Warning: this post is gonna ramble.
--
When I was home in Vernon, BC, Canada, this summer, I took the chance to finally ride up the local big hill, Silver Star Mountain. It's a 1200m rise over 21 km--that's what, 4000 ft over 13 miles. A good long climb. At the top is the ski village, which in summertime transforms into a summer activity wonderland, including downhill courses and chair lifts for the MTBers. Those bikes start looking funny when you never have to worry about going uphill.
So there I am in tight roadie clothes, Lycra and jersey and swoopy helmet and skinny tires. And there are the MTBers, baggy shorts and T-shirts and crash helmets and fatty tires. And we're sorta looking at each other, mutually thinking "what the hell kind of biking is that?"
--
I ride a bike a heck of a lot more than the average person, though perhaps less than the average reader of this blog. Still, I find it off-putting that I can walk into a bike store these days and find large sections which are a complete cipher: that being the fatty tire section. After looking at the number of frame styles and suspension linkages available for MTBs, the road bikes start looking all alike in comparison. And the fine points of MTB categories: what, pray tell, is the difference between "all-mountain" and "cross-country"?
--
I have no idea what triggered the urge, exactly, beyond maybe just having too much free time. And probably unpacking my venerable 1998 Specialized Rockhopper, which has served mostly as a commuter/townie bike--it got my through a 24hr relay race in 2005, even with the pannier rack still on the back, even on the original 1998 tires. But Monday night I sat down and clicked over to Specialized to see what was up.
In 1998, I remember there being the Rockhopper, above which was the Stumpjumper, of which at the top end you could find the FSR full-suspension job. Now our good friends in Morgan Hill have the Rockhopper (still a hardtail) and Stumpjumper (hardtail and FSR) and Epic (FS) and Enduro (FS) and on and on...all of which seem to overlap in price and function. Again: difference between cross-country and all-mountain and marathon is...? Um, it's also seems even easier in the MTB world than in the road world to find a bicycle with a list price higher than the value of my car. Heck, the price of most after-market suspension forks is higher than the cost of my Rockhopper, comlete.
A look at mtbr.com revealed that there are umpteen million full suspension XC bikes, and everyone rates them at 4.5-5.0. Gee, that really narrows things down. Knowing little else, a Santa Cruz Superlight might be nice...in my size...if I ever rode it.
--
Further investigations led me to the website of Trail Head Cyclery, in San Jose, CA. I could've glanced and moved on, but for some reason I poked around. And found:
DIRT DEMO IN THE DEMO, NOV. 3rd & 4th
When: Nov. 3rd and 4th, 9 a.m. 'till 3 p.m.
What: Demo bikes from Specialized, Intense, Ibis and Yeti
Where: Soquel Demonstration Forest
Dammit, it's the middle of 'cross season, I own 4 bikes already, and I have no regular urge to ride on trails, but regardless I've rung up a friend and it looks like we're going to show up Saturday to try to get some test rides. The regrettably timid rational part of my brain is saying that it's a good chance to see what the big deal is about full suspension, and that a trip to the SDF is long overdue if it's half as good as its reviews. Hopefully Timid Brain also has the foresight to keep the Credit Card far, far away. Oh wait, must bring a credit card as a deposit for test riding...
This could be trouble.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
'Cross shorts
i. Kudos to VeloNews, part one
Full article coverage of the Canadian 'Cross Championships. Aussie-o-philic cyclingnews only came up with a type sheet of results.
ii. About those championships
Not only did someone find a way to beat Lyne Bessette, but two people beat her! If it was Wendy Simms (the champ) and Alison Sydor, though, is it really that shocking? In the men's race, the winner was Max Harrigan (haven't met him, sorry) over last year's champ, Greg Reain. Both elite titles came down to 1 second gaps, it would've been a sight to see.
iii. Kudos to Velonews, part two:
Anecdotal coverage of this past weekend's Granogue race:
With three laps to go, Wicks tried to bunny-hop the barriers, something that nobody could remember having been attempted since they were placed in their current position three or four years ago. He cleared the first barrier, which brought gasps from the crowd. Then he rode into the second barrier like Wiley E. Coyote crashing into a canyon wall while chasing the Roadrunner, stunning the crowd into silence. Standing astride his bike at a standstill, Wicks looked up to find the Cyclocrossfiles.com video camera happily recording the whole incident. Wicks laughed, then got back to racing as though nothing unusual had occurred.
