First Solo Road Ride

Gusty winds and lots of road kill. Roadkill starts small: SQUIRREL: flat as a pancake and stuck to the concrete except for it's tail flicking in the wind. It gets larger as you leave the city and approach the country: RACCOON: struck and down, but still alive! One foot away from me and looking straight at me as if saying "..Please, just put me out of my misery, now..." ..."No, I'm sorry Ricky, you're going to have to suffer like the rest of us. Don't worry, you'll get through it..." Finally, here I am on Buffalo Road, here we go. You know how you're stomach drops before you go descending down a rollercoaster because you've just mentally seen what you are physically going to go through? Well, that's what Buffalo Road does, it bites you - OOH! I squealed (squeeled?) with delight and was ready to conquer. Sadly, I did not see any buffalo; happily, there was no BUFFALO road kill. Buffalo Road ends fast and abrupt, so be careful while you're going as fast as you can. Largest roadkill: DEER: well at least half of one, and um never mind. This was an awesome ride. Sunshine on my shoulders may make me happy, but so do the 18-wheelers that come up from behind and suck you in the slipstream. Special thanks to Pete, who could'nt go after all, which was just more fuel on the fire to make me venture out on my own, and to of course, Nancy, who told me about this ride, and taught me to ride like I mean it out there.

More Cross News

Two more races; two more bridesmaid results. Spooky Cross in Des Moines had a great course and really tough conditions. The rain from earlier in the week made for PlayDo mud in several long stretches, which were energy-zapping (but fun). The wind was howling out the west and turned what was supposed to be a rest stretch into the toughest part of the course. Rode reasonably well and was closing in 5th, but dropped a chain in a bad spot on the 2nd to last lap and lost him, so I ended up 6th (out of 18).

Yesterday was Boss Cross in KC on the new Nationals course (there's a great helmetcam video of the course here). Quite technical and very bumpy (a mountain bike would have been handy), it was still a lot of fun. The whole course is on a hill side. There's a lot of off-camber stuff that, if the weather does not cooperate, will not be fun to ride. Two of the descents in particular are tricky-look for a lot crashes in December. Got a decent start, even with all of the team 360 guys hogging the front row. I was still within 20 yards of Steve Songer midway through the second lap, so I knew it was going reasonably well. Had a slight bad patch with three laps to go, so Songer dropped me like a bad habit. I dueled it out with another guy for the next lap and a half, then managed to get a 10 seconds gap on him with a lap to go (he was very slow on the stairs and the hairpin that followed it near the finish-dropped him there), and ended up 4th (out of 19). If I had enough discipline to eat better and drop a few pounds, I think I could more successfully compete for the podium in KC races.