Cyclocross is Coming

I haven't made a post since springtime, but with cyclocross around the corner it's time to blog again. First, a few updates on the spring and summer riding.

This year, I joined the race team of Portland Velo. I've raced mountain bike and cyclocross for a quite a few years, but I figured some road racing would get me in shape for the 2008 cross season. I've done a mixture of road races just to get some experience, figure out what I'm good at, and improve my fitness.

I've learned that I'm too big to be a "climber" and too small to be a "sprinter". That leaves the middle ground of "guy that works for the team". This turns out to be a "strong man" position - spending time at the front means alot of work. My best chance of winning anything is to get in a breakaway with a few guys or if it's short - just by myself. Well, I think that will be good training for cross.

I've done quite a few races at PIR (the car race track in PDX). They have a couple races a week in the evening during the summer. This is a great place to get race experience and get some training.

I find that I enjoy the shorter races such as PIR or criteriums. These are typically 30 to 60 minutes races. The crits are alot of fun since the are fast and lots of corners - you have to be on "your game" the entire time to keep the rubber side down.

I got some new wheels for my cross bike - Stan's NoTubes. They are tubeless so you can run much lower pressures without pinch flating since there is no tube. I'm pumped to try them out.

Well, the first taste of dirt is this weekend at Krugers. This is a basically a strong man crit on gravel. Race is for 45 minutes on the farm roads. Should be lots of fun.