I'd like to think he would've had a good laugh even without the camera there. Sadly, Cyclocrossfiles.com isn't a real website (yet?), so who knows where the footage may be. This little report did make me feel better about my own follies at Sunday's races.
iv. About those Sunday races
During the single-speed race, I managed to rip my left brake lever loose--geez, I musta been torquing it to get up those hills. Let's see how I do on retaping...
v. Found while bloghopping
Everything I know about cyclocross I learned from Clark Natwick and Dave Carr. Though I guess OV has chastised me into attaching my race number in such a way that it doesn't act like a drag chute. Anyway, to complete a trinity of 'cross resources, maybe I could get Simon Burney's book--but why do that, if he has his own blog?
Full article coverage of the Canadian 'Cross Championships. Aussie-o-philic cyclingnews only came up with a type sheet of results.
ii. About those championships
Not only did someone find a way to beat Lyne Bessette, but two people beat her! If it was Wendy Simms (the champ) and Alison Sydor, though, is it really that shocking? In the men's race, the winner was Max Harrigan (haven't met him, sorry) over last year's champ, Greg Reain. Both elite titles came down to 1 second gaps, it would've been a sight to see.
iii. Kudos to Velonews, part two:
Anecdotal coverage of this past weekend's Granogue race:
With three laps to go, Wicks tried to bunny-hop the barriers, something that nobody could remember having been attempted since they were placed in their current position three or four years ago. He cleared the first barrier, which brought gasps from the crowd. Then he rode into the second barrier like Wiley E. Coyote crashing into a canyon wall while chasing the Roadrunner, stunning the crowd into silence. Standing astride his bike at a standstill, Wicks looked up to find the Cyclocrossfiles.com video camera happily recording the whole incident. Wicks laughed, then got back to racing as though nothing unusual had occurred.
I'd like to think he would've had a good laugh even without the camera there. Sadly, Cyclocrossfiles.com isn't a real website (yet?), so who knows where the footage may be. This little report did make me feel better about my own follies at Sunday's races.
iv. About those Sunday races
During the single-speed race, I managed to rip my left brake lever loose--geez, I musta been torquing it to get up those hills. Let's see how I do on retaping...
v. Found while bloghopping
Everything I know about cyclocross I learned from Clark Natwick and Dave Carr. Though I guess OV has chastised me into attaching my race number in such a way that it doesn't act like a drag chute. Anyway, to complete a trinity of 'cross resources, maybe I could get Simon Burney's book--but why do that, if he has his own blog?
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Get it over with
(a) See poll in right sidebar.
(b) Bash out a race report before bed:
Pilarcitos CX #2 was at Candlestick Park beside the football stadium, on infill much like Sierra Point, only...softer. Greener. Inviting. And the course designers had done their best to make use of the earthworks, leading riders up and down several of the steep artificial banks. There were some really pleasant, smooth grassy bits, and then there were the bumps, the little hard bumps, hidden under grass...oh, bumpy on the rumpy...
After shirking double duty at least weekend's CCCX race, I wasn't letting myself out of doubling up in the B's and singlespeed races this week. Singlespeed came up first, following the wave of the Men's A field. With only about a dozen SS starters, it was nice and wide open. After my trademark slow start, I started reeling in people after a couple laps, which was really satisfying, but the short, steep climbs started to grind me down: my 42/18 gear was just long enough to spin up nicely on the straight and flat, not so much on hills.
