Tripleshot Cycling

That was a really fun course. It was pure cardio as it went back and forth mostly on flat soccer field with nothing at all really technical to worry about. The entire course was accelerate, brake, turn, accelerate again. Lots of TS'ers out, both racing and watching.
I managed to stay right up around top 10 for the first 5 of the 7 laps, having a good battle with some guy in a trek red truck jersey, and trying to close on Gavin, who was just ahead of me. On lap 3 or 4 or so, I decided to put a real effort in to closing on Gavin, as he and 2 or 3 other guys were holding about 40 yards ahead of me. I finally got on his wheel after almost a full lap of really redlining it and was there for no more than 50 yards when I wiped out passing a lapped rider on the bark mulch hairpin. No oxygen makes bike handling skills go away. Ahh Crap! more chasing.
I managed to get about half of the distance back, and yelled at Gavin as he came out of one of the grass hairpin corners I was going into that I was "coming for him".....only to wash out my front wheel and skid along the ground not even 3 seconds later. I got heckled by Gavin as he came around the next straightaway and saw me on the ground.
Another lap or so and I came through the start line and saw Gavin had stopped (with a flat), so I stopped too, thinking we had done all the laps. After figuring out we hadn't I jumped back out on course, and before long had some guy in a red jersey breathing down my neck. I was trying my best to stay ahead of him, but was feeling sketchy on my grass cornering by then from multiple crashes. Pretty soon I hear "on your right!" and he starts to go around me, at which point I realized it was Dylan in his red white and yellow TS kit. I followed his wheel around the last lap, trying to find a spot to get back around, but he was too strong.

Only one week left, so get out next wednesday if you want to try some casual cross racing.

Single speed Cyclocross World Championships are this weekend, and I only got my single speed bike put together at about 2:00pm yesterday. It took over half an hour to ride down to Margaret Jenkins, as my top speed is under 20km/h. Katie and I arrived just as the warmup lap was starting.

I put myself on the front row, but going for the hole shot on a single speed is pretty much impossible, and I probably really annoyed everybody behind me. Oh well. I was having some chain skip issues, so I was having trouble putting the power down.

Single speed is interesting, really makes to think before scrubbing any speed, since it'll be such a pain to get it back. I was pushing it much harder in the corners than I usually would, and ended up on the ground several times. Then I ran over some flags and got them all wound up in my rear wheel. Then I crashed some more. Good times.

If you think cross is too easy, try it on a single speed.

My bike also became a singlespeed yesterday afternoon. However, I was lucky enough to still have a functioning front derailleur, so on the way to and from the race I had a somewhat more useful gear than Roland did. This just meant that I arrived at the race already wheezing from pedaling as hard and fast as I could trying to tow Roland in my draft for the last few km, knowing that we were already late.

As we lined up for the start I discovered my stem was not tight at all and as I scrambled to find a tool to fix it, the race started. By the time I got everything tightened, the back of the race had almost two corners on me, so the chase was on. I managed to pick off a number of people, and hold of a few people for the next 2 laps or so, but would spin out on the straights, so that's usually where people passed me. Riding singlespeed forces you to be more efficient and smooth in corners and short hills, so I was able to make up ground in those sections.

According to my Garmin, which we know is never wrong, I completed 21 laps (of something) during the 30mins of racing. Not bad at all.