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Luck
by Ben Greenwood | 01/09/09
Luck is a belief in good or bad fortune in life caused by accident or chance which happens beyond a person’s control.
A professional cyclist spends hours training, preparing, eating well and resting properly, all in order to achieve their goal and targets. We like to believe that we’re in control of our own destiny, that it’s us who decides who wins and loses. The best rider always wins right?
When things are going well and you’re winning, luck isn’t something you think about. You’ve done the hard work, you’ve earned the form and now you’ve put it to good use and shown the opposition who’s boss.
Winners don’t believe in luck, losers most certainly do. ‘It was the referee’s fault we lost, he shouldn’t have given that penalty, what bad luck’ or the classic, ’I was so unlucky! I attacked and everyone chased but when the other guy went no one bothered.. .’
Luck is too often used by some as an excuse for a bad performance, but sometimes luck really does matter. We live in a world of randomness, strange things happen. But I’ve started to wonder, are some people more prone to good or bad luck than others? Hindus believe in Karma, where actions produce reactions, good promotes good and bad promotes bad. But are good people more likely to have good luck, is luck controlled by Karma?
Without getting into deep religious thought which I know nothing about, I can only comment on my personal experiences. I have as of yet, never kicked a dog, never punched a baby in the face, never thrown a rock at a Penguin. Yet for the last 2 years lady luck hasn’t been my friend.
Starting with a maltracking kneecap, which cost me 5 months at the start of last season, followed only months later by a broken fibula at the Tour of Ireland. I’ve no proof that the Irish are luckier than anyone else but I certainly didn’t have the ‘luck of the non Irishman in Ireland’ that day. That incident then caused me knee problems relating to muscle imbalances, which was still affecting me well into this season. Then in July followed my coup d’état, abandoning a race the day before the race had started. China is a long way to go to not race, it’s also a long way to come back again.
After a month in the pits waiting to get back on track, I was given the all clear to race again. Yes!!! Finally I was on the way back up, my luck had changed. Unfortunately not for as long as I’d hoped as I was literally brought back down to earth yesterday descending an ice like descent in the Peak District.
The thing is I’ve reached the stage where I consider this to actually be good luck, because even though I crashed I didn’t break anything. If you can’t beat luck at least you can join it, one man’s good luck is another man’s bad luck. For now I just hope I can leave luck to one side for a while and get back in control. Failing that my Irish passport request will be in the post…
