Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Time for a new challenge


Its not that I'm particularly awesome at the things that I already do but I somehow managed talking Eugena into letting me sell one of my older bikes and using that money to build another bike. So what form of biking is left that I haven't dabbled in? I have a road bike that I spent a lot of time on this year (on a side note, today my upgrade was accepted so starting now I will be racing as a cat 4 on the road), and I love riding my single speed 29er mountain bike so what's next? I decided to start racing cyclocross. The sport is pretty much designed to be a suffer fest. The races are held in the late fall, early winter, so that means cold rain, snow, and mud. The course is usually a short 1.5-2 mile course with short steep hills and barriers that force you to get off and run. It pretty much combines cross country running and mountain biking but all on a road bike (with knobby tires). Sounds exciting huh?

This Saturday is my first cross race. Utah has a 10 race cyclocross series and I'm going to try to race 2 or 3 of them. I decided to build the cross bike up as a single speed. I've been riding the single speed mtn bike for almost a year and I love the simplicity of it. You get a great workout and it allows you to focus more on the ride, not the bike. Fortunately the utah series has a single speed class, unfortunately the guys who ride single are crazy fast. So pretty much all I'm shooting for this weekend is a finish time....any finish time. Cyclocross is a good way to stay in shape in the winter months, plus who doesn't like riding in cold, rain, mud and snow?


World Cyclocross champ Sven Nys

No comments: