Commetalks with Sebastian Varguese

Commetalks with Sebastian Varguese. The carried idea on reflecting balanced surrounding from his point of view.

Perspectively speaking, what does cycling mean to you?

Perspectives change and what you're really left with is perseverance. Cycling, like any endeavour worth undertaking, is to me an uphill journey with steeper gradients as you progress.

--whitespace--

How long have you been cycling and when exactly did you start setting it as an essential core?

Since I was young but mostly for fun or to commute. Cycling is something I have spent a lot of time on but I wouldn't exactly term it as 'essential core'; It is just that the only way to get better at a skill is to spend hours at it.

--whitespace--

We heard that Wendy is a former athlete, can you tell us more about it?

In her 30s, Wendy was a long distance road runner for the Singapore national team, while juggling a busy legal career. Sidelined by injury, she picked up cycling, purely recreationally, made it to the national team and is one of few women in Southeast Asia to have ridden in the Women's World Tour in a peloton together with the world’s top female cyclist. She now runs trails in Bali to keep herself fit.

--whitespace--

Digging deeper as you spend a lot of time cycling here in Indonesia, what are your thoughts on that, and how do you fit into the environment?

We found Bali to be good cycling destination with varied terrain and a vast network of roads to choose from. Traffic can be quite chaotic for the uninitiated but relatively safe for those with situational awareness. Drivers are patient for the most part but we keep as far left as possible to give other road users ample room to overtake. That said it is annoying when cyclist occupy more road then needed and are oblivious to other road users which we have noticed more of with cycling boom. There are more of us out there now and as a collective are responsible to how others view us so please help, educate and share the road. Generally speaking, Bali is still a great place to be but we've noticed a lot more trash along roads, illegal dumping sites and tons of trash at beaches. It is up to us to thing before we consume, reduce where we can and dispose of our trash responsibly.

--whitespace--

It's always enthralling for us to see the growth in cycling community coaching and we see how you are so passionate about this. What inspired you way to step into this journey?

I am no coach; I just try to share my own learning experiences. One thing I have learned is that a coach cannot substitute for the hard work and more importantly the self-awareness required for longer term, lasting progress. It is a learning process and you cannot stop learning. There is a sea of information online to dive into, explore, experiment with, and reflect on, before applying what works best for you, to chart your own personal journey towards cycling.

--whitespace--