After knee and back pain forced me to give up jogging, I needed a form of exercise that wasn’t so hard on my body. Starting with short rides and quickly working up to longer ones, I soon came to enjoy cycling so much that I wondered why more people don’t do it.

I now average 2,500 miles a season on my road and hybrid bicycles (combined) and have ridden numerous cross-state rides, both in supported rides put on by organizations and self-supported rides with just a couple of friends. I’ve ridden the Natchez Trace in Mississippi, The Great River Road from St. Paul to St. Louis, the KATY Trail in Missouri, the George Mickelson Trail in South Dakota, around Lake Champlain, through North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park, South Dakota’s Badlands National Park, through the Netherlands, and to many more interesting places.

I consider myself a serious-casual cyclist. I ride for exercise and pleasure, not for ego, and I say, “I don’t ride fast, but I can ride all day.”

I haven’t ridden in the Tour de France, won any cycling awards, nor set any records for riding across the country (even for my age group), and I have no desire to do so. I have, however, cycled extensively, love to cycle, and think the world would be a better place if more people cycled.