New ventures

OK, it's time to spill the beans.

After the great destruction of 2009, I got lucky. I fell into a couple of great situations that are starting to bear some serious fruit. The first, obviously, was the bike shop. There's no way I could have predicted how well that would turn out.

The second great situation was GamJams. It's a bike-racing website focused on the Mid-Atlantic region. I'm not sure how I got hooked up with it, actually, but I'm glad I did. Since March or April or so, I've been contributing a couple of articles per week. It's turned into a nice little side project.

Starting in the next month or two, it's going to be a bigger side project -- GamJams Midwest.

Much like GamJams has become the place for racing news out east, GamJams Midwest is going to focus on racing in Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas. It'll have weekly tech features, interviews, race previews and reports and polls. And photos. Lots of photos.

But as much energy as I put into it, it's going to depend upon you -- fellow racers and readers -- to make it go. While sites like VeloNews and Cyclingnews focus on traditional reporting (as in, reporter interviews racer and lists results), GJ Midwest is going to be driven by first-hand reports from racers. And it will have new content every day.

Basically, it'll be everything other local amateur sites aren't. Oh, and see that little GJ newsroll on the right (down a bit)? GJ Midwest will have one of those, too.

If you want to get on board, let me know. We'll need contributors from all over the Midwest.

I'll even send you a pair of socks.