bicycle.net -- cycling news, product reviews, original essays, podcasts & video :: tour de france 2008

Welcome To Bicycle.Net; Self-Proclaimed Center Of The Cycling Universe By: System6

There are countless places to read about our much beloved and besmirched sport on-line or in newspapers and magazines. Many of us hardcore fans hook into all of them, then go looking for more.

What there’s little shortage of is news about professional riders and some of their bad habits off the bike. While maybe it was interesting at first, now it’s just old and retold. Most of us are ready to be done with tabloid tales that detract from the beauty of our sport. Other areas that get more than their share of coverage are products and equipment, because that’s what pays the bills, and the European racing scene and all the Euro-drama it entails. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this, but isn’t there something more interesting to talk about?

Bicycle.Net is determined to bring a fresh view to our world.

One that doesn’t repeat or re-tell the same old stories, but focuses on what we care most about. To do this, the powers that be are giving a platform to some folks who will look at the cycling world through different eyes, and I’m lucky enough to be one of them. Bicycle.Net has been awaiting this very day and moment to bring a heightened sense of excitement to your cycling-centric world; to bring you interesting articles and eclectic view-points and the opportunity to let people know what you think about them.

As a brief intro, I’ll be writing for you through the eyes of a middle-aged, born-again cyclist (we’ll discuss my bike-shrine someday) who rode his first race after forty. I’ve got an active and healthy family and a teenage son who’s talking about racing Juniors this year. Last year he got his first formal introduction to the saddle riding RAGBRAI with me; now his goal seems to involve beating me in the hills, and I’m intent on making sure that doesn’t happen soon since my biological clock is ticking too, you know. I live in the pleasant Midwestern town of St. Louis and race Cat 5 (for now) with the Ghisallo club. We might not be a professional powerhouse, but we’ve got a nice group of people ranging from juveniles to retirees, and a really sweet kit.

This being an election year and all, I’ll promise in front of God and all the voters in this fair land that if it’s change you want, you’ve come to the right place.What I promise to bring you will NOT include lengthy coverage of Operation Puerto or pulp of that nature. You won’t get product reviews here either, because there’s little to say that you can’t read in ten other fine places. And if you find a story on Velonews or Cyclingnews (they do tend to haunt the same hotspots, have you noticed?), you can be confident there will be something entirely different waiting for you here.

So what will you find?

Hopefully some uplifting fodder about all that is well or at least getting better in our universe. Interesting human nature stories will always get play. Hopefully some tactful humor will be woven in; if you ask my daughter though, it’ll be a long time coming. I’ll be alert for stories about what riding means to peoples’ lives, how we riders fare in this auto-nation — our position in life being indisputably superior, natch. I’ll be penning like mad when the big US races are underway in California, Georgia, and now my home-state of Missouri. Okay, and we’ll throw in Utah.

In addition, I’ll be bringing you interesting (hopefully) stories about big events and tours you can ride in as well as a view from the front line of the local racing scene: our own Friday Night Lights, if you will. I’ll try to include a fair balance of cycling topics of particular interest to women and young riders, since that seems to be a blindspot in coverage elsewhere. Finally, I’ll be bringing you stories - yeah, the made-up kind – including novellas and excerpts from writings of people who are handy with pen and prose in exploring cycling from angles the rest of us might not notice. Rest assured, I won’t publish anything so racy I wouldn’t have my family read it.

It’ll be a great journey, so I hope you’ll follow along and let us know you’re out there.

System6