This
post was originally posted for Conquista Cycling Club & can be found
here...
Being
a professional cyclist means you are on the road a lot. You are always
traveling to different places, catching trains, buses, planes, taxis and of
course, riding endless miles on the bike. Being a professional cyclist also
means you have a lot of time to kill and think while you are traveling.
This
combination can have a dangerous and sometimes sad result: PokemonGO.
I
will happily admit that I have downloaded the app. I mean, my news feed has
basically been the Tour de France & PokemonGO for the last three weeks so
it's difficult to avoid it. I will proudly say though, that I have no idea what
I'm doing when I open it.
My
age puts me just outside of the Pokemon era... I'm more of a Voltron guy.
However, my younger teammates fall right into the PokemonGO riptide. My Belgian
teammate, Kevin 'The Mess Maker' de Mesmaeker, spent 3 hours last night trying
to 'catch 'em all' and complained that the owner of the closest gym was too
strong... Whatever that means.
There
is one problem with cyclists becoming hooked on a location-based augmented
reality game: Cyclists hate walking. The game requires you to get outside and
explore the area around you, walking around a virtual reality map in real-time.
I could hear some guys from other teams in the rooms underneath me last night,
complaining that there was a Pokestop too far away and they didn't want to walk
that far. After all, we do have a stage to race tomorrow.
What
results is a bunch of guys sitting in their rooms or hallways, waving their
phones around trying to fool it into thinking that they are moving around. It's
a great sight to see.
Even
my teammates who I would least expect to play PokemonGO had succumbed to the
pressure and were out in the hallways last night. When questioned about what
they were doing, everyone says the same thing... 'I'm just killing some time.'
Sure you are, guys, sure you are.
So
what's next for cyclists vs PokemonGO??? I can only imagine that training rides
may become the perfect opportunity to play the game. How many Pokemon could
there be in a 180-km ride? My teammate also explained to me that there are some
components of the game that require you to walk a certain distance to complete
them. Not just small distances either but up to 5km! Imagine how fast you could
knock that over on a bike!
The
difficult part is going to be explaining to the coach why you have 2 hours of
pause time during a 6-hour ride! But at least you don't have to walk anywhere!!
