It's the wheel thing

YVONNE: OK girlfriends, your favorite running snob is in danger of becoming a bicycle snob.

Yvonne, playing around on her new bike before the trip (Photo: George Miller III)

Some of you may know I have been training for the last two months to participate in the 2nd half of the 2004 Tour d'Afrique bike event. I will be joining about 40 competitive, amateur and leisure cyclists in Nairobi, Kenya March 16. The group began in Cairo, Egypt Jan. 17. I aim to continue with the group from Nairobi to the finish more than 3,000 miles later in Cape Town, South Africa. There are support vehicles I can ride in if on some days I can't do it (And if I have to invoke that right I'll just tell the other riders, sadly, I have spend the day on the laptop because I'm on deadline. Evil editors , you know.)

I will be sending regular updates for this Web site and hoping to get encouragement and questions from all of you.

Biking outside and talking to people who believe that biking is a way to better the world has threatened to make biking No. 1 in my heart over running.

Here's my Q&A with hot shot mountain biker Joe Breeze, who just might make you feel the same. (He'll give a presentation at 5 p.m. Sunday at Trophy Bikes, 3131 Walnut St., in Philadelphia. Phone registration (215.222.2020) strongly suggested.)