What IF...

IF you can hold your line when all about you
Swerve and crash when they ride,
If you can trust the guy ahead to swim true,
But make allowance for currents and tide.
If you can train and not make training too serious,
Or be hungry and not hunger for fries,
Or being ridiculed, not be too ridiculous
By wearing an aero’ helmet on a group ride.












If you can ride – and not make the bike your master,
If you can run – and not push until you’re lame,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to suffer through a crisis
Like when your ankle’s twisted and in ice.
If you can watch your training fall to pieces,
Then rest and build back up at any price.

If you can make one heap of all your savings
And blow it on a new Felt AR 4,
Then mash it into a million graphite shavings
‘Cause you crushed it with your damn garage door,
If you can push your heart and mind and muscles
After your food and water are all gone
And so hold on when it all appears useless
Yet keep running when they cheer, ‘Come on!’













If you can swim in crowds and keep your virtue,
And ride in packs and not lose your wheel.
If neither wind nor rain nor heat affect you
If you’re smart enough to trust in how you feel.
If you can fill the unforgiving hour
With sixty minutes worth of distance run,
You’ll get a T-shirt, and maybe a hot shower,
And – what’s more – you’ll win a Tri’ my son!

Kudos to Kipling, 100 years ago today.