do they have the resources to back up their positive statements? Not always, and that means they "over commit". But it does not matter. While in Russia, I was promised something daily for eleven days. Each day, I asked if this were the day. The answer always was, "Soon." I left Russia, and the promise was never fulfilled. Upon leaving, I asked why the event never occurred. I was told, "It was impossible, but what else should we say?" That response was incomprehensible to me. I thought, why lie about something? Ultimately the lie will be discovered and the liar will be seen as weak, not strong. Why not admit the impossibility? Because, when the wind is blowing so very, very hard in your face (and there are no other possibilities other than turning tail to put the wind at your back) to admit that just one more crank of the pedal is impossible is tantamount to giving up. At this point, hope is all one has. Selah – take a breath and pause before reading on.

It took a couple of years on my part to discover the following: I realized that my friends were not lying to me with intent to deceive. Rather, through generations of tribulation, they had learned to give credence to "evidence of things not seen". To me that is "faith" in a power beyond their own will, and they know it. When cycling, if the next 1/4 mile looks impossible because the wind is so strongly in my face, I still believe I can make it. Even in an instance of impossibility, head winds for nearly100 miles, I am seldom wrong. I make it one crank at a time. Personally, I can accomplish such things because I know all things are possible to God, and as His son, such things are possible to me. My Russian friends may not think that way, but they keep cranking just as do I. We both have faith.

The wind is our friend in cycling. Opposition is our friend in life. I love the wind at my back, but one thing for sure, cycling growth is minimal with back-side wind. I need friends, friends that hold my feet to the fire, that encourage, cajole, challenge, and when I am facing strong winds they remind me, "The wind is our friend."

Be ye a cyclist or not, you know the feeling of a strong, strong wind in your face. Say with me, "The wind is our friend." Say it again, "The wind is our friend.". Close your eyes, and say it. "The wind is our friend." And we mean it, right? "For we grow not only by being pushed, but also by being pushed back." And as illogical as it may seem, being pushed back makes us stronger in moving forward. The wind is our friend.