To state the obvious, 2020 has not been the year that we expected. Rolling back the clock to late February for my first and likely only road race of the season feels like a lifetime ago. Of course the story since then is well known: COVID hit and life ground to a standstill, particularly in our hometown of New York City.

In March and April, with the city in crisis, I hung up my bike for fear that the slightest accident on the road would only detract from more urgent COVID-linked treatment needs at hospitals. Zwift became a replacement for what would normally be long team rides during this time of year and somewhere in this long stretch of indoor riding #EveryZwiftRouteTBD was borne. Having the team all striving to complete this challenge was refreshing, and I suddenly had motivation for several big weeks of training, all of it indoors.

More recently as summer arrived and COVID conditions in the city improved, many cyclists returned to outdoor riding. But with social distancing guidelines limiting the social elements of riding that I hold so dear, I just kept plugging away indoors. This phase of my indoor riding included a very silly 15 hour day on the trainer for a 10,000 meter Everest that I’ll recap on the Journal soon, as well as plenty of Zwift racing.

And thus, somehow I arrived at late June without doing a single training ride outdoors since February. In fact, the only outdoor riding I did in this entire stretch was to participate in the protests coursing throughout the City. It is by far the longest I have gone without outdoor riding since moving to New York City in 2005, and yes it seems totally crazy even in hindsight.

But finally, last weekend I was able to get back on the bike and hit some of my favorite trails. I certainly still missed the social elements that are a big part of the reason that I ride (I am counting down the days until team rides return), but it felt amazing to back outside and on the bike after so many months plugging away indoors on Zwift. Who knows whether we’ll be racing again at any point this year, but even if the event calendar remains empty until 2021, I’m glad to be back outdoors and on two wheels

A few photos from my first day back on the bike outdoors with Lisa and my Moots Psychlo-X RSL: