My digital clock-radio changes from 5:59 to 6:00 AM.

The radio comes on, playing the end of the Sonny and Cher hit, "I Got You, Babe," just as it did five months earlier - the last time I rode in Texas.    

I get up, put on my kit, grab a bite to eat and check Facebag for the Sunday group ride details.  Don't know why I check.  The ride hasn't changed in a decade.  Yea.  The name changed.  The starting point moved a time or two.  Even a couple route changes happened miraculously.  But it's the same ride.  Nonetheless it's been five months and there's a chance, albeit a slim one, something is different.  I check.  Nope.  Same start time.  Same players.  Same route.  Same.  Same.  Same.

With Bucket Ride Season over it's now Groundhog Ride Season.

Don't get me wrong - I love me some groundhog.  Just not all the time.  It's great for staying in shape, building fitness and socializing.  But groundhog rides are not the reason I ride.  They are a means to an end.

Ever since I bought my first road bike I've used cycling to get out and explore, seek adventure and create lasting memories.  As a California kid I studied maps all the time to plot the most interesting, challenging and demanding routes to ride with my best friends Eric and John.  We rode and explored every road in the Santa Cruz Mountains as well as every road to the beach - it had girls - in bikinis.

Once we rode up Alba Road in torrential rain.  I said it was the shortest, easiest and quickest route home.  I lied.  Not just a little white lie.  A full scale I'm sure to go to hell lie since I checked the topo map beforehand and knew the climb was a ball buster.  But I wanted to experience it - 3.8 miles at 11%.  They hated me.  Afterwards we spent hours with our bikes cleaning, repacking bearings and patching tubes.  Eric's knees still ache 40 years later but we enjoy reminiscing about that ride as well as other two wheeled adventures.

These were my first bucket rides, although I didn't know it at the time.  When I started racing bikes a few years later I learned from my mentor, coach and US Cycling Hall of Fame legend Bob Tetzlaff there are two kinds of rides - Bucket Rides and Groundhog Rides.

Bucket Rides are the ones you pine for.  A once in a lifetime experience.  Special.  Unique.  Memorable.  Fulfilling.  Must do.  A reason to ride.  Something great to anticipate.  Maybe a charity ride for 35 miles or the Jr. World Trials.  Could be the Moab Gran Fondo or the Beer & BBQ Ride in Llano.  Perhaps your first race at Fair Park or a gravel grinder in the dark.  They can be easy or hard.  Big or small.  Here or there.  They can be anywhere.  But most of all they enthrall.

Groundhog Rides on the other hand are the bread and butter of cycling.  A necessary staple.  They get you in shape mentally and physically for bucket rides.  Though, just like the movie Groundhog Day, they can be monotonous and repetitive.  Often on the same roads with the same riders doing the same things week after week.  By default they teach us every inch, every pothole, every seam, every turn and dog on their routes.  We know the easy sections and hard ones.  We can do them blindfolded - even the group rides.  We know who will attack and where long before it happens.

Some groundhog rides we've ridden a 100 times, maybe a 1,000 times, yet very few are memorable.  Well, except those involving Mr. Mayhem with crashes, fights and severe weather.  The solo versions provide time to focus, think and most importantly learn how to suffer by yourself.  The group ones include weekend hammerfests, mid-week "world championships", rambles, recovery rides, etc. They often provide that unique opportunity to mix suffering, camaraderie and competitiveness at 25mph on the rivet 6 inches apart in companionable silence.

But the real reward of persevering and doing groundhog rides day in and day out is down the road - arriving prepared, enthusiastic and ready to experience a Bucket Ride.

2016.  A new year.  New Bucket Ride opportunities.  What's on your list?

John is a former faux pro racer enjoying life as a geriatric cyclist in search of great bucket list rides to keep him in shape and out of trouble - well, at least in shape.

He will be writing about his Bucket Rides in all their variety and glory for Granfondo.com.

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