Saturday, September 10, 2005

'Cross Season Awaits

Well, it's that time of year again, cyclocross! What a meniacal, masochistic way to spend your winter, but hey, it's fun right? As far as training, I've been spending a great deal of time on the mountain bike, single speed specifically. I'm hoping the combination of leg speed and pure power pedaling it takes to keep yourself moving will provide what I was missing last year in 'cross. If you've never ridden a single speed, it such a pure way to ride. Remember back when you were a kid and all you had was your little BMX bike with one gear and a coaster brake? How awesome was it tearing around on that bike? And it only had one gear! Well, add the aspect of riding in the woods on cool trails, minus the coaster brake and there you have it, single speed mountain biking, you're 10 years old again. I have to add that I'm fortunate enough to have one of the best areas for mountain biking just a short ride from my house. Patapsco State Park has such a great selection of trails that are well maintained, yet not overlly maintained that you feel like you're riding on a greenway.





So back to my first point, cyclocross is here. Last season was a disaster, between my fitness and my bike, I'm not sure which was worse. Every racewas an adventure, something always happened to my bike, and even if it hadn't, I was just never there. Two weeks and a couple hundred dollars later, a new drivetrain and kick ass new Empella Frog Leg brakes and levers, Frankenbike is ready to rumble. Now it's up to me, so enough rambling, it's time to ride.

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