(not) 'Crossing
Date: Oct 1
Mileage: 27
Ride type: Roadish
Bike: Surly CrossCheck
Temp: 70ish
October mileage: 27
Year to date: 1609
'Tour de Louisville Cyclocross Race' Day. I didn't race, b/c frankly my fitness sucks ass compared to barreling full steam ahead on a 'cross course, but i rode to Shawnee Pk to take in the Louisville area's first 'cross race of the season. it's painful, and i couldn't really do it very well even when i was in better shape, but i love to watch 'cross action. this a.m. my dad was in town, and it's 'Z's bday, so we all met downtown at the Marriot for brunch. i left from there abt 10a.m. and toodled through Portland on the way to ShawneePk. Portland is as it sounds, the original Louisville area along the 'Falls of the Ohio', where the boats had to portage. it's ripe with dirty old river history. today i passed a Catholic Church started by the first bishop west of the Alleghanies, and had in its service the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States. Now the area is poor and dirty for the most part, much like the entire West End of Louisville. there are many working-class neighborhoods that were empties during the '50s race riots and difficulties, and now are inhabited by societies leftovers. to their credit, the city has tried to make some improvements to Shawnee to help the standard of living in that part of town.
today's cross course was #1 a little tougher than i thought it would be and #2 made even tougher by the recent rains. the park is almost table-top flat, so the designers found what small hills there are and made the most of them, with the dismounts and run-ups in that area. following is a series of some of the more interesting portions of the course:
This is a big-ass log dismount.
This next pic is the C-Race crew in mid-lap. the mountain bike guy you can barely see in the green jersey bunny-hopped it. More of a man than I.
This is one is the best pic of the day, a good barrier jump at the bottom of a quick hill, then this barrier, and then a sprint right back the same hill, a vicious little 'U' found here during the B-Race.
This is along what I guess is the floodwall. Both run-ups went up this embankment. It made for some nice full-field views. This is during the middle of the B-Race, I think.
This was the second run-up, and 3rd barrier. This is a somewhat crappy pic, not really capturing much in the way of action. It was very bright, so hard to see what was going on in the small digital camera. This include a downish/leftish offcamber portion, an immediate barrier, and a steep but very short run-up. I tried to get a pic of "Gansaari Man" here. Gansaari of OH went out of business recently, but seemed to build attractive elegant bikes in the Rivbike mold. This dude was throwin' it in SS mold style, but admitted later that he had partaken of too much of the brown liquor last night to make an impression. He was infinitely cooler than so many of the lycra crowd.
This pic is of a petite little ditch. It's only noteworthy in that on the warm-up lap I missed this turn entirely. The front rider won the B-Race; i would venture to say he's 18??
Now that I just looked at it again, I notice the big dude on the right in orange- bad day-glo 80s orange if you ask me, was the other dude on the day on a Surly, an ugly green one just like mine, but with chi-chi blue hubs unlike mine. The
i have a few more pics, but they suck even more than these. maybe if i had DSL i could upload them without guilt.
fun time. too bad i'm not 145 fighting lbs of 'cross kick-ass, but i'll get over it!
Mileage: 27
Ride type: Roadish
Bike: Surly CrossCheck
Temp: 70ish
October mileage: 27
Year to date: 1609
'Tour de Louisville Cyclocross Race' Day. I didn't race, b/c frankly my fitness sucks ass compared to barreling full steam ahead on a 'cross course, but i rode to Shawnee Pk to take in the Louisville area's first 'cross race of the season. it's painful, and i couldn't really do it very well even when i was in better shape, but i love to watch 'cross action. this a.m. my dad was in town, and it's 'Z's bday, so we all met downtown at the Marriot for brunch. i left from there abt 10a.m. and toodled through Portland on the way to ShawneePk. Portland is as it sounds, the original Louisville area along the 'Falls of the Ohio', where the boats had to portage. it's ripe with dirty old river history. today i passed a Catholic Church started by the first bishop west of the Alleghanies, and had in its service the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States. Now the area is poor and dirty for the most part, much like the entire West End of Louisville. there are many working-class neighborhoods that were empties during the '50s race riots and difficulties, and now are inhabited by societies leftovers. to their credit, the city has tried to make some improvements to Shawnee to help the standard of living in that part of town.
today's cross course was #1 a little tougher than i thought it would be and #2 made even tougher by the recent rains. the park is almost table-top flat, so the designers found what small hills there are and made the most of them, with the dismounts and run-ups in that area. following is a series of some of the more interesting portions of the course:
This is a big-ass log dismount.
This next pic is the C-Race crew in mid-lap. the mountain bike guy you can barely see in the green jersey bunny-hopped it. More of a man than I.
This is one is the best pic of the day, a good barrier jump at the bottom of a quick hill, then this barrier, and then a sprint right back the same hill, a vicious little 'U' found here during the B-Race.
This is along what I guess is the floodwall. Both run-ups went up this embankment. It made for some nice full-field views. This is during the middle of the B-Race, I think.
This was the second run-up, and 3rd barrier. This is a somewhat crappy pic, not really capturing much in the way of action. It was very bright, so hard to see what was going on in the small digital camera. This include a downish/leftish offcamber portion, an immediate barrier, and a steep but very short run-up. I tried to get a pic of "Gansaari Man" here. Gansaari of OH went out of business recently, but seemed to build attractive elegant bikes in the Rivbike mold. This dude was throwin' it in SS mold style, but admitted later that he had partaken of too much of the brown liquor last night to make an impression. He was infinitely cooler than so many of the lycra crowd.
This pic is of a petite little ditch. It's only noteworthy in that on the warm-up lap I missed this turn entirely. The front rider won the B-Race; i would venture to say he's 18??
Now that I just looked at it again, I notice the big dude on the right in orange- bad day-glo 80s orange if you ask me, was the other dude on the day on a Surly, an ugly green one just like mine, but with chi-chi blue hubs unlike mine. The
i have a few more pics, but they suck even more than these. maybe if i had DSL i could upload them without guilt.
fun time. too bad i'm not 145 fighting lbs of 'cross kick-ass, but i'll get over it!
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