With six weeks of solid riding and several five-hour rides in my legs, my bike is starting to once again feel part of my body, and it now also seems to be moving more fluidly.

The initial couple of rides are difficult, the bike feels uncomfortable, like a shoe that isn’t fitting well, and it feels as though a wheel is rubbing, a brake is touching, or there is a slight headwind each time the road goes uphill. Each season, that unpleasant feeling seems to disappear overnight; one morning about two weeks ago, I stepped onto my bike and floated; my legs spun, the bike moved, and I felt like a cyclist.

The last season was one of my toughest yet, and I don’t think anybody would argue that it wasn’t the toughest the sport has endured. I ran into dozens of hurdles I didn’t know were ahead which put me in a hospital for a week, ended my season prematurely, and generally made my family’s life incredibly stressful—but, like after any challenging period, we are stronger, more mature and more appreciative.

Professional cycling is in a bad state. Sponsors are turning their backs on a sport that only three short years ago was in the headlines of every newspaper for its good attributes—which are still there but have been overshadowed by a relentless barrage of negativity. I feel sad that the sport I have practiced and dreamed about my entire life is tarnished but cycling is about survival, not only about winning, and I don’t doubt that it will again thrive.

I was riding with David Millar this week, a Girona neighbor, and we were discussing the sport, and what it meant to us. We agreed that what attracted us to cycling when we were young were not the images of champions winning but the images of the suffering, the epic rides, the adventure, the environment and the history. Still, after a great ride or a brutally hard race where I am completely empty it is then I feel the most fulfilled.

In my opinion the greatest cycling movie ever made is “La Course en Tete,” a biographical film of Eddy Merckx that captures the essence of professional cycling, the culture and what goes through the cyclist’s mind. The movie opens with him losing the World’s in Barcelona to Felice Gimondi. It is a fantastic opening as he is poised to win, riding with confidence, being set up perfectly by his teammate Freddy Maertens; he is then defeated easily in small breakaway sprint. The movie captures his weakness, his struggle, his sacrifice, his wife’s worries, and everything that makes cycling the hardest sport but which also makes it one of the most beautiful because the victories and even the finishes are that much richer. Every rider has a personal finish line within the race, and whether he is the one winning or finishing last there is always some sense of accomplishment and fulfillment due to the epic proportions of the sport.

My rides are becoming harder as my fitness increases. This year we are spending the winter in Girona — which feels more like a warm spring — as my son is in school, we are settled here and the winters are certainly less harsh than in Boulder or Toronto (my last two homes). It is truly one of the nicest times of year to be here: the roads are quiet, the weather is ideal, the streets are elegantly decorated for the holidays, and everybody seems jovial and relaxed.

The first long rides were done in December at our team training camp in Mallorca. When I arrived at the camp, the discussion was all about the future as our main sponsor had just pulled out. Oddly, nobody seemed too stressed about it, and the feeling was actually quite positive, like a new beginning. Most of the guys were content they could still race—were being paid to do what they loved—and that the management had remained not only committed to the team but also to keeping the team racing at the highest level with the best support possible. November is a bad time to lose a title sponsor and we were actually fortunate to still have jobs.

The camp was not mandatory for all of the riders to attend but the team usually organizes the camp to provide the riders from colder European climates a week to get together, put in some miles, and start building properly with the right support for the coming season. Once I get into the training routine at camp, I not only can more easily carry the routine home with me, but also get an extra bit if motivation for the next season. Riding with a group of teammates somehow does that.

The month of December passed quickly and we are now into 2008. The change of calendar may only be a change of date but I hope it also brings good things for cycling—we need it. Cycling seems to be a sport that despite its best efforts to improve keeps being presented with new challenges. Maybe it is worse than all other sports but more likely it has just become more transparent. For the future generations of cyclists to have the same opportunities as passed generations we need to be progressive instead of revisionists.

The history of the sport is rich with heroics but also with scandal and to move the sport forward we need to focus on the future and what makes the sport appealing: the epic qualities that emote the beauty.

Champions are not only the riders crossing the line first.