Who Do I Follow On The 'Net?

The response from readers regarding my final newspaper column in the San Angelo Standard Times (which several people referred to as the "Substandard Times") has been amazing.  I've heard from people of all walks of life, including many that I would have never have guessed were readers of my column. Quite a few of those people indicated that they would continue to read my posts on this blog now that I'm no longer a columnist for the paper (or, as one nice person stated ... "continue to read the musings of an old athlete.").

Several people posed questions when they responded to the final column, with one of the questions being "Who/what do you follow on the Internet related to cycling and who are some of the authors who publish stuff that you like to read?" That's a great question and here are several answers.

One of my on-going favorites is Joe Friel's blog (http://www.joefrielsblog.com/). Joe is a serious Grand-masters athlete, a coach, author, researcher and more importantly - someone one who practices what he preaches. He is an authority on training strategies for older endurance athletes.

I also follow Lance Armstrong via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/lancearmstrong/). You may hate or love the guy (your opinion on that issue doesn't matter to me), but he's arguably the most talented endurance athlete ever to come from Texas and he still has an obvious passion for cycling and running.

There are two ladies who I currently find interesting (actually, there are a lot of ladies who are interesting), but these two are both articulate and can ride most people into the ground in totally different ways.

 One of these ladies is Hera van Willick (on Facebook at facebook.com/HeravanWillick/ and she also a great blog at http://heravanwillick.nl/en/blog-3/?lang=en). She's a cycling tourist and speaker who has pedaled and camped through much of Europe, across Iceland, through Alaska, Canada, and the West Coat of the United States and is now rolling through Mexico on her way to South America.

The other lady that I follow is Canadian mountain biker Emily Batty (http://emilybatty.com/). She's already an accomplished professional mountain bike racer (and, I should add, a former Canadian cyclocross national champion) who has been on the podium both in international World Cup races and also in the Olympics. This young lady seems to have a rare combination of athletic ability, drive, and the ability to communicate well, so I predict she'll do well when her racing career is over.

Last of all, I enjoy the Facebook posts by Cyclocross Magazine (www.facebook.com/Cyclocross/). Although some of their posts are clearly driven by advertisers, it's usually a good read and a way to keep up with the equipment, events and news related to cyclocross.