Cross weather is finally upon us. 52 degrees this evening, precipitation varying from slight mist to moderate drizzle, cloudy skies, and a near full moon, freaking perfect. The quad half full americano, and a fist full of Mad Alchemy Medium embro at the stop lights while driving over set the tone for my misty evening ride. Guessing low turnout was to be expected I also loaded up Death Magnetic from Metallica on the ipod.
The practice loop was ripping it gets better when wet, more challenging...extended over to include the small hill first, which was just barely rideable, you had to keep your weight distributed just right to keep traction on the rear wheel and keep the front wheel on the ground, then a fast round-a-bout the trees, over to the large hill for a full run up that was just slippery enough to keep you on your toes and realize that those spikes you put in are a good idea, then a fast downhill skirting the soccer fields that were super soft like sand due to the water, over the wood chip pile, onto the soft gravel that you just sunk into, then around the outside of the park on the pavement/crushed gravel path, finishing back on our normal route through the pine trees.
Rode a double for the first time in a long while, seemed ok....not sure if it's really worth the trouble. Stuff you can ride up in a 39 you can run up almost as fast, alright I can't run up as fast but someone can. Rode the Dugast Rhynos today at 35psi, wow those are great tires in the soft stuff, I was hitting the soft corners hard with no issues at all, kept pushing them a little harder but never got close to washing them out.
Jackson Park was hot, Hawthorn Woods was hot, today was beautiful and crossy, and I might add lonely.....Just me, Jack, and Mark out there today...it was an awesome practice on a perfect fall cyclocross day. One of the coolest things about cross is it goes down in all conditions.
