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| Wednesday night Cross #2. Muddy fun. You can see Jen in pink and Greg Hood in yellow. Photo by Tom Robertson. |
In Missoula, we're lucky to have an active cycling community, with some enthusiastic, volunteer oriented people who are willing to put on low profile, low budget, mid-week (and weekend) races. These folks' only reward is the satisfaction of creating events for people like me to enjoy. Thanks for your efforts!
For example, this summer was the first year of a mid-week mountain bike race series up at Marshall Mountain. More recently, Missoula's Wednesday Night Cross Series has been going on for four straight weeks, drawing a sizable crowd of racers and spectators, even on cold, wet late-fall evenings.
It's nice to have an excuse, mid-week, to cut out early from work, put on my cycling clothes, jump on my bike, and head out to race. I've come to understand that racing is something I enjoy: pushing myself as hard as I can, 'mixing it up' with other racers, and basking in the post-race camaraderie after an hour of hard labor.
It's been an eventful cyclocross season for me so far. I raced Men's B during the first race and got second place, so I decided to move up to Men's A for race #2. But I crashed hard at the start of that race, bending my bars, ringing my clock, bruising my thigh, and gashing my shoulder, elbow and ankle. I've been telling people that I crashed 'like a 12 year old daredevil'.
So for the next two races, humbled, I dropped back to Men's B and have gotten second place in both races, beaten both times by a grad student at UM named Ian, seen in the picture below. Both times, on the last lap, on the course's one hill, he's passed me and I haven't been able to gain the lead again. But I don't care much about winning. I'm just glad to be mixin' it up with some strong riders, years my junior. And it's also nice to know that there are several guys older than me, in Men's A, that are kickin' my butt, so I know that there's room to improve.
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| Wed. Night Cross #4: the fellow in the background (Ian) passed me on the last lap for the Men's B win. Pat Scharfe photo. |
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| Hanging around after the race. Photo by Alex. |
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| Local Masters legend, John Fiore. Photo by Alex. |
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| Going over the barriers. Photo by Alex. |
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| That's me, all blurry. Photo by Alex. |
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| Steve Amish and I after the race. |
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