In keeping with tradition, another blog post not posted on my blog. These things are hard to write!  A recap of Redlands:

http://news.horizonpanachecycling.com/?p=163

Hey all - been a while! I promise a real post will come in the next week or so. For now, though, check out the post I wrote summing up this past weekend's CO season opening road race, the Gebhardt Automotive Cycling Classic, at the team website:

http://news.horizonpanachecycling.com/?p=120

More soon, I promise!

Only 300 days late...

Hi! Welcome to my new blog! I'm Josh - you probably know me if you're here, but if you don't, feel free to check out the About Me section above.

This post has been a long time coming - I know that some people are going to be surprised that I'm finally getting around to it (hi Nick!), something like 10 months after I first created my blog template.  Turns out that it's not as easy as I thought it would be to:

1. Come up with something to write about

2. Ensure that the something is actually interesting to someone other than you

3. Decide that actually writing it is more interesting than, say, watching Galaxy Quest at your host house

4. Not give up 5 minutes into writing and go ride my bike instead!

This time, instead of getting distracted by the reruns of Doctor Who currently playing on our TV, I'm going to finish this intro post!  My plan for this blog is to talk about things that I find interesting; this will mostly (alright, you got me - almost entirely) consist of bicycle related posts like race recaps, team updates, and other bike related things. Sorry - that last one was a little repetitive, but I like the flow of sentences with at least three items in lists, so it's staying.  I'm not promising to update every week, as that would be a little ambitious for someone who couldn't get a single entry out for a year, but I will try to update at least once a month when I'm not racing and hopefully more when I am.

For this first post, I thought it would be fun to talk about why I (and hopefully many others) race bikes - because it's just so much fun!  I've done a lot of sports in my life, and I know how easy it is to get burned out on a sport when it stops being enjoyable and starts being work.  That's not to say that training isn't (brutally hard, sometimes) work, but it's tough to be frustrated with intervals up mountains when going up also means you get to descend afterwards!

The road back down!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how fun riding and racing can be because I've recently gotten back into something that I haven't done for something like four years now: cyclocross. I assume that many of you reading are familiar with 'cross, but it's best described as a cross between mountain bike racing and road racing.  You ride road bikes with knobby tires around a 5-10 minute circuit for an hour, and it's especially fun to watch because there are always sand pits and barriers set up so that you have to get off of and carry your bike.  There is very little funnier than watching roadies who haven't run more than 10 feet all year try to run up a steep, muddy hill with a bike on their back.  I'm told I look akin to a pregnant duck when I'm waddling uphill, and I'm unfortunately sure that the comparison isn't very flattering to the duck, to be honest.

As you might have guessed from my brief description, cross is brutally, brutally hard - it's a test of your bike handling skills, your running skill, your fitness, and your ability to transition between any of those things instantly.  But that same difficulty is what makes 'cross so fun.  At the end of the race, no matter what my place, I always feel accomplished, like the course threw everything it had at me, and I came out on top.  It's hard to put everything together and have a lap where you feel like you nailed all the corners, all the power sections, and all the run ups and dismounts.  But that difficulty is what makes bikes beautiful and fun - racing is always a challenge, and the feeling of getting a lap in 'cross exactly right or getting the tactics perfect in a road race is amazing.  It keeps racing and riding fresh and exciting, and I'm 100% sure will keep me interested in cycling for the rest of my life.

Oh, and the other cool thing about 'cross? People don't take themselves or the racing too seriously, which is great during the offseason when I'm not racing my road bike. Case in point below, from this past weekend's Halloween themed ZombieCross:

Daimo, the Tiger Shark

Anyway, thanks for reading this first post - if you liked it, please check back occasionally, as I'll hopefully have new posts every few weeks. Also, my team director tells me I need to start using twitter, and if he writes my using it into my contract like he's threatening to, I guess I'll have to start taking him seriously!  Anyway, it's fairly, or rather, entirely sparse at this point, but now that I've got the blog up and running I will do my best to force myself to use it. Who knows, maybe I'll even like it!  You can check that out at @jyeaton.