Good Lord

Am I ever a boring writer. Last monday, while commuting to work, I got to thinking about how I got into racing bikes and came up with what I thought was a great post topic that would surely propel me to the top of the bike blog charts. Instant fame and fortune! Unfortunately, Racin Rick is where good ideas go to die. Saturday night I sat down to put my ideas to interweb paper and after writing what was possibly the most boring RR post ever (and that's saying a lot!) I decided to pull the plug on the lengthy post and cut right to the chase. You know, sort of like skipping foreplay and getting right to the sex. What use is foreplay anyway if you're accidentally poking her in the eye (with your finger you dirty bastards!), kneeing her in the crotch (unless she likes it of course, some women are into that I hear) and generally messing things up. If you're game is that bad, you might as well get right to it so that there is less chance that you'll screw it up.

So here we go, no foreplay for you. The reason I got into racing bikes is because of golf. Sounds pretty weird doesn't it? But it makes sense. In college when I got into riding, my brother and I decided one summer to do the Sunday River xc race. This was in mtb racing's heyday when they actually advertised the race on the radio. My brother and I prepped the best we could (riding a few days a week) and headed to the race. Unfortunately, when we got there we were so freaked out by how "pro" everyone looked in the matching kits, shiny bikes and cool attitudes that we chickened out and just watched the race instead.

Fast forward a few years, I'm out of college, working my butt off and the local golf course decides to sponsor my father's race car and the sponsorship includes memberships for the family. Before I know it, I'm playing golf 3-4 times a week and riding maybe once a week. It was fun for a while but eventually I came to the realization that I could play golf when I'm old and fat (judging by the others on the course) so I'd better do something to motivate myself to ride more. The only way that I could think of was to join a shop's racing team since I knew that would provide enough (internal) pressure to get me off the course and on the bike. Well, as you can see, it worked and what initially started out as a way to motivate me to ride more and have a healthier lifestyle has turned into a full blown obsession worthy of serious time on a psychiatrists couch. Of course, compared to some of you crazies out there, I've only begun to scratch the surface!