ride joe ride

I wrote up this really long — nay, epically long — account of this week’s race. It reads like the freakin’ Odyssey, and in it I valiantly battle fearless warrior Mark Feary for 10th place in excruciating lap by lap detail. It’s way overwrought. I won’t subject you to it. I shall tell you, however, that I prevailed at the line in the contest against Mark and I got my first top-10 finish in a cyclocross race. I’d lie if I denied that this made me overwhelmingly pleased — this was my unmentioned goal for the whole season. It’s pretty much gravy now from what I can tell. I also managed to slide into 7th overall for the m30+ series. Squeaking brakes, lack of technique, dirty bike and all, I’ll be getting call-ups next week. Watch out starting line.

Now I’d like to tell you about the really important news from the Dan Ryan cx race.

A key feature to Beverly’s powerarific course was an off-camber S-curve down a hill which you rode just a few seconds after running up the hill and tasting your breakfast again. Crashing on this little downhill section was very easy to do. By the time a few of us made it up to the hill for the 4’s races, there was quite a throng gathered. I don’t know if it was the close proximity of both the run-up and the descent, the fact that there were more liquored up fans than I’ve noticed before at races or what, but this crowd was AWESOME. Over the course of the 4s races we gradually migrated from standard cheering to “cowbell in the face berating antagonism.” We helped people fall over. We helped them back up. We expressed lots of opinions about power measuring devices. We suggested people not use their brakes. Surprisingly they complied. At some point, dollar handups sounded like a good idea. J took one in in the mouth high-style. There was lots of crashing. It was a very very good time.

Then something happened that I’ve never seen happen at a cross race, and this is my news. The crowd looked around and realized that the last 4b rider had just run our gauntlet. I actually said “Is that it?!” somebody answered “yeah” and THE CROWD SIGHED. I kid you not. They sighed. Like the moment the lights go on at a 4am bar, this group of people was bummed that it was time to go home.

In my estimation, that sigh is the future of cyclocross sounding pretty damn rosy. I could go on and on about the growth of cross, and how awesome this series is getting, but for now please know that a big ol’ group of fans expressed sadness at the end of a cyclocross race in the way usually reserved for polishing off a good cheeseburger, seeing the credits at an epic movie and packing to head home after a vacation.

Grabbing the 10th place was gratifying, but I’m even more glad I heard that sigh.