ride joe ride

I don’t want to write it, and you don’t want to read it, but as much as we’d rather otherwise, the cross season came to an end yesterday with the Illinois Cross Championship at Montrose Harbor. Sans snow, the prospects for a decent last race looked grim until my first pre-race lap of the course. In the same vein as St. Charles, it turned out that Turin managed to put together a course which walked that delicate line between power and technicality — both a powerfest and a serious test of almost every one of the major cyclocross skills (there was no appreciable mud, alas).

All I’m gonna say about my race is that if you want try out a new sandpit entry methodology, you really should follow my lead and save it for the last lap of the last race of the season AND make it a bunnyhop to endo/faceplant. Epic. If you can get Jason Meshburg to take you out as you try to get yourself back on the bike, so much the better. Kidding Mesh! You rock. My last lap was sorta like Sven Nys’s 50th superprestige last lap: reflective. Mine contained a much larger portion of suck of course. I was getting nostalgic as I was going around: “ah, last barriers of the season” and “ah, last time I’m going to get passed this season” and “ah last time I’m going to be laying on my back in sand and watching my bike come down from a blue sky onto my face this season” and “ah last time I’m gonna have J running along side of me yelling crazily this season.” One of the charms of cyclocross is undoubtedly that you put your head down for the first bandit race in the heat of August and it seems like the next time you sit up, it’s December and everyone is wearing poofy jackets and drinking spiked hot chocolate.

So that’s it peeps: 2009 Chi Cross Cup is a wrap. These past months we’ve seen our sport transform from a series of races into a season-long event which ended up being so much more than simply a sunday morning race. My season has been full of really awesome moments both as a competitor and as a fan. I’m still glad I was present for my favorite though: the sigh on the hill at Dan Ryan Woods. I really think it’s where the CCC collective became aware that our bike races were the best around.

The list of people who deserve me to buy them a beer in appreciation encompasses basically everyone who came out and/or raced these last few months. Particular mention, though, goes to a few. Allison once again was an awesome support partner through season (and that season was pretty much all last year). J and all my fellow Tatitos were an inspiration. Racing with them has brought a camaraderie to cross that was totally absent for me last year and is really the best part of the whole endeavor. Dave and the rest of the Flatlandia guys’ early season organization of the bandit races was, I think, one of the things that made this such a good season — people got excited BEFORE Jackson Park. The race directors and organizers of each of these races put together a series that really is unparalleled in the US and which we’re lucky to have on our doorsteps. Finally, a big double helping of thanks to Jason Knauff for navigating this year’s series to such a high level of success.

I’ve been remiss in keeping up here with writing much of the season, but over the next few weeks I’ll try to catch up to some extent. Last year I decided to sorta make this document an account of my going through a full season of mostly structured cycling training. I learned from that effort, and I’ll try to sort that out a bit. And speaking of, I have been thinking about next year and will be posting the rough outline/plan here soon (hint: the season plan has lots to do with cross). For now, the off-season begins today.

Friends, it’s been a truly memorable season. I am both proud and grateful to have spent it racing and cheering along with you.

286 days until Jackson Park!