It was a long race (60 min), so I got in 8-9? laps--leaders minus one, I got lapped by the lead trio of A's about halfway through. Somewhere in there, I had a spectacular dismount failure and literally slid into a barrier on my butt, which got all sorts of attention from spectators who heard the resounding thunk and expected to see body parts flying off. Happily (sort of), the only thing flying off was my ever-diminishing pride...
Finished off the SS race, then had 10 minutes to prep for the Men's B race. This was, is, and will be less than ideal. Oh well. Had half a bottle of Gatorade and a gel, swigged some water, swtiched bikes and headed out for more.
The B start was much busier with much more contact--there's no shame in that field about cutting people off, and I spent a couple seconds having a good tire rub with a bike that swerved not-quite-in front of me. Major clusters happened at the first corner, the first hill, the first barriers...In a couple of places, my top-secret strategy of using the SS race to scout the course worked very well and I could scoop a couple positions by timing a good dismount-run-remount, very satisfying, very 'cross-skillful-feeling. However, it was getting to be a long day...
Judging from the results sheet afterwards, mid-race, I was about middle of the pack, 30th to 35th out of 60. On the large up-down-Uturn-up-down after the start, I had felt a little twitch in my thigh, a little twitch of overworked muscle...On the same lap, approaching the runup, I just touched the little stump of a bush on the right side. I started twisting to keep my balance, but oh, ow, ow, OW---
The Crampster.
Cramp-o-rama.
Leg cramping in the middle of a bike race.
The Cramp-inator.
I promptly dropped like a tranquilized rhino into the remains of said bush. Nice, long, springy branches, good for supporting an inert body. No thorns, thank heavens. A couple of heads-up spectators got my bike out of the way (I was now outside the course tape). All the folks I had spent the past thirty minutes passing then came by, and I can only wonder if they noticed me curled up in the fetal position in a bush in the middle of the race.
Well, my calf calmed down somewhat, and I could keep going. The last couple laps were pretty sedate, molto tranquillo, and the race leader mercifully lapped me and ended my pain. Still, I wasn't last--just, like, 52/61 or so.
Lesson: doing SS and B's back-to-back is quite doable, and I don't think my results suffered terribly, aside from the cramp. Unlike in a one-off race or in two races with a 2-3 hour break between, though, fuelling is necessary, starting in the first race. Whoever doesn't look busy two weeks from now is getting recruited for hand-ups!
The other sorta sucky thing is that all that racing does get in the way of socializing, and I hadn't more than a word or few with all the cool cats who show up to the 'cross races. Merci beaucoup to OV and the QB for letting me crash their tent--the shade felt so good post-race, mm-mmmm.
(b) Bash out a race report before bed:
Pilarcitos CX #2 was at Candlestick Park beside the football stadium, on infill much like Sierra Point, only...softer. Greener. Inviting. And the course designers had done their best to make use of the earthworks, leading riders up and down several of the steep artificial banks. There were some really pleasant, smooth grassy bits, and then there were the bumps, the little hard bumps, hidden under grass...oh, bumpy on the rumpy...
After shirking double duty at least weekend's CCCX race, I wasn't letting myself out of doubling up in the B's and singlespeed races this week. Singlespeed came up first, following the wave of the Men's A field. With only about a dozen SS starters, it was nice and wide open. After my trademark slow start, I started reeling in people after a couple laps, which was really satisfying, but the short, steep climbs started to grind me down: my 42/18 gear was just long enough to spin up nicely on the straight and flat, not so much on hills.
It was a long race (60 min), so I got in 8-9? laps--leaders minus one, I got lapped by the lead trio of A's about halfway through. Somewhere in there, I had a spectacular dismount failure and literally slid into a barrier on my butt, which got all sorts of attention from spectators who heard the resounding thunk and expected to see body parts flying off. Happily (sort of), the only thing flying off was my ever-diminishing pride...
