I watched an interview with Matt Damon on public tv yesterday. I was mildly surprised how well spoken the guy was and how spot on his observations were. One thing that he said that resonated with me was something like “The most rewarding part of doing your job well is the little things that no one else knows about but you. The things that make you tick and the efforts only you know.” That wasn’t even close, but it was the best I can do now. It was strange because it was something that I was thinking, nearly exactly, earlier out riding.

Someone asked me just a bit ago why I still like to ride my bike so much and compete after all these years. I have a lot of different reasons, lots I’ve stated before here, but in reality, there are so many things involved that it is impossible for me to list them. So many little, itty-bitty things that wouldn’t mean anything, but to me. Or at least it seems that way until we run into each other and we don’t even have to bring up those things because we all know them.

The reason I liked racing so much on Sunday in Chicago was because it is so nice get some personal reward for all the efforts and sacrifices. I don’t really care about the place. Like I said yesterday, now, I would really have liked to be riding around in the front group, but that didn’t happen. But, being able to ride super fast around on grass on the golf course was fun, beyond fun. Trying to explain it to someone that doesn’t know bikes, it would sound like something so stupid. Doing 6 minute circles on wet, frozen grass, in the middle of winter in Chicago. But, it takes years to accumulate the skill set to be able to do it, and when it sort of comes together, at least to an personal acceptable degree, then it is a good reward, satisfaction. And the icing on the cake is that our peers get it.

I ride bikes for millions of reasons, like I stated above. It is something like Johnathan Livingston Seagull (one of my favorite all time books). The art of riding a bike, is sort of like what I would imagine it would be like if we could fly. We sort of do fly in our own way. And refining the ability to ride is what we’re doing our whole lives. And we don’t necessarily need races or others to confirm what we innately know. Cyclocross is the epitome of this. No one rides a perfect cross race. It can always be done better. That is one of the best things about it. It is one of the reasons I’m still in love with the sport.

I rode over to Lake Geneva from Delavan yesterday. It was around freezing, but the wind was blowing probably close to 25 mph. I took it super easy both ways. I don’t ride easy much, hardly ever. I had to check myself multiple times and make sure I wasn’t going hard at all. When you’re doing that, it is much easier just looking around. I really liked the contrast of riding on the dry, salt stained roads, the piles of snow on the sides, with all the lakes and fields frozen, snow covered. And there I was, self contained, all warm, bundled up, out in the elements, feeling pretty good. I wasn’t thinking at all about racing bikes. I was thinking how nice it was to be outside on such a miserable day, doing something so enjoyable, which made it a very nice day.

We’re heading over to Madison in a couple hours. I don’t really want to ride around the course today, but I think it is good getting a view of it and that lets our minds digest and mull over the different parts, subconsciously, thus making it easier to ride later. I’ll post some photos of the course later.

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know and you will see the way to fly.”
― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

The sunset of Lake Delavan. Just one of the reasons I ride bikes.

Yesterday went pretty well right until I got to the course and started pre-riding. We got up to Madison in less than an hour from Delavan, checked into the hotel early, got dressed and rode over to the course.

I was mildly surprised that the course was completely ridable, even though it was above freezing. I ran into Jared Nieters when I got there and he said had done 6 laps on his single speed and it was good. And it was. No matter what happens, I don’t think that the ground is going to thaw. I don’t think that it could possibly turn into the quagmire it became last year before it froze. That being said, it is going to get a lot slicker. There is still a fair amount of snow on the course and I think that is going to be completely gone in the next couple days. So, it’s going to be slick mud on top of frozen tundra. That isn’t a bad base for a cross course. That is until Sunday, when it is supposed to freeze super hard Saturday night and then not get above 22 degrees all day. Then it becomes a skating rink. Probably with ruts. But, you never know, it is weather, which is fickle, and cross, which is the same.

I fell pretty hard on one of the descents about a 1/2 lap into riding. I whacked my left knee onto my bars and tweeked myself in a few other places. I rode 6 laps total, mainly to get used to the bike handling, but also to get a workout. I got a lot better handling my bike on in the rutted snow, but I don’t think I’m going to be dealing with any of that later this week.

I got back to the hotel and noticed that my dropout was bent. I was in a mild panic because I knew that they are very brittle and didn’t remember if I had another dropout with me. I did bring an extra, so I decided to try to straighten mine. That lasted about 5 seconds because it snapped off nearly as I screwed the tool into the threads. The problem was there are super small allen key bolts, maybe 2.5mm or such, and they strip so easily. I got one out, but the other stripped. I don’t have a Dremel tool or drill with me, so I just grabbed the dropout with some vice-grips and got a gap behind it and inserted a screw driver. Then I snapped it off. So, minor disaster averted.

By the time I was done messing with my bike, my left knee was all swollen up and I couldn’t bend it. I got a bag of ice and put it on for 20 minutes. I limped around the rest of the night. Then, after dinner, I made some Zen tea and right after I’d poured the boiling water into the cup, I sat down and spilled the complete cup into my lap. Man, was there some excitement there. I don’t think I am like that old woman at McDonalds, a long while ago, but there is some damage to my inner thighs. We’ll see how that progresses. Right now it is better than I would have guessed. But, my knee isn’t any better this morning. More ice I guess.

So, hopefully I got all my klutzy stuff for the rest of the week over yesterday. I’m going over to the course again today and maybe just riding a couple laps. The single speed race is later in the afternoon, so I’ll probably head over there then to ride and then watch the races some. It’s a good course for a single speed under these conditions.

Okay, here are some pictures of the course from yesterday afternoon.

This is the first climb after the start.

This is the last climb after the sand pits before descending to the road to finish.

Looking towards the start/finish line.

The pit area.

Broken dropout.

I was trying to level my seat and Trudi gave me her iphone. She has an app installed that is a level. It wasn’t really long enough, but it was kind of fun anyway.

There is something in the soil here that is getting embedded into my brake pads. Some rock. It does a number on carbon rims.

Bromont was pretty tired on the drive over and found the strap on my backpack to use to hold his head up.