I was one of the cyclists that y

Ehsan

I was one of the cyclists that you chatted with outside “Bear Park – The Home of the Bear”, as it was colloquially known as up until the North Sydney Rugby League Team (one of the founder teams in 1908) was ‘chucked out’ of the NRL competition in 1999.

Rituals and ceremonies continue to feature prominently in the psyche of homo sapiens over the last 125,000 years. Seemingly such ceremonial customs provided comfort and kinship which are craved by a large portion of humans. Dressing up and showing respect for a variety of gods, not limited to the sun, the moon and the oceans, is synonymous with human behaviour well before the Druids pagan rituals at Stonehenge. The Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and the Celts were classified as Pagans and their religious rituals were seen as weird, often because they were.

In his ‘Commentaries on the Gallic War’, Julius Caesar talked about the unusual ritual practiced, according to him, by the Gauls in the 1st century BC. Although admitting that he hadn’t seen the ritual with his own eyes, Caesar claimed that large man-shaped effigy called a Wicker Man would be built out of sticks and set alight, with those to be sacrificed to the gods trapped inside. Usually criminals would be used but if none could be found then innocent men would be burned alive instead. Tales of human sacrifice may be real or just Greek and Roman propaganda designed to encourage opposing Pagan cultures.

Rituals are a way humans can express their connection with divinity with each other.

Attending Sunday morning church provides a local community common bond support group, as parishioners with similar faiths and beliefs politely mingle, commonly connected by analogous beliefs and hopes. Christian churches like pomp and ceremony amongst their worship.

Unlike in the USA, Australians, in the last 30 year or so, have largely abandoned traditional Sunday ritual, as many of us recall it as children.

From the 1960s to 1990s, Australian males flocked to golf in their droves, where they competed amongst contemporaries on a plethora of finely manicured private and public golf courses with strict dress codes including having to wear spiked shoes, with revered rules on the number of clubs in one's bag, playing edicate, scoring systems 'etc'.

Similarly post WWII, many middle aged Australians were drawn to lawn bowls, with very strict dress codes and playing protocols.

Both of these recreational sporting activities also involve a local community common bond support group.

Just as more formal religions can be Chic in one era and not the next, so can recreational sporting activities, as both bowls and golf patronage have since waned, with middle aged Australians, particularly on Sunday mornings, now flocking to parade in lycra, resplendently mounted on a few ounces of carbon or titanium, parading and competing with their like-minded mates to complete the circuit or climb the nasty hill faster than last Sunday or faster than their mates.

One such bicycle group is the 16 year old, Muggaccinos.com, which journo, Nick Galvin, in the SMH (May 2000) noted "This mob of recreational pedal-pushers espouses the motto "hills are your friends" and tackle Sydney's longest, most painful, arduous inclines on Sunday mornings. Personally, I think they should consider getting some new friends. But if you want to join them, all the details are laid out in this idiosyncratic site."

Pedalling endorphins and adrenalines to a mounting multitude of masochists who seek congregation at a plethora of Nosh Stops on Sydney's perimeter, Muggaccinos.com qualifies as an Extremist Religious Sect. Some of Muggs' Resolute Diehards should be rocking in front of the fireplace garbed in slippers and a dressing gown, yet come Sunday morn' they opt to push themselves to the extreme, and beyond. Harry aka KayakMan turns 78 in January, and still slogs up the steepest climbs. Eric aka PapaBear, 68, had a spinal fusion many years ago and endures constant back pain, yet Eric holds the Audax Alpine Classic record of 15 consecutive annual 200km Audax Alpine Classics in the Victorian Alps, the pinnacle of Australian endurance, involving 3,600m of steep climbing on the one day. Eric has also completed three 210km Fitz's Epic and several of the former 150km Fitz's Challenge in Canberra. Tony aka Publican, 69, equipped with a prosthesis hip was whacked by a 'hit-run' driver in April 2010 and carted-off to hospital by our beaut 'Ambo Service' with several 'broked' ribs. Tony was off work for two months. Five months after the painful fall, Tony completed the annual 200km Around the Bay in a Day ride around Port Phillip Bay.

Cyclists who ride with Muggaccinos.com largely subscribe to Muggaccinos Ten Commandments, in particular the 1st Commandment of "Hills are your friends* and mountains are your mates". Their +100km (each) Sunday rides on the perimeter of Greater Sydney target the steepest hills. The chap who has organised Muggaccinos since its inception, Phil Johnston, built a website, King of the Mountain performance measurement, which details 62 of the steepest, toughest hills in NSW, where cyclists can register as a climber and log their climb times, hopefully to evidence a pattern of improving their hill climbing.

Thirty cyclists attended their 7th Berry King of the Mountain Challenge in early November this year, where most camped for a week at the pristine Berry Showground and climbed up the nastiest hills (incl 18.8km Jamberoo Pass, Saddleback Mtn, Camberrawarra Mtn, and Fountaindale Rd up Saddleback Mtn) within the beautest cluster of steep mountains in NSW. Last year 38 participated, but with the East Coast presently experiencing a La Niña, sever afternoon thunderstorms early in the week dampened the spirits of other riders scheduled to arrive for the weekend 'hit-out'.

If the ritual of Belligerent Old Folk slogging-up seriously nasty sheer assents with their cycling buddy mates interests your investigation of "rituals" and you are interested in interviewing the likes of Harry aka KayakMan, Eric aka PapaBear and Tony aka Publican 'et al', I can readily arrange such interviews.

Regards

Phil Johnston