Finished off the SS race, then had 10 minutes to prep for the Men's B race. This was, is, and will be less than ideal. Oh well. Had half a bottle of Gatorade and a gel, swigged some water, swtiched bikes and headed out for more.
The B start was much busier with much more contact--there's no shame in that field about cutting people off, and I spent a couple seconds having a good tire rub with a bike that swerved not-quite-in front of me. Major clusters happened at the first corner, the first hill, the first barriers...In a couple of places, my top-secret strategy of using the SS race to scout the course worked very well and I could scoop a couple positions by timing a good dismount-run-remount, very satisfying, very 'cross-skillful-feeling. However, it was getting to be a long day...
Judging from the results sheet afterwards, mid-race, I was about middle of the pack, 30th to 35th out of 60. On the large up-down-Uturn-up-down after the start, I had felt a little twitch in my thigh, a little twitch of overworked muscle...On the same lap, approaching the runup, I just touched the little stump of a bush on the right side. I started twisting to keep my balance, but oh, ow, ow, OW---
The Crampster.
Cramp-o-rama.
Leg cramping in the middle of a bike race.
The Cramp-inator.
I promptly dropped like a tranquilized rhino into the remains of said bush. Nice, long, springy branches, good for supporting an inert body. No thorns, thank heavens. A couple of heads-up spectators got my bike out of the way (I was now outside the course tape). All the folks I had spent the past thirty minutes passing then came by, and I can only wonder if they noticed me curled up in the fetal position in a bush in the middle of the race.
Well, my calf calmed down somewhat, and I could keep going. The last couple laps were pretty sedate, molto tranquillo, and the race leader mercifully lapped me and ended my pain. Still, I wasn't last--just, like, 52/61 or so.
Lesson: doing SS and B's back-to-back is quite doable, and I don't think my results suffered terribly, aside from the cramp. Unlike in a one-off race or in two races with a 2-3 hour break between, though, fuelling is necessary, starting in the first race. Whoever doesn't look busy two weeks from now is getting recruited for hand-ups!
The other sorta sucky thing is that all that racing does get in the way of socializing, and I hadn't more than a word or few with all the cool cats who show up to the 'cross races. Merci beaucoup to OV and the QB for letting me crash their tent--the shade felt so good post-race, mm-mmmm.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Canuck 'Cross Championships - Saturday and Sunday
Um, no, I'm not getting a callup.
They're taking place in BC for the second year in a row: last year, they were within spitting distance of my relatives on Vancouver Island and included mud and a river crossing; this year, they're in the interior semi-desert near Kamloops, BC. You're forgiven if you don't know where Kamloops is, but it's only 1-1.5 hrs drive from where I grew up.
Defending champions are Gregg Reain, who's racing mostly in Europe but recently came back across the water w/ Vervecken to race in New York, and Lyne Bessette, one of the two North American cyclocross dominatrices along with Katie Compton. Both GR and LB had stiff competition last year though, with Geoff Kabush and Wendy Simms close on their heels. It'll remain to be seen who comes to Kamloops or spend time chasing UCI points elsewhere...
And as usual, I will spend Sunday trying mostly to not fall down.
Edit: Trying to not fall down at the Pilarcitos race at Candlestick. It'd be nice to go back to Canada for a race, maybe I will someday, but for now I'm still a racing chump.
They're taking place in BC for the second year in a row: last year, they were within spitting distance of my relatives on Vancouver Island and included mud and a river crossing; this year, they're in the interior semi-desert near Kamloops, BC. You're forgiven if you don't know where Kamloops is, but it's only 1-1.5 hrs drive from where I grew up.
Defending champions are Gregg Reain, who's racing mostly in Europe but recently came back across the water w/ Vervecken to race in New York, and Lyne Bessette, one of the two North American cyclocross dominatrices along with Katie Compton. Both GR and LB had stiff competition last year though, with Geoff Kabush and Wendy Simms close on their heels. It'll remain to be seen who comes to Kamloops or spend time chasing UCI points elsewhere...
