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Granogue:


I remember being pretty tuckered out after that ride.

crossresults.com

Have you been there?


(Click on "Racers." Search.)

from back at Iron Cross

Credit to velophotos.net.

hunting season...

...for this week and next. Rifle* season. I feel like I've been chased indoors from my backyard.



*I don't mind riding in the woods during bow season, being much more confident that a bow-hunter can distinguish between me and a deer than I am with the rifle hunters.

this week...

Wednesday: Super pleasant 60+ mile road ride in 72 degree weather.

Thursday: Morning Turkey Trot 5K. Pulled in around 19:30.

Friday: Not nearly as pleasant two hour cross ride in 30 degree weather.

winding up the cross season

Three more events in the next three weeks:

MABRAcrosss Championships
Carlisle Cross, MAC #5
Wonderland Crosss, Pennsylvania Championship

Then the long season is over. And I will rest.

wayne scott cross

I was planning to take the easy way out Saturday and race the C event...but then flatted not halfway through the first lap and that was the end of that. I haven't got around to putting cross tires on a pair of old wheels yet. I need to do this.

Luckily, since the C race is first, I had plenty of time to fix my flat and register for the B race. Which I did. And my four points at Hagerstown were enough to earn me a call-up--so Saturday marked my first front-row start.

Three firsts, actually: First cross-related pinch-flat. First call-up. First front-row start. First time fully taking out a course fence post in a crash.

Never one to miss an opportunity to foil fortune, I squandered my opportunity for a great start, and after about 100 yards I was right where I'm used to starting--a few places from riding clean-up. After two laps, I had passed all those that were easily passed and spent the next three laps gaining and losing ground to a slowly disintegrating larger group ahead of me. Near the end of the final lap I made it around two more riders, one of which hung on my wheel and sprinted around me at the finish.

I finished 14th. The first and second place finishers had quite a gap on everyone else, but there was less than a minute between me and third place. So...how much time did I lose negotiating my way around slower riders during those first two laps? Man, I really suck at these cross starts. I'm going to spend a whole day this week practicing these starts.

Unless you chose to ride through the very long sand pit, the course had four dismounts per lap. That's a lot.

I felt fast over the barriers.

Despite several opinions to the contrary, I fail to see any reason to take off my water bottle cages. Perhaps if I were committed to the traditional CX carry method then I'd understand, but I see no wisdom, and only shoulder bruising, in that method. So until I'm convinced otherwise, I'm sticking with the cages. Living life as a resistance against the machine...

The course went through a horse stable.

My bike is pretty.

the cold has returned

It's not really cold, but after a delightfully mild October it's now hard to imagine not at least having to wear knee warmers until spring.

Monday, I had to pull out my heavy long-sleeve jersey.