One down...

...many more to go, and thankfully so, because I rode pretty eh this weekend.

The first round of the NMBS took us to sunny Fontana, California. Nobody seems to have heard of Fontana, but despite its anonimity, this charming sprawl has plenty to offer. For example, every fast-food chain ever created is represented within a one mile radius of our hotel. For all you Olive Garden fans, there are no less than 39 locations within a 6-mile radius of us. There is a collasal NASCAR arena nearby, and I've been told a mountain range as well (though I've yet to see it due to smog, more fondly known as the "marine layer"). But don't take my word for it (Reading Rainbow reference!). Just ask Edward Scissorhands, who apparently spends time here:

My roommate for the weekend, Ben Kraushaar, took this picture while pre-riding the course. He saw this bad-boy have a go at a pro woman riding just ahead of him. After seeing this picture, I thought every trail-side stick and piece of litter (of which there was plenty) was a rattlesnake. I was jumpy to say the least.

Huge thanks to Mitch Hoke for all the rides--you navigate traffic like a Californian, but you ride bikes like a Coloradoan. Word.

What is a blog anyways?

Is that where you, like, write about your day and expect people to read about it? huh. I guess, but hopefully not that narcissistic. Now that I'm done with school, I have quite a bit of free time and there aren't enough crossword puzzles to try or blog-posts to read to fill the void of a CC block (for those of you who aren't bikers, everyone who's anyone has a blog these days and, as much as I hate to admit it, I find myself checking them quite often). Also, not matter how many pictures I try to take during trips, I never seem to take enough. I figure if I feel like a few of you will occasionally check-in (Mom, Dad, I know I can count on you two!), then I'll take more pictures and better document my trips. Lastly, one of the worst parts about bike-racing for me is being away from the people that I like. Hopefully this blog will inspire some more communication. So, I've jumped on the blog bandwagon partly out of boredom, partly out of a desire to journal trips, and partly as a way to spur emails with you all who I'll be missing while I'm away. I hope you'll cooperate.

What are you going to write about today Colin? Whatever I feel like I wanna write about, gosh! Not sure what kind of content racechild.blogspot.com will have (you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find a unique site name--title creds to Mari). Undoubtedly some bike racing, but hopefully not too much. Surely some travel-gone-awry stories as well, but hopefully not too many. Fishing stories? Only if you're lucky. whatevs, we'll see.

Note: Any grammatical errors, misspellings, or general bad writing done on this blog is intentional. If you don't catch the subtle irony of these "mistakes," well, your bad, I guess. Don't expect me to live up to the critically acclaimed "Big Red does Japan" or "Two Nomads, One Continent" either. Those two are untouchable and trying to live up to their professionalism would overwhelm me with pressure.

Until I figure out a clever sign-off phrase,
Colin