New video on Youtube from the worlds course.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ro-oOUvqoUY
and the rollers race
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bBb7atCtrHA&mode=related&search=
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o9oSg75xP0w
and a bit of the chaos from our own backyard in 2005
The temperatures are slowly dropping, night time lows dropping into the 50’s and skirting the 40’s. The streets and sidewalks of State college are now packed with herds of increasingly younger looking students with their right hands glued to their ears. Yes, my friends, its time for cyclocross again.
Wednesday found me at the Spikes stadium for the traditional cross practice. Not a bad turnout: Chris, Billy, Roman. Jordyn, and a new guy, Pete. We started off with the standard follow-the-leader around the practice course before getting very serious and doing some sprint starts on the gravel. After 2 we were ready to move on, after 5 we were ready to go home. I threw out a few suggestions for more structured drills we could do, but thankfully no one wanted anything to do with structured riding and we decided that our time would be better spent having fun on our bikes, getting used to turning on grass and hills again, working on transitions, and generally tearing up the Penn State athletic complex. We did that until the evening sun painted broad pink swathes across the western sky. On the way back I noticed some severe flat spots in my rear wheel that hadn’t been there before. Apparently, in all the back and forth between grass and pavement, I’d managed to crimp the hell out of the DT Swiss rims that had faithfully carried me through the Adirondacks, across the cobblestone streets of Paris and the rolling hills of Bretagne. Miraculously, though the rims had folded, the tire still held air and I was able to limp home with the flat spot thumping out my pace.
