July 20, 2009
Hey Joe, Loved your book and can’t wait for you next one. I was just curious as you competed in both professional road and mountain biking…did you get your introduction to mountain biking by means of cyclocross…I mean you were in Belgium after all ?!
Dave Borden - Blandon, PA
Dave, thanks for the kind words about A Dog in a Hat. I really appreciate it.
Regarding my path into mountain bikes and cyclocross; that was about as round about and dissheveled as the filing system I employ in my computer bag. As a kid I was drawn to BMX and off-road motorcycle riding/racing. I thought 10-speeds were kind of stupid because you couldn't get "totally rad" on them. Then, at age 17, I got a 10-speed and thoroughly enjoyed the thing. I started racing road bikes shortly after that.
I actually discovered mountain bikes and cyclocross at about the exact same moment. I was living in NorCal at the time and had the opportunity to buy one of Bob Roll's cyclocross bikes. I promptly went out and stunk up the Surf City Cyclocross Series in Santa Cruz with my lack of off-road 10-speeding skills. I rode a mountain bike for the first time within a week of buying Bobke's cyclocrosser. It was a very early model Ritchey that weighed about as much as a modern downhill bike. Since I had become velocitized by my several-times-per-week descents of Mount Diablo, riding this clunker on fire roads did nothing but bore me. I really didn't become interested in mountain bikes until the advent of suspension forks.
If I could go back and do it all over again I would most certainly focus more attention on cyclocross. It seems that 1 hour is the perfect time/distance for me, and long legs are handy for jumping over barriers. Going racing with Adrie and Jacques van der Poel was a great time but I treated it more like training instead of racing. My mistake.
Dave, thanks for the kind words about A Dog in a Hat. I really appreciate it.
Regarding my path into mountain bikes and cyclocross; that was about as round about and dissheveled as the filing system I employ in my computer bag. As a kid I was drawn to BMX and off-road motorcycle riding/racing. I thought 10-speeds were kind of stupid because you couldn't get "totally rad" on them. Then, at age 17, I got a 10-speed and thoroughly enjoyed the thing. I started racing road bikes shortly after that.
I actually discovered mountain bikes and cyclocross at about the exact same moment. I was living in NorCal at the time and had the opportunity to buy one of Bob Roll's cyclocross bikes. I promptly went out and stunk up the Surf City Cyclocross Series in Santa Cruz with my lack of off-road 10-speeding skills. I rode a mountain bike for the first time within a week of buying Bobke's cyclocrosser. It was a very early model Ritchey that weighed about as much as a modern downhill bike. Since I had become velocitized by my several-times-per-week descents of Mount Diablo, riding this clunker on fire roads did nothing but bore me. I really didn't become interested in mountain bikes until the advent of suspension forks.
If I could go back and do it all over again I would most certainly focus more attention on cyclocross. It seems that 1 hour is the perfect time/distance for me, and long legs are handy for jumping over barriers. Going racing with Adrie and Jacques van der Poel was a great time but I treated it more like training instead of racing. My mistake.
View from the top of Mount Diablo
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