Where is the Outdoorsy Athletic Middle Class?

These days there is quite a bit of discussion on business and investing blogs about the slow decline of the once-mighty American middle class; we are splitting into losers -- 99% of us -- and a 1% who are benefiting from bankster and Washington DC corruption. That is, we are becoming a kleptocracy of the kind that is common in Latin American or third world countries. Indeed, it is in such countries that an American traveler might first notice that "most in the middle" is not the global norm, and that he has been taking it for granted all his life.

How long has this phenomenon have been noticeable? Boswell reported an outline made by Samuel Johnson after his one and only trip to France, near the end of his life. Johnson remarked that everybody in France appeared desperately poor except for the few who were unbelievably rich, and how different that was from England. A historian would probably explain this in the context of the rising bourgeoisie in the late Middle Ages in Europe, as well as Protestant culture in northern Europe...

Thus ran my thoughts as I watched a pro bicycle race in Gunnison CO. Gunnison has really developed a strong bicycle culture in town; the town's smallness and flatness lends itself to cruiser bikes. Also, the town is surrounded by sagebrush-covered mesas and hills, most of which is BLM land. The number of multi-use trails has expanded noticeably since the last time I was here. Even better, you can access those trails right from your front door in town!

I wanted to join the rest of the crowd in enjoying the start of the race, but I held back for some reason. Should endurance sport racing really be celebrated? Is it all that constructive or healthy? It's what gets the publicity and the glamour, of course.

A couple days later the news broke about Lance Armstrong being stripped of his Tour de France titles. Perhaps I shouldn't have been shocked: I was friends with a retired professional bicycle racer once. He told me that ALL top cyclists dope. After all, the human body is a biochemical machine, so biochemical tools are needed to get the last 0.1% of physiological performance out of an endurance athlete.

It has been a source of much frustration for me to live in a culture built around automobiles and fast food and obesity. Then, once in a great while, you meet one of that small elite group of Americans who isn't a standard couch potato, only to find out that his Ego is entirely concentrated on How-Far and How-Fast he can go. Most likely he will someday undergo knee surgery, thanks to the relentless abuse of running; or perhaps he will have many months of expensive and painful physical therapy to endure, as he recovers from a bicycle crash.

Do we need racing to whip up interest in walking, cross-country skiing, running, or bicycling? Why can't we just see human-powered transportation on safe and pleasant trails as an integral part of the Good Life? Whether they be dopers or not, maybe it's time that less glory and money went to a handful of physiological freaks like Lance Armstrong, and more attention went to building a more energetic physical culture out of millions of average bodies.