A Good Fall

[Insert obligatory appology for not posting for over a month]

Charm City.  Whirlybird.  Granogue.  All cross races near and dear to my heart.

C3CX Day 1- Enjoying me some Planter action before my bike fell apart.

C3CX Day 2- Bike was a bit long in the TT, but drove pretty well. Blue geometry > Van Dessel geometry?

Granogue Day 1- A little help from my friends.

Granogue CX Day 2- Those three behind me... that's the end of the race...

I need to become smarter at racing these courses.  I tend to have too much fun on the first day, burning more matches than I hold trying to ride run-ups, and in general finish as high as I can.  The thing is, I like having good rides on these courses.  It's all too easy to destroy myself and still have a day of racing left.  I managed to do ok with this at Charm City, but most of that probably had to do with the fact that I had a catastrophic crankset failure on lap three on Saturday.  Sunday I raced a teammates bike, and had a pretty darn good day.  It's great to be a part of that event.

Whirlybird was good too.  And muddy.

Granogue was a lot of fun, as always.  It's, again, great to be a part of this event, if only a small part.  Everyone chips in to make it happen.  Saturday's race was great.  Started 108th, finished 58.  One of these days I'd love a good start position.  I would hope I could make it at least into the top 20 of a cross race like I did two years ago at HPCX.  Enough complaining...  raced hard enough on Saturday that I got lapped and pulled on Sunday.  Only at Granogue...

In between some cross racing I got a few weekends off.  I decided to head down to the Shenandoah Valley Mountain Bike Festival in Stokesville, VA for some singletrack riding.  I definitely got my fill.  Narrowback night ride on Friday night, 54 mile Fatty ride featuring the Dowell's Draft, Road Hollow, and Braley's Hollow descents, and the 1.5 hr Hankey Mountain climb, the Confederate Breastworks climb, and the Bridge Hollow climb.  I hurted on that ride.  But getting to rally down Dowell's, Road, and Braley's was fantastic.  Road Hollow is the only one I hadn't ridden yet.  It was frighteningly skinny, off camber, rocky, swoopy sidehill singletrack.  Amazing.  Sunday I participated in the JV Squad and Friends Lookout Mountain ride.  Best singletrack I have ever ridden, hands down.  Following Sue Haywood down from the top of Lookout didn't hurt either.  The lower lookout also had the best view ever; a full display of fall in the Virginia Mountains.  Now with pictures.

The reward for a 1.5 hr plus climb... This and the Dowell's Draft descent.

Rollin...

The group I pretty much spent the day with.

Overlook at the Confederate Breastworks.

Wonder what's to the right?

Tired and happy after rallying down Braley's.  Only 14 or 15 miles to go!  Plus the bottom half of Hankey!

Lookout Mountain singletrack