Towards a Sustainable Philosophy of Endurance Sport

Chapter1. Prologue:  The Good Life, Endurance and Sustainable Cycling.- Chapter2. Sport and the Environment: Ecosophy, Metanoia and Renaissance.- Chapter 3. Metabletics of Spinal Sport: Between Being in the World and Perfection of the Self.- Chapter4.  On Ascetic Practices, Hermeneutical Cycles and Ecosophical Endurance.- Chapter5.  When Continentalism meets Pragmatism:  Enduring Life in the Strenuous Mood.- Chapter6.  Finding your Own Pace: On Agon and Ecosophical Endurance.- Chapter7. Epilogue: Turning and Turning in a Widening Gyre - Coming of Age on a Bicycle.

Ron Welters (1962) is a researcher at the Philosophy and Science Studies department of the Institute for Science in Society of Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He is a non-delegate member of the executive board of the European Association for the Philosophy of Sport. He taught courses in the Philosophy of Sport, Food Ethics, Ethos of Science, Scientific Writing, Science & Media and Effective Communication in Biomedical Research. In the autumn of 2018 he defended his Phd-thesis entitled Cycling for Life.

Our planet is inhabited by humans  who are  relentlessly training themselves and optimising their condition. This may seem self-focussed, but it may as well have a broader scope: we train ourselves to become better citizens or to contribute to a just and sustainable society. The concept of training can assume many shapes. This monograph focuses on one particular dimension, namely endurance sport. The phenomenon ofcycling has brought endurance sport within reach of the masses. The question is, how can cycling as an endurance sport contribute not only to self-knowledge, but also to self-improvement (on the individual level) and to sustainability (on the societal level)?

Ron Welters is a dedicated long distance cyclist and runner who aims to practice what he preaches: exploring physical challenges along the vertical axis of human existence and living a sustainable life.

'For me, cycling represents a return to the primal human of the savannahs, who during a hunt spends the entire day running, and is constantly high in the process.' (Peter Sloterdijk).