Cross Dressing

Much to the chagrin of some mtn bikers I have dabbled in a little cross this fall. But worry ye not Garet, last week I spent a total of 3 hours on my cross bike and 14 hours on my trusty Stumpjumper. What percentage of your bike time was spent on gravel or road?

Last weekend was my first cross race of the year other than the Tuesday Night Universe that I had attended. Which by the way, Its FREE and it's fun and it's got a lot of supercool hipsters who are also really fast and it's FREE and I can ride my bike to the race. Boss Cross #2 was Sunday. I had to work on Saturday but had heard reports from Travis about the horrible sandpit. Travis is a totally whiner about having to run his bike so I took it with a grain of sand! I was committed to race SS then immediately CAT 3. SS had the usual big guns, I started in the second row and had the hole shot by the first turn. Led for 1/2 a lap before the the roadies decided it was time for me to pay, Britton and Kent from crashavita blasted off the front and left me to fend off the hungry wolves sitting 4th-7th. 4th happened to be none other than StJo famed Ethos jerk JDoug. I had started way to hard and was trying to get my legs back, every time I looked over my shoulder JDoug was closing that gap till bam he snuck up and latched onto my wheel. I was happy to have a little friendly competition, and knew that I couldn't take any chances with him. Everyone else behind him had raced earlier in the day but we were both fresh. One the one technical section of the course he bobbled and lost 5 seconds, I turned it on and pushed hard for the rest of the race which ended up doing me in but secured third. JDoug kept 4th solidly, I'm going to have to watch that guy! It should be mentioned that I raced my SS mountain bike which was a blast. I love that thing on all kinds of ground cover; dirt, rocks, sand, leaves, acorns, squirrel carcasses, etc. CAT 3, I was whooped and having wicked bronchospasms from my allergies. I lined up got a good start to avoid any messes then suffered for an hour. Didn't have much in the tank but pulled a 13/30. It should also be mentioned that Travis isn't much of a whiner, running through the sand a total of 32 times for the day was defeating.

That ain't no smile!

Went home and ate some food got some chores done around the house then went out with Burnsey and Taylor for some night riding action at BuRP. Haven't ridden there in over a year with that new car smell of swope. Wow, that place is awesome, best night ride of the year so far!