Last night my friend Stacie organized a Pro party for youth cyclocross here in Louisville.  It is amazing the schedule that woman keeps.  I had a little glimpse of some of her day yesterday and it was crazy.

I went to her office mid day to get a x-ray of my thumb.  Her office was a zoo.  An organized zoo, crazy busy, but manageable, I guess.

Turns out my thumb is broken.  But, I knew that already.  It still hurts pretty much, but nothing like it did 2 weeks ago.  Plus, there is nothing that I have to do differently, so that is great.

I came back to her house to get ready to ride.  I was thinking I had all this time, but I didn’t realize that I hadn’t reset my watch from Chicago and it was off an hour.  So all of a sudden 2:30 became 3:30.  And the get together was starting at 6.

I hurried and rode down the RIver Road over to the course.  It had rained over an inch I hear, so expected it to be pretty soupy.  At the bike wash, most of the bikes were pretty muddy, but not clogged up.  But they were riding the whole course.  I just rode the top section that serpentines up and down the hill.  It was slick, but not muddy. I really didn’t put any effort into getting the lines down because it was going to be so much different today at 6.

Anyway, I hightail it back to Prospect, which is 11 miles, and just get back in time to shower and get ready for the party.

There were close to 100 people here.  Lots of good food, wine, beer, etc.  There were so many kids.  And the U of Louisville cycling team had representation.

There were a lot of really good riders that were on the panel for questions.  Katie Compton, Ryan Trebon, Gage Hecht, Kaitlin Antonneau, Gavin Haley, Dan Timmerman, Jake Wells, Ally Stacher and a few others.

It was super knowledgable group and there was a lot of information that was exchanged.  Every race should have a meet and greet party like this.

Today is going to be done in a blink.  It is already late morning, I’m still on California time, and it is T-7 hours to race time.  I’m going to suit up and do the 30 minute ride over to the course and do a couple laps between races.

I have no illusions on how I’m going to do here.  I very much doubt I’ll survive the 80% rule, which I think is bullshit.  I haven’t seen the sandpit and am hoping it doesn’t jack up my drivetrain too much.  Mike Crum left a comment yesterday about being unprepared for all the racing I’ve done.  He is absolutely correct this time.  I am super unprepared.  I haven’t dismounted or mounted a cyclocross bike in two years and didn’t have enough time to get the correct equipment together for my liking.  But I felt that I need to get back into the race scene and this was the first opportunity.  I’ll be better in a month or so.

The panel.

The young guys had some great perspectives.

The food was pretty impressive.

Katie and I.

Hip looks good. Buttons of my jeans are the dots.

Broken thumb. Little hard to see the break in this picture, but it is pretty broke.

Driving 10 hours yesterday I had a bunch of time to think about last weekend in Louisville.  I decided I probably should have started my return to cyclocross racing at a local event rather than racing against the best guys in the country, starting at the back.  It is not good for my mental health getting throttled that badly two days in a row.

The carnage at the back of the fields in those races is crazy.  It isn’t really anyone’s particular fault.  There are just a lot of riders and not that much space.  The Saturday night race was stupid the first couple hundred meters on the grass.  A pile up in the first corner, then again just a bit later in the dark mud pit.  I kind of missed all that, other than losing a buckle on one of my shoes, but still, the distance you lose there is terrible.

My running stinks.  I wouldn’t even call it running.  But, two out of three run ups on the course were pretty steep, with big steps, and that is the worst for my broken hip.  I am pleasantly surprised that my hip seems good from the weekend, even though it was twisted around on Sunday when my foot got stuck in Jacob’s front wheel.

I wasn’t riding that badly.  I wasn’t going great, but I wasn’t gasping for air or anything like that.  My bike handling skills were subpar though.  Those will get better.

I can’t believe how many guys were riding disc brakes.  I guess that is the direction the sport has gone and it isn’t reversing.  It seems like a hassle to me, but I’m old school in a lot of ways of the sport.  Removing rotors to fly, or just to pack wheels into the back of a car is going to suck.  Or just having cross specific wheels, training and race, is a big issue to most riders.

Anyway, I felt okay yesterday.  My right knee got pretty twisted on Sunday and it is aching some, but nothing serious.  I got back a little after 5 pm, and my brother had organized a gravel night time ride at 5:30, so I had to rush.  I only had to put bottle cages and light on my cross bike and was in business.

Riding at night, especially on narrow trails, (we started on a bike path), seems super fast.  It was way colder than I had expected.  It was in the lower 60’s when I got back, but was in the lower 50’s as soon as the sun set.  I had bare legs and never really got warm.

I sort of felt like riding harder, maybe pent-up frustration from the weekend, I don’t know, but whatever the reason, I ended up pulling most the whole way.  It seemed so late, but even after a couple mechanicals and riding two hours we got back before 8.  Man, it sure is dark then.

Anyway, I’m not sure what I’m doing now.  I have to work on my van some.  I’m thinking I need a new fuel pump and the transmission is okay.  At least that is my thoughts now.  The problem with this is that auto repair involves use of thumbs, which I am short of one.  My right one, which is worse.  I can probably get by, but we’ll see.

The sensations of riding at night are great.

They were harvesting a lot last night. I didn’t realize how much stuff goes into the air when they do this. Probably the reason for the great fall sunsets.