Boss Doesn't Want Me to Cycle - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

06-11-2004, 04:46 AM

Last Tuesday, I went to a meeting with some colleagues at the
Headquarters of the firm where I usually work in the Training Center.
The HQ is in a place about 10 kms from the Training Center, and very
inaccessible by public transport. The way there involves the first 8 km
practically all gently downhill, then a brutal ascent up a very steep,
windey forest road, then a rather bumpy dirt path. On the way back, the
topology is reversed - steeply downhill at the beginning and then an
upward faux plat all the way home.

I had tried the route by bike three times last summer and had got the
trip out in about an hour and a half. On Tuesday, I tried a different
route for the first time, got lost once, had to stop at every traffic
light to figure out the continuation, and took 2 hours 30 minutes to
cover the trip out of 9.56 km. On the way back, I walked almost the
whole distance, because even if and where it would have been easier to
cycle, I was too tired to trust my judgement on the road. Even though
her steering was fixed a few weeks ago, Behemoth is still rather wobbly
in low gears and at slow speeds, especially as fully loaded with company
documents and water bottles she aproaches 30 kgs, so I felt safer
pushing her along the sidewalk. Besides which those low speeds put
terrible pressures on my wrists and I didn't want them to go into spasm
again. As the temperatures were also well above 30 Celsius I was going
slow and drinking water frequently. The trip back took less time than
the trip out (yes, I do walk faster than I cycle), giving me a round
trip of 4 hours 30 minutes for a total 19.01 km, with 3 km per hour my
most frequent going rate. My heart monitor, which I took with me,
revealed that I was over my aerobic zone, in threshold or redline, for
about half of that time, and within it for the remaining half with no
time under. The monitor also showed that my max heart rate of 168 was
attained on the trip.

I did the trip out mainly within my lunch break and the trip back after
hours. I fully understand that 4 and a half hours to cover 19 km could
not be integrated cost-effectively into a work routine.

However, I know the trip out could be a lot faster once I learn the
"script" for the route. I believe it could be managed in about 1 hour 10
minutes, allowing a half-hour to ascend the hill at the end on foot
(where my heart rate tends to max out). The same journey by bus has
taken me 1 hour 10 minutes so the time is comparable, and the bike
offers much more freedom than the bus which only runs a few times a day.

But my supervisor is insisting that I am "not safe on the bike" and that
in future I must take a taxi for this trip, which might install itself
as something I need to do every Tuesday. I REFUSE! Meetings with the
Documenation team and closer liaisons with HQ have come about on my own
initiative entirely and one of my big reasons for doing this was to get
the opportunity to train up to bike commuting on the journey. If I have
to use stinky petrol to go, there isn't even a point ot it.

The cab trip would cost about 20 Euros one way and I would have to go
through a big rigmarole to claim it on the company. I would also be
stranded out there with no way to get back (except on foot) unless I
could persuade the company to disburse a further 20 Euros to get me home
or beg a ride from a colleague (and be entirely dependent on other
people's routes and schedules). Not only this is majorly inconvenient
but I can see eyebrows being raised about the expense and myself being
targetted as an unnecessarily costly employee at a time of company
cut-backs (I am the only Carfree person in the company but the French
have even less understanding of Carfreedom than they do of
Childfreedom). Alternatively, the bosses will try to force my colleagues
to give me lifts but the colleagues will resent it and I will have to
deal with their bad temper. My impression is that my supervisor dislikes
my rapprochement with HQ and is trying to punish me by playing up
transport difficulties and creating issues where there aren't any. I
also particularly resent the way these motorist *******s go on about my
"safety". Yes, I am terrified of road traffic which is why I spend so
much time on sidewalks. But whereas early death by road is a
possibility, early death by heart disease and diabetes is a near
certainty for me if I retain the sedentary lifestyle of the IT geek.

So it looks like I have some civil disobedience on the way. I WILL NOT
TAKE THAT CAB!.

EFR
Carfree By Choice in Ile de France