cross rides, fall rides, and being pushed by death...

its been a good fall for me. as per the norm im not riding nearly as much as i want to be. but when is that not the case. the majortiy of my rides have been on the cannondale doing my little gravel/ single track training route on the "state trail" short fast and sweet about all i have time for. i picked up a set of specialized bourough xc's. they are light, fast, rad and expensive. paid more for tires than i did for the frame, fork, headset, and brakes. fml.

did my first ever cross race at theo. raced as a good ole cat 4. it was fast, fun, and fucking awesome. too bad cross is so dam expensive. is there really a need for cat 4's to have a USA cycling liscense. no there is not.

got out for some good ole hike a bike with cox. he even let me ride my ole banshee scirocco for shits and giggles. man i miss that bike. its fast, fun, and fucking heavy. heres some photos of the shenanigans.

XTREME! right well that's how i spent last Sunday. yesterday however was a completely different matter. yesterday was the Dirt Bag

Friday night skogen and wilson roll up and unload. we shoot the shit and rip on tri athletes and  the home brew recumbent riders...you know who you are...turns out there is a recumbentcon... go figure. hit the hay, wake up, load up, fuel up at perkins and get to clear water nice and early. we get geared up and meet some riders and roll out. right off the bat drew TT's on the gravel. warm up or just trying to move things along? the pace is nice and easy at about 20 or so. theres a big group, gravel is nice and tacky, pace line forms i sit at the back and relax. about 5 miles or so in, im in the midst of a wonderful day dream when havoc happens in the nice form of a sand trap. riders go down and everyone is stuck in two high of a gear. i ran through it and regrouped only to hit sand again. and again. and again. the road is finally looking good. there are about 3 riders around me and a group of 5 ahead of us. i look back and say lets go. we pulled ahead and caught the group of 5. now we were 8 chasing the lead group. about 20 min later we caught the lead and were 20 strong working together.

until mile 35 im up front chatting with drew at about 14mph or so. then BOOM washboard and the attack. the road went to shit. drew garmin flew off and smacked me in the face and catching me off guard. in the process of getting my shit together i was dropped like it was hot. i worked my way through, caught some rides passed some riders. hit the pavement and saw a group ahead. to far to catch alone. waited up for the rider back and we made our move. ever so slowly we caught up with Hurl and company, man was i hurting. then Sam and company were with us. we had a legitimate chase crew and the hammer was put down. too fast. legs burning i got dropped again. i tried to chase. but i couldn't. the distance got longer and longer. i was alone...

i sat up. slowed down. and peeked over my shoulder. another rider. death rider. my savior. we worked together that last 35 miles. we both hurt. we shared it. the last 35 was probably the shittiest 35miles ive ever ridden. but the conversation was excellent. we chatted our way to a 23rd (death rider) and 24th(my self) finish. i was wrung out, strung out, and totally happy with my finish. 4:52 and a total of 84.5 miles elapsed distance. not too bad