And as usual, I will spend Sunday trying mostly to not fall down.
Edit: Trying to not fall down at the Pilarcitos race at Candlestick. It'd be nice to go back to Canada for a race, maybe I will someday, but for now I'm still a racing chump.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
For whom the charming start-up chime tolls
It was only a matter of time.
I decided to get a new digital camera after having fun playing with Morgan and Lauren's point-and-shoot a couple weeks ago and having less success with my own camera this weekend. Over the summer, too, my camera was having trouble keeping up sometimes during the road trip. Darn it if the 7 MP camera didn't cost half as much as my 2 MP camera did 5 years ago.
The power of having a 7 MP camera though is going to start straining the limits of my home computer: a Mac laptop, from 2000.
The screen still works, if perhaps a bit dim; it browses the web just fine, if perhaps Youtube clips run a bit ragged; its 384MB of RAM are enough, if asking for a bit of patience; but lest I forget, it was the vehicle for my graduate thesis. The hard drive is a once-massive 12GB, now half-full with system software alone, and the size of the camera's memory card will exceed the available space on my computer.
The final nail in the laptop's coffin was today's spam from Apple announcing the imminent arrival of the new version of OS X.
Finally, Apple has decided to discontinue making new versions of OS X compatible with my G3 processor. I'm running version 10.4.10 now, and it's the end of the road.
Hmm, so if it's time for a new computer, how about a few reality checks: do I need a laptop, or do I just like something that doesn't take up much room? Is it my work computer and/or my home computer? Do I pay retail for a Mac or get a work-discounted PC? Does it come with luxurious burled wood trim?
I decided to get a new digital camera after having fun playing with Morgan and Lauren's point-and-shoot a couple weeks ago and having less success with my own camera this weekend. Over the summer, too, my camera was having trouble keeping up sometimes during the road trip. Darn it if the 7 MP camera didn't cost half as much as my 2 MP camera did 5 years ago.
The power of having a 7 MP camera though is going to start straining the limits of my home computer: a Mac laptop, from 2000.
The screen still works, if perhaps a bit dim; it browses the web just fine, if perhaps Youtube clips run a bit ragged; its 384MB of RAM are enough, if asking for a bit of patience; but lest I forget, it was the vehicle for my graduate thesis. The hard drive is a once-massive 12GB, now half-full with system software alone, and the size of the camera's memory card will exceed the available space on my computer.
The final nail in the laptop's coffin was today's spam from Apple announcing the imminent arrival of the new version of OS X.
Finally, Apple has decided to discontinue making new versions of OS X compatible with my G3 processor. I'm running version 10.4.10 now, and it's the end of the road.
Hmm, so if it's time for a new computer, how about a few reality checks: do I need a laptop, or do I just like something that doesn't take up much room? Is it my work computer and/or my home computer? Do I pay retail for a Mac or get a work-discounted PC? Does it come with luxurious burled wood trim?
Saturday, October 13, 2007
CCCX #3
The rains of Friday had me wondering what the conditions would be like in Seaside/Marina for CCCX #3. That, combined with anticipation of doing both the B's and a singlespeed race, had me loading the car with enough gear for an Antarctic crossing. The weather turned out beautiful and I only did the B race...but it never hurts to be reminded of how much bike stuff I already own.
I woke up late and cranky and only got to the course with enough time to do a half-practice lap. There could've been more time, but with the start and finish separated by 5 minutes' riding, it was hard to tell. The course was mostly (a) long road sections, with a good bit of uphill to make lungs burn, and (b) tacky singletrack through the chaparral. A couple of runs, one with barriers, one because of the loose sand--I didn't know the right-hand line people were riding to get around it, so just loped through as best I could. Also, a set of barriers on a slight downhill that you could carry crazy speed into--fast-twitch muscles required to take those at full speed!
