dc = ok

visited washington dc over thanksgiving holiday. dc is a pretty cool bike city. lots of bike lanes. lots of commuters. lots of cool, smelly messengers. on weekends, they close down the main road in rock creek park (a forested park inside the city) and if fills up with cyclists, runners, walkers, rollerbladers, etc. cycling on new roads is also great, especially when it's in the mid-60s in november. plus, people up in dc ride some pretty cool bikes. they also seem way-too kitted-out. most people seemed to represent some local team, and i saw a bunch of groups of team members riding around. i'm not entirely sure about how i feel about this: one part of me thinks that clubs riding around training together is very cool, but another part of me kinda thinks it's kinda uncool to just ride with your little group and not mix it up with other random folks. it seems like if you wanna ride in a place like that, you gotta join a team. it's very un-durham, where most folks don't have a team and just show up and ride. maybe durham is too small to support lots of teams that fill different niches. yeah, i suppose teams are cool (i mean, this is kinda a team site--duh), but i think it's also important to explore the world outside of your team.

luck and negative luck

skipping cyclocross races every-other weekend makes me really relish the ones i make. it wasn't a bad strategy for the first few. i think the time off gave me some nice recovery time. oh, and also i had to do real work. but that's all boring crap, so here's the part where i tell a funny story:

southern pines. first lap starts with a scary start on a narrow 180 degree u-turn on pavement. i was scared and slow and hung out at the back. we got back to nice, safe grass, but for some reason, on a nice, wide straightaway, there was a big crash that tangled up most of the field. slackers like me in the back rejoiced and jumped up to some nice places. this is the beauty of cyclocross. weird stuff happens and you seize such an opportunity, if the opportunity should arise. so this is all great, until, about 2 laps later, just as i've bridged up to a useful group, someone breaks the "caution" tape that marks the course. tape goes into the cassette and around and around and around. okay, i gotta stop, pull all that crap out, then get back on the bike and try to chase down all the dudes who passed me. tivo forward a couple more laps. i'm trying to bolt past some dude across the barriers, throw my bike down too roughly, and drop the chain. and, yeah, so at this point, i'm done. not like DNF done. DNF is not cool. but i'm basically just riding out the rest of the race, trying to get fit for the next race in a couple of weeks.

that's luck.

Smack

A Jeep Cherokee tried to take a piece out of me on my ride this morning. Fortunately it only sideswiped me, leaving me bruised and scratched but, so far as I know, with nothing broken. My upper arm and elbow are pretty sore where they smashed his right rear-view mirror, and my hip is sore where his rear tirewell hit me.

I was in the middle of the lane signaling a left turn for about 50 yards. The guy had 1/4-mile visibility to see me. But he somehow didn't think that I was actually going to turn left and decided to try and pass me at 50mph. Winner of a driver there.

The bike came out of it a little worse for wear. Both shifters are pretty scratched up, along with the pedals, the rear D, the saddle and the bars. Damage is a lot like my crash at Ace a year and a half ago, only more so. Oh, and my new iBike powermeter is now iBroke. Riding the 5 miles home (yeah, I rode home, stupid) the bike seemed to be pulling to the left. I don't see any visible damage to the frame, but it might be bent. Shifting was all horked up too. Strangely, my wheels are fine. Rock on Open Pros.

It's all now in the hands of the insurance companies. The patrolman who reported cited the guy for "an improper turn."

Hug your loved ones for me. Josie can't figure out why I'm being such a pest.