Cross Season

It's that time. Now before I start talking about cross racing it's important to note that I really suck at cross racing- I love it but I've got a lot to learn. I've been giving it a go for three seasons, so this will be the fourth- and I'm hoping to have at least one clean race this year where I don't find myself looking up at the sky wondering how I got onto the ground, or totally blowing a remount and singing a few octives to high.

But I really do love cross racing and the reason is it's so much damn fun that the amazing amount of pain that you feel while you are racing doesn't seem so bad. It's anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour of all out pedalling and seat of your pant bike handling, with a bit of jumping on and off your bike at speed thrown in for good measure. You get to race the course a number of times so despite the fact you get tired you actually get better/faster as the race goes on as you find the sweet lines.

Plus you get to go and race and then after you get cleaned up and grab a coffee or beer you get to watch the best in the country do their thing- and try to figure out how the heck they don't fall on their face when they get off their bike when they are going that fast.

This year I'm running gears again for cross season, which I'm pretty psyched about. SS is great for mountain biking or crazy strong cross racers- but not for me. I'm hoping to be able to hang a bit more this year.

I've rebuilt my Jake the Snake and am trying to make it fit a bit better. I had planned to work with JJ to have it become part of his quiver but I got cold feet- I think the idea of four bikes leaving me at once was to much for me to handle so I spent a pile of money to try and make it fit better- so far so good (sorry JJ!) In hindsight (if this works) it'll be worth while as it weighs a GREAT DEAL less then the Surly Cross Check. I set it up with bar end shifters and while it's taken awhile to get used to them I kinda dig them! A wider bar and a layback seatpost and it's feeling pretty good. I think I do still need to go to my long 120mm stem, I'm running a 100mm right now but once I do that I think I'm golden. Now I just need to learn how to ride the damn thing!

On another note I saw a cool article by Lenord Zinn about getting kids into cycling and they had this picture:

Makes me realize that when I use Mountain Meisters (our weekly downhill ski race) as an excuses to not ride into work on a nice day that I'm just being soft!

That's the story at the moment.

Get out and ride.


DEA