Vocabulary question

[Tuckervill]

Peloton is French...okay, filing that away.

Endo is another interesting cycling word, especially popular in Mountain Bike magazine. I think it means to go end over end (over the handlebars). Which I did when I was 9, during which I broke my nose on the headset of my big blue Schwinn.

Karen

[LauraPaura]

So many great answers already while I was sleeping

but again what´s 100k or 200k compared to 100 mile/km ride?

So now I can tell that I'm going to do a 3/4-century (70 km) and a 5/4-century (134 km) in June and that's about all the organized rides back here. Riding in Finland is cool because there are not that many cars or people and the bike roads are usually kept in pretty good condition and they are all over the place. Finland is pretty flat country but we do a just a couple or decent hill even in my hometown. The riding season for me at least is from mid-April to mid-October. Rest of the year is too snowy.

thanks for the clarifications to everybody

Oh btw peloton is a Finninsh word as well! I got a bit confused since here it means fearless.

[DirtDiva]

1.6km to the mile.
0.625miles to the km.

Get out your calculator.

[Melody]

but again what´s 100k or 200k compared to 100 mile/km ride?

Laura, if you need to do a metric to imperial conversion you can get google to do them. Go to http://www.google.com and in the search field type

100 kilometer to miles

and google will give you an answer. You can do this for most measurements. I use it quite a bit when I'm cooking and having to change portion sizes.

So now I can tell that I'm going to do a 3/4-century (70 km) [...]

You can also just say "I'm doing a 70k". Also, when talking centuries, if you're in the US, typically they're 100 miles and to differentiate between 100 kilometers you'll here the term "metric century" instead.

Oh btw peloton is a Finninsh word as well! I got a bit confused since here it means fearless.

Believe it or not everyone, peloton is also an English word. From the Oxford English Dictionary

I. Simple uses.
b. Cycling. A group or cluster of cyclists in a cycle race; esp. the main body of competitors, the pack (PACK n.1 7d)

The etymology of the word, however, is French

[< French peloton little ball, esp. of thread (1417 in Middle French), small body of soldiers (1616), group of competitors in cycling (1884; 1855 in a sporting event in general) < pelote (see PELLET n.1) + -on (see -OON). With sense 1a cf. earlier PLATOON n. and also Spanish pelotón (1737 or earlier in this sense).
N.E.D. (1904) indicates the stress as pelo{sm}ton.]

It looks like the very base root of the word comes from a small body of soldiers. Someone probably, at some point, said that the group looks like a peloton of soldiers and the saying stuck.

Mel the mad OED user

[SnappyPix]

Riding in Finland is cool because there are not that many cars or people and the bike roads are usually kept in pretty good condition and they are all over the place.

Sigh. I'm so jealous!

[HipGnosis6]

Believe it or not everyone, peloton is also an English word. From the Oxford English Dictionary



The etymology of the word, however, is French



It looks like the very base root of the word comes from a small body of soldiers. Someone probably, at some point, said that the group looks like a peloton of soldiers and the saying stuck.

Mel the mad OED user

That's right. The word was originally a French root, and still technically exists in the English language. However, the form we're all more familiar with is "platoon".

And this is what you get for a degree in linguistics - Trivial Persuit wins, mostly.

[Popoki_Nui]

The riding season for me at least is from mid-April to mid-October. Rest of the year is too snowy.

No kidding! I have a friend in Toijala who has been griping loudly about not being able to ride....sounds like the snow has hung around there longer than usual this year...he's been going completely loopy waiting for clear roads and trails.
Finland's a fascinating and beautiful country, though. One of the places on my must-visit list.

~Sherry.

[Geonz]

The derivation of SAG is unknown - so it's wahtever you want it to be.

We've had a few peole look at us funny when they ask "why did I suddenly lose all my energy? What is that?" and we say, "You're bonking..." Then there was the time we were talking about how long it had been since the last time we bonked...

[li10up]

Just to elaborate on the "clipless" pedals...Even though you are clipped in to the pedals the system is called clipless. Toe clips were the norm before clipless....so pedals without toe clips were called clipless.

[KnottedYet]

Now that I've switched from clips to clipless, I've started referring to pedal styles as "toe-cages" and "cleats" and "flat pedals" cuz I just can't keep it straight otherwise.