And of Cross It Begins

Cyclecross or Pyschocross - That is the question.

The bike is ready - upgrades - Challenge Griffo clinchers with latex tubes - nice, great grip.

This week I started off with the Hub ride after my night of poker winnings. A nice paced ride with a smaller group. I rode with Andy, Matt and Devin. The next morning I did Knucklehead for the first time in since I went to Florida. The ride was a little slower - a lot of big guns were missing to keep the pace constant. I was not in the mood to pull so I sat in and did no work but hang on. Hubbers on the ride were Matthew, Tim, Adam and Jeff - we all did the short ride.

Rode after school with Jeff both Tuesday and Thursday.

Tuesday Night was our cross practice at Steger SchoolMatthew, Dave Smith and Lady racers Stephanie, Jamie and Suzanne Johnson were in attendance. This is a great place to practice.

Thursday was my first Forest Park cross practice. The coarse was really cool. The only negative was a huge hole - which of course I hit - and went right over the bars doing a complete summer-salt. Didn't mess much up - just felt stupid.
After practice, I rode over to the Art Museum to listen to the St. Louis Symphony with Judy and the girls - complete with fireworks. It was an awesome evening!

Saturday Hermann Night Cross!!!! Let the pain begin.
In attendance for the 4's - Me and Tyler and a friend of Alex's. In the 3's was a whole crew: Rock (whom they missed pronounced his name for the State Champ call-up) Matthew, Eric, Robert and Joe. For the 1's was Devin and TimLook, I'm not last!
The good - It was really fun to be out there and I stayed upright - even off the off-camber downhill switchbacks and the sand/mud pit and I got called out by Aero for props. The bad - I sucked. It all began with the start. Great position, the horn sounded and I could not get clipped it. I tried, failed, tried again, failed again. Tried again and I got it. Now I was in the back - Shit. And pretty much, there I sat. The only successes was catching two guys in front of me - but I did get lapped by the leaders and I finished 42 out of 49. I have to face it - I will never be good at cross - but I do have fun so let the season begin!

On a non-related note - what has two thumbs and just bought a track frameset - ME - but details on that later.