Firstly, thanks for popping by. Secondly, welcome to my weblog. And thirdly, to any members of a certain cycling club who are thinking, “Get on with it – you’ve already done this,” well, yes, you’re quite right, of course. But that welcome was tailor-made for my London Dynamo chums, whereas this is an off-the-peg, one-size-fits-all “how’s it going” to anyone else who may have stumbled across this bruised peach lodged at the bottom of the world wide wicker basket. So for them, or for you, if you fit the curious-but-slightly-irritated-by-all-this-expositional-guff strata of my readership, I proffer the following explanation.
I set up this blog primarily as an archive of DYNAMITE!, an email newsletter about London Dynamo which I wrote a few years ago. To stall the raising of eyebrows and stifle guffaws, I must point out that the name is unashamedly ironic: there is clearly nothing in the least bit explosive that can be said about predominantly thirtysomething men going round in circles every weekend. It was probably an awareness of bike racing’s concomitant absurdities that contributed to the popularity of DYNAMITE!, and for the few hundred people who enjoyed getting the newsletter every Friday throughout the season, my humble archive is for them. But if, perhaps, you are looking to join a cycling club based in west London, then there are 209 reasons why you should become part of Dynamo, and you can pick as many as you like from the “DYNAMITE! filed” category to your left. No one has more fun than us, and every issue comes with that as a money-back guarantee. (I realise you haven’t given me any cash, but rather than hand some over, it’s probably more expedient and cost-effective for you to just take my word for it.)
Hopefully, the next stage of this blog will be just as much fun. I have lots of opinions and thoughts, many of them not necessarily about cycling, which I increasingly find are not articulated elsewhere, so stick around if you want to be engaged, amused, or distracted, or if you simply want to see a twit fall flat on his bottom beneath an infinitesimal weight of expectation. Just don’t expect lots of guff about power outputs, aerobic thresholds or heart rates and we should get along just fine. My first 10 entries will alternate between five cultural phenomena of unimpeachable greatness (The Dynamighty) and five targets for rotten fruit (The Dynamightgiveitamiss), all viewed through the wholly subjective prism of my inexpert judgment. Then, and only then, will you and I truly know if we can form a lasting, prosperous relationship.
But if that’s ever going to happen, I suppose I should first give some indication of my identity. My name is Chris, I’m in my late thirties, and when I’m not spending time with my female romantical partner at our west London home, I can usually be found doing an enjoyable yet (I’m told) strangely unenviable job in the national media. I won’t say where I work, and you should take this omission purely as a belt-and-braces approach to the usual disclaimer that my views are my own, not my employer’s. I also have an association with a cycling publication, and although those guys don’t keep a roof over my head, I won’t be revealing who they are as my views do not belong to them either. Or maybe I might name them. Let’s just see how long I can keep this up, OK?
Well, that sort of clears everything up for now. Pop back in a couple of days and we’ll get started. Cheerio for now!
The DYNAMITE! Files 
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