The singletrack was fun and seemingly innocuous in practice, and finally provided some of the "soft, loamy ground" I was pining for last week. At race speed, though, cornering became a whole new game. First lap, I lost the line on a zig, then lost it completely on the next zag, and came to a complete halt to safely extract myself from a bush as most of the field passed me by (again!). On the bright side, that's the closest I came to crashing today--no lost skin!
On lap 3, Hernando watching from the sidelines noticed that I had picked up nicely, so I had probably done enough to warm up by then, and there was a group of 3-4 I was trying to keep with. I blew soon after, though--not good in what was a 7?-lap race. I ended up 16/22, and I know I was behind several guys I beat last week.
In the aftermath, I felt spent. Both that and the result are signs of dwindling fitness on my part. I need to remember that for three months, I'm a cyclist who happens to have a day job, and should train appropriately! It took doing the singlespeed race out of my plan, so I hung out, played retriever for Hernando as he did hand-ups for the women's race (a good battle), tried and failed to get some decent race photos, and enjoyed the fine weather.
I woke up late and cranky and only got to the course with enough time to do a half-practice lap. There could've been more time, but with the start and finish separated by 5 minutes' riding, it was hard to tell. The course was mostly (a) long road sections, with a good bit of uphill to make lungs burn, and (b) tacky singletrack through the chaparral. A couple of runs, one with barriers, one because of the loose sand--I didn't know the right-hand line people were riding to get around it, so just loped through as best I could. Also, a set of barriers on a slight downhill that you could carry crazy speed into--fast-twitch muscles required to take those at full speed!
The singletrack was fun and seemingly innocuous in practice, and finally provided some of the "soft, loamy ground" I was pining for last week. At race speed, though, cornering became a whole new game. First lap, I lost the line on a zig, then lost it completely on the next zag, and came to a complete halt to safely extract myself from a bush as most of the field passed me by (again!). On the bright side, that's the closest I came to crashing today--no lost skin!
On lap 3, Hernando watching from the sidelines noticed that I had picked up nicely, so I had probably done enough to warm up by then, and there was a group of 3-4 I was trying to keep with. I blew soon after, though--not good in what was a 7?-lap race. I ended up 16/22, and I know I was behind several guys I beat last week.
In the aftermath, I felt spent. Both that and the result are signs of dwindling fitness on my part. I need to remember that for three months, I'm a cyclist who happens to have a day job, and should train appropriately! It took doing the singlespeed race out of my plan, so I hung out, played retriever for Hernando as he did hand-ups for the women's race (a good battle), tried and failed to get some decent race photos, and enjoyed the fine weather.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Northern turkey 'cross
This was the weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving, not that many people in the US notice either that or Columbus Day. Still, Happy Thanksgiving to you all--eh?
Sunday was the first installment of the Pilarcitos Superprestige cyclocross series, at a new/old venue, Sierra Point. The grounds were "reclaimed" from the Bay, so the dirt was, well, sort of like ground concrete. Hard, powdery. We don't get to play on soft, loamy dirt around here very much, do we? Others have described the spidery course, so on to a race report:
I started near the back, hoping more for a clean race than a high placing. Indeed, the clustering in the first sequence of up-and-down-and-up U-turns made a high placing pretty much impossible: by the time I got through, the leaders had long since hopped over the triple barrier way up the course. Still, I managed to sabotage my hopes for a clean race on the first drop after the barriers/run-up by sliding out on the oversized gravel at the bottom (gravel? well-aged asphalt). After getting up, dusting off, and checking to see if my bike still worked, there was a woman doing a warmup lap behind me. So, I was either DFL or really close to it.
The nice thing was that I was strong enough to catch up and pass people after that--clearly I was far more motivated after crashing than I was last week. The two running sections really played to my long legs and running background as I could make up gobs of time and space. Somewhere in there, I came up behind Nemesis, the rider who had caused me to crash the two weeks previous by boggling in front of me--he was picking himself up after a failed attempt to scuttle someone else's chances. I followed for some ways, leaving enough space to allow for dodging, then passed on some straight where it'd be really hard for him to find a place to boggle. And that's the last I saw of Nemesis...this time. We will meet again--he's better at lining up second row for the start, methinks.
