I know, I know, you want to know whether you can have $25. First, though, you have to read my pithy anecdote of the day.

You know you’re a Fat Cyclist when…

The last mile or so in my commute to work is always the hardest. It’s a mile stretch of uphill on a bikepath, parallelling the 520 freeway (thanks, Redmond, for the bikepath!). Even if I see no cyclists on the rest of the commute, I always see at least a couple on this stretch — either passing me, or me passing them. And I don’t know about anyone else, but whenever I see someone up ahead on an uphill, I can’t help but try to catch and pass. You can take the ability to compete out of the Fat Cyclist, but you can’t take away his (um, my) competitiveness.

Anyway, today I started up the hill feeling pretty good. I shifted up a couple of gears, stood up, and started climbing at a good pace.

And that’s when I saw my prey — a very fit-looking cyclist, about 50 yards ahead, comfortably spinning a high cadence in a low gear. I put my head down and got ready to suffer. I dropped down one gear, sat down, and brought my cadence up as high as it would go. I knew from experience that this would hurt, but wanted to fly by this guy. He seemed to sense I was there and picked up the pace.

I went up a gear, ignored the pain, caught and passed this guy. I tried to sound casual, saying "How’s it going?" as I dropped him.

I must admit, though, that my victory would have felt more substantial if he weren’t riding a mountain bike and pulling a Burley trailer with a 2-year-old in it.

Clearly, I still have some work to do.

It’s not just a blog, it’s a game show.

So — by the skin of my teeth — I managed to keep my weight under my "backslide" number. I weighed in at 179.8 this morning. So now that $25 goes into the Fat Cyclist piggy bank, along with another $25 for next week’s weigh-in. If, by then (6/13), my weight is >= 177.4 pounds (ie, if I haven’t lost 2.5 pounds a week from now), the first person to call me out on it by posting a comment (including email address), gets a $50 amazon.com gift certificate. And if I magically hit next Monday’s weigh-in goal, the prize goes up to $75. And so on.

Yes, that’s right, my Monday weigh-in is now a weekly opportunity for you to have some of my fabulous, untold wealth. What other blog has this kind of drama and excitement?

Today’s Weight: 179.8