How to lose 90% of your readership in 1 post

simple.

just say "no more bike racing"

sorry guys, but i just can't do it. some people would argue "just go out and have fun!"

but it's not fun for me anymore. to go out, having not touched a bike all week, and get dropped like a hot rock from races i used to contend.

i love the people in 'cross. i love the travel and seeing new places. i love the beauty of racing. i love my ahren's vanderkitten 'cross bike. i love my traveling companions.

but i don't love sucking. especially since i know that i'm on the "down" and not the "up" of my performance.

i have a degree in art. i have been an artist all of my life. so i think a lot about what i "show" to people, and try to make it beautiful. an artist doesn't fill a gallery with their mediocre work. they fill it with their best performances. with the things of which they are most proud. with the things that inspire and entertain their viewers the most.

like art, bike racing has become a mediocre (at best!) performance for me. i don't think i add much to anybody's life by doing it. so i'm hanging it up for now.

i thought i could kid myself and translate the joy i have from riding my vanderkitten bikes (mtb and 'cross) into racing "for fun". but i now see that these things are not necessarily related. i can ride my bike for free on a random tuesday. i am not going to drive 200 miles, then pay to ride terribly.

call me gloomy.

but i have to be honest. and to warn my readers who come to this blog only for current anecdotes of my racing: no more of that. sure, i may post about things that happened in the past with racing. like the time we ran out of gas in charlie storm's honda civic with a broken gas gauge. at 11 p.m. on a friday in west virginia on our way to a race. or the time that one of my teammates had to get an i.v. of saline after getting violently ill at a race in a 3rd-world country, and the terror in her eyes as she saw the saline bag hooked to a coat hanger jammed into the ceiling tiles.

views from picture-perfect training rides in unspeakably beautiful places

stuff like that.

i don't know what 2008 will hold. i'm still passionately involved in the growth of vanderkitten's brand. in spreading the gospel of how cycling can improve lives and inspire health and happiness. in helping the various teams with which i'm affiliated. i may even throw down more than you think next year.

so don't worry...this blog won't descend into melancholy or daily lectures on "why business school is the best use of anybody's time in the whole world end-of-story don't try to argue with me". i'll keep it fun and interesting and you can be sure that the mandy you know will come through loud and clear. but not so often will i be dressed in lycra.

so, to the few remaining readers i have upon finishing this post: thanks for listening.

love,

mandy