This summer I had the pleasure of taking a trip around Mount Blanc on a road bike. Together with Michal Mayor we covered more than 580 km on mountain peaks and passes of the Italian and French alps, more than 6,000 m of elevation gain in 5 days. It was an amazing adventure full of challenges, sometimes also extreme, fighting with one's weaknesses and tremendous effort. The reason why I wanted to share this with you is that throughout this journey I was thinking about how road cycling especially in alpine conditions is similar to acting in business, running your own company or working on yourself.
The trip was similar to a kind of meditation, during and after which several thoughts came to my mind:
We can afford to do a lot more than we think we can, I didn't believe I could cover such a distance in the Alps.
Building something great, reaching summits in whatever field we are active in is arduous work and requires, above all, patience, consistency, perseverance, sometimes tremendous effort and self-denial. The ascent of 3,000 m.a.s.l. sometimes took me as long as 5-6h going at a speed of 3-6 km/h uphill. We climbed 3 such mountains :)
We are able to cope in any conditions no matter what is going on around us, it all depends on our attitude, mindset, or sometimes keeping our cool. When we crossed the Col de l'Iseran pass, the highest road pass in the entire Alps it was dusk that caught us, and the temperature drastically dropped to 5 degrees (this is very noticeable especially when you were driving all day in 30 degrees and full sun). The nearest town was a 1.5-hour bike ride down. In fact, it was the first time I felt on myself what exhaustion of the body combined with a drop in temperature means. It was an extreme situation.
I hope you may find my thoughts useful for something. Perhaps you have had similar experiences? Share them in the comments below. In the meantime, I invite you to read a photo report from paradise :)