How I Became A Professional Mountain Biker

Notice I left 'Racer' off the title. We been trying to get our ISO 9000 certification at work. It turns out the auditor is an avid mountainbiker. He's from the midwest where the the biggest hills are highway overpasses and the biggest excuse for technical single track is weaving around a loamy pine forest. Well, when he found out I was bike racer, he asked if I had a spare bike and could show him some interesting local trails. Not that we have anything close to work that qualifies as world cup, but we do have a chunk of conservation land with two 100' hills, and a section of mostly singletrack, alternately rocky and rooty, smooth and swoopy. Toss in a few stone wall crossings and you have a recipe for a fun fast ride - unless you're a mountainbiker from the midwest.

So I took him out for a ride. I let him ride my Independent Fabrications Custom Deluxe Ti with the SID World Cup shock. I rode my Giant XTC rigid.

We were out for about an hour, and the guy couldn't stop raving about the trails, "Real Trails" as he called them. I spent as much time waiting for him as I did actually riding, but he's a personable guy so we were able to chat during the ride - in between his gasps for air.

Here's the best part - I got paid for it. My boss told me to charge the time to the certification project.

So yes, I got paid - as part of my job - to go mountainbiking. Therefore, I am, by definition, a professional mountain biker:

Noun

professional (plural professionals)

1. A person who belongs to a profession
2. A person who earns his living from a specified activity
3. An expert.  [quotations ▼]

hmm, ok, maybe not.

But I still got paid to go mountain biking, and you really can't beat that.