I hope my bicycle face doesn’t look like this! Speaking of face, a helmet with a good , full-face visor helps keep blowing dust out of your eyes.

Back when bicycles were a fairly recent invention, some folks feared that too much riding would result in “bicycle face”: a permanent grimace and forever-bulged eyes, wrought by the “struggle” to maintain one’s balance.

We know much better nowadays, don’t we? It’s true that you might look like that while getting the hang of handling a two-wheeler; but once you’ve got that down pat, balance becomes no problem. You and your face can relax and enjoy the ride. Of course, if you’re climbing Mont Ventoux while endeavoring to hold on to that maillot jaune, it’s a very different story! 

As to climbing, will I never learn to do it well? The few humps that I must surmount most days are no training whatsoever for real climbing. If I really want to tackle RAGBRAI, I need honest-to-goodness HILL training. Riding in a very hard gear is better practice than nothing; but when I do such work, it’s too easy for me to shift back into an easier gear when the going gets tough. Riding across Iowa, I might have to get off and walk; and get rid of my — uh — bicycle face.