The race ended with me in a pack-filler position (36/58) but without getting lapped. Key points: start better, somehow, and don't fall over. Really, I just need to stop falling, and things could improve mightily. And repairing skin is getting old.
Great fun to see all the folks with their tents (and precious shade) and barbeques and coolers out for the races: running a team competition that includes points for all of those things is possibly one of the best aspects of this series. Morgan even handed me his camera to take a few pictures 'round the course, which was fun--hanging out at the races post-Lycra is always fun--and some of them were even in focus. I think it also allowed Morgan to focus on, well, beer.
Now writing this post is mostly redundant because (a) I think I ran into everyone who reads this blog and knows cyclocross at the race, so they know my story already, and (b) anyone who reads this and doesn't know cyclocross will probably get as much out of it as they would an advance Swahili reader. But it's good practice.
Sunday was the first installment of the Pilarcitos Superprestige cyclocross series, at a new/old venue, Sierra Point. The grounds were "reclaimed" from the Bay, so the dirt was, well, sort of like ground concrete. Hard, powdery. We don't get to play on soft, loamy dirt around here very much, do we? Others have described the spidery course, so on to a race report:
I started near the back, hoping more for a clean race than a high placing. Indeed, the clustering in the first sequence of up-and-down-and-up U-turns made a high placing pretty much impossible: by the time I got through, the leaders had long since hopped over the triple barrier way up the course. Still, I managed to sabotage my hopes for a clean race on the first drop after the barriers/run-up by sliding out on the oversized gravel at the bottom (gravel? well-aged asphalt). After getting up, dusting off, and checking to see if my bike still worked, there was a woman doing a warmup lap behind me. So, I was either DFL or really close to it.
The nice thing was that I was strong enough to catch up and pass people after that--clearly I was far more motivated after crashing than I was last week. The two running sections really played to my long legs and running background as I could make up gobs of time and space. Somewhere in there, I came up behind Nemesis, the rider who had caused me to crash the two weeks previous by boggling in front of me--he was picking himself up after a failed attempt to scuttle someone else's chances. I followed for some ways, leaving enough space to allow for dodging, then passed on some straight where it'd be really hard for him to find a place to boggle. And that's the last I saw of Nemesis...this time. We will meet again--he's better at lining up second row for the start, methinks.
The race ended with me in a pack-filler position (36/58) but without getting lapped. Key points: start better, somehow, and don't fall over. Really, I just need to stop falling, and things could improve mightily. And repairing skin is getting old.
Great fun to see all the folks with their tents (and precious shade) and barbeques and coolers out for the races: running a team competition that includes points for all of those things is possibly one of the best aspects of this series. Morgan even handed me his camera to take a few pictures 'round the course, which was fun--hanging out at the races post-Lycra is always fun--and some of them were even in focus. I think it also allowed Morgan to focus on, well, beer.
Now writing this post is mostly redundant because (a) I think I ran into everyone who reads this blog and knows cyclocross at the race, so they know my story already, and (b) anyone who reads this and doesn't know cyclocross will probably get as much out of it as they would an advance Swahili reader. But it's good practice.
Monday, October 1, 2007
My country, my countrymen
Discussion of the Canadian men's performance at yesterday's World Championship on cyclingnews.com:
"The 270-kilometre course was tough and to be honest, this was a completely different level of competition," said Canadian team manager Kris Westwood. "It's as if the guys went from junior hockey to the NHL."
Dammit, if they had gone for the body and finished their checks, they woulda done good...
"The 270-kilometre course was tough and to be honest, this was a completely different level of competition," said Canadian team manager Kris Westwood. "It's as if the guys went from junior hockey to the NHL."
Dammit, if they had gone for the body and finished their checks, they woulda done good...
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