Over the next couple of weeks, you’ll occasionally see a new byline here – mine.  I’m Mark Blacknell, and with Richard’s assistance (and the Taiwan Tourism Bureau’s support), I’m off to Taiwan to check out its road cycling.  This will be something like the trip that Richard took last year, but since I bring a fresh pair of eyes (and legs), I hope you’ll find my take on cycling in Taiwan worth your time.  Hit the jump for links to my first few of posts on the trip, and a little bit about me.

I’ll be posting about this trip in lots of places, but the first few pieces are up at my personal site: my hopes for the trip, digging around for advice, and actually getting it underway.  The first link provides a little about the perspective I’m bringing to this:

I’m particularly excited to be coming at this trip from a cycling-specific perspective.  While my personal travel has come to more frequently involve cycling (riding the Koppenberg in Belgium, mountain biking in Australia, or hitting the road in Nova Scotia), I’ve never made an overseas trip for the primary purpose of riding.  It’s something that I’ve been thinking about (one day, to the Giro!), so I’m really quite excited to be doing this, and hope that – afterwards – I can help others figure out what’s involved in doing this themselves.

As you might already know, I quite enjoy writing about travel and all of its bits and pieces.  From the need to move, the means of getting there, and the destinations themselves.  Sometimes you can do it with just a photo.  Other times, many words are required.  And then there’s always music.  If I do this right, I’m sure Taiwan will give me all three.

While I think that illustrates me pretty well, I should probably also add that I’m a DC lawyer who works in the communications regulation and content licensing arenas.  When I’m not doing that, or on my bike, I can be found over at PodiumCafe talking about pro cycling (readers may know me as Sui Juris, there) or working to improve my local cycling environment through my position as chair of the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee, and getting up to speed as a new member of the board of directors for the Washington Area Bicyclists Association.  Or, you know, in a bar.

I’m about to head to LAX to start the 14 hour flight to Taipei.  I’ll be updating here as access and time allow. While the schedule doesn’t have a lot of free time left it in, if there’s anything you think I should *really* see in Taipei or along Taiwan’s east coast, leave a note here and I’ll see if I can’t check it out.