The last photo of my Aeroad 2018

This photo was taken in the corner of my room in a shared apartment back in 2018 and it belonged to me, a low income 23 year old idiot.

I was relatively new to road cycling and it previously rode a Principia RSL with Shimano Sora. Primarily for commuting to work 8km a day. I had no prior knowledge of cycling etiquette or proper workouts and nutrition.

I bought it because I liked the aesthetics of dropped seat stays and the almost horizontal top tube. Matt black bike's weren't as common in my area as they are now. It also helped that someone passed me once on that exact frame. I was stunned by the shape of the tubes. It looked out of this world to me. Looking back it was very much an impulse purchase.

I think the best feeling was ordering it and reading all the positive reviews before it finally arrived in the big Canyon box with the big letters on top "ENJOY THE RIDE". I had just spend 6k on a bike as an amateur rider and I didn't even have a car at that point.

I built it up the same day an rode it. It felt like hovering on a space ship over the road. It wasn't better but different. The swap from Sora to SRAM Red was alien. It didn't shift better but it sure felt cool shifting up the big ring and hearing that servo do it's thing. I slammed the shit out of that stem, blindly copying the pros and made that bike almost unrideable in the process.

Soon after I bonked on a 180km tour around the local lake. I'll equiped and unprepared. My arms numb from carrying seemingly 75% of my body weight for what felt like 4 seasons of the year and several stages of starvation. At some point in my delirium from malnutrition and dehydrationmaking made it seem impossible to get back home at all…,
but my stubborn ass survived. I got back home at a snails pace getting home late at night without a light. Even though I was at some points surrounded by people that could've helped, in my head there was nobody present, just me and that bike.

Over the past years I got fitter and faster. Repeating mistakes and sometimes learning from them just to make them again. Nowadays I'm able to ride 2500km in less than 3 weeks while working a full-time job. Even did a 310km solo ride for a climate event.

I'm not a very fast rider and I don't think cycling is just about being the winner. It's great team sport and also very good for self reflection. I've also met a lot of awesome and passionate cyclists along the way. It has an awesome welcoming community and the group rides were the most fun by far.

I don't think I would've made it this far without that bike. It was a turning point in my life that made me want to improve myself to make it justice. In the process I found peace with myself, good friends and a place in this world.

Sorry if there are spelling mistakes, English isn't my native language.