I ♥ @StevePeat

This morning I checked the email I reserve for "junk" like pharmaceutical marvels, mail-order university degrees and social media updates to find something I considered definitely NOT junk.

My heart raced as I scanned the subject line: StevePeat is now following you on Twitter.

Holy. Shit.

Steve Peat. "Peaty". World Champion. People's Champion. And consistently my favourite part in mountain bike videos that get me through every winter on the lonely trainer. (I can't tell you how it warms my heart to spin along with him at the start of his part in "Seasons".)

I immediately rushed to my twitter profile to see for myself as I began mentally composing what I might tweet to @StevePeat!

That's when the truth of the notification landed with a thud.

Turns out, it wasn't @StevePeat following me. It was @StevePeatDH and I was so excited, I saw what I wanted to see, skipping over those last two crucial letters. I stared at my screen as the realization sunk in. (philosophical sidebar: does someone who has a fastest-man-in-the-world jersey hanging in his closet really follow anyone?)

The silver lining is, although I'm still a total stranger to the greatest downhiller in the world (and I'm not sure him following me on twitter would change that fact all that much ...), he DID put out an app for iphone/ipad/ipod touch. Rad. It's always good news when the sport gets more positive exposure because that means maybe more people will get out there and try it (and then become addicts like the rest of us).

To close, may I suggest that if you're on twitter on this lovely Friday, you #ff @StevePeatDH and of course the man himself, @StevePeat.