A New Perspective...

Learning To Ride

I live very far away from my home town - according to my dad, I live in the furthest place possible within the continental US. But I do love my family, and fortunately I am lucky to have cousins living only 15 minutes away from me. And my cousins have very bright, active, and energetic kids that are 7 and 10. However, these kids had one very big flaw: THEY DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO RIDE A BIKE!!!!!!!

Their mother was a bit embarrassed by this fact (who wouldn't be) but there wasn't much she could do as they live on a very busy street which makes learning to ride a difficult endeavor. Luckily, I live in a not-so-busy neighborhood and love riding bikes -- so my cousins came over to learn! We started out ignoring the pedals... just learning balance on the bike while coasting down a slight incline.

Jonah took this up very fast and was whizzing down the inclines scarily fast. Soon I told him to practice finding the pedals with his feet... and next his mom comes out and says "all you need to do now is pedal" and there you have it... Jonah was riding!

(Jonah flying along without pedaling)

(Jonah Riding!)

Kahlo had a much greater sense of self preservation and started out slow and steady with the coasting drill. She gradually built up her balance and speed and persevered with a little brother zipping across her path. After practice, practice, practice, she became quite good at coasting and we decided to put the pedals on and give it a go. Before long, she was pedaling too!!

(Kahlo pedaling away!)

I think my heart skipped a beat when they announced "Bike Riding is Fun!!!" -- hopefully they get as much joy out of two wheels as I do.

(Happy Devon)

2, 1, no bloody knees!

Stayed local this weekend. Although I really wanted to be in the mud and snow of fort collins, I had a lot of fun racing near home. Saturday was a night race in San Fran. Got off to a bad start (which is easy to do when you start in the last row), but eventually made my way to the front of the field and battled it out with Kerry and Gina for the last few laps. Couldn't manage the W, but hung on for second in a fun, tough race.

(photo credit: Jon Suzuki)

Sunday's race was even closer to home at the country fairgrounds. Should be good practice for Jingle (also taking place on fairgrounds), except it was sunny and hot... not snowy and cold. Ended up with the V on Sunday, but had to work hard for it with Karen hot on my heels.

(photo credit: Miss Mary Perez)

Best of all, I managed to stay upright all weekend and my knees came through unscathed for once! yay! (Oh, and I also saw a really cute puppy :)

Bloody Knees (mom, don't read!)

The last four race weekends have resulted in bloody knees...

(double bloody knees from tripping up a rocky climb)

...missing the bloody knee picture from running into a fence...

(bloody knee from sliding out on an off camber section)

(bloody knee from a super-man dive into the dirt)

Do they make cross specific knee pads???

CO Racing

Courtney and I headed out to CO for some fun Halloween weekend racing at the Colorado Cross Classic and the Boulder Cup. Our costumes were kinda lame... just a couple of cyclists. But the racing was super fun! The first day brought lots and lots of sand. There was so much sand that the UCI officials forced some of the sandy course to be cut out. That's a lot of sand. I got off to a great start but quickly discovered that breathing is hard a mile above sea level... the rest of the race I got passed and passed and passed... I held on for the last UCI points in tenth. Not too bad with a field of top riders, but it is really not fun getting passed the whole race.

The next day, I thought maybe I should start a little more conservatively so that I don't get passed throughout the race. Here is a picture of the start... Sure it says Gould gets the whole shot... but it fails to mention that Devon is very very close behind... which is not a conservative start. Oh well, that is a dumb idea anyway to start conservatively in cross.

Moments after the start, we fly over an island in the middle of the straightaway and I hear a "crunch" as I come off the curb -- not a good sound when riding a carbon bike on carbon wheels. I didn't have time to analyze the situation as the race was on (but it turns out my wheel... which is supposed to be very strong... broke coming off that curb... so so sad. luckily it held up enough for me to finish the race on it).

Next the race takes a sharp off camber turn and this mess happens -- my coach describes it as a "cat 4 pile up". The corner was trickier than it looks.

Crashes happened all over the course. I think a lot of people came away with a little less skin... but it was a fun course and a fun crowd. Check out the guy in the monster suit! At the end of the day I just missed the top 5 and finished with a 6th place... behind a lot of strong CO riders.

Overall a fun weekend. Plus I got to see family (my father and bro-in-laws were crushing it on the courses) and friends. Cross+Good People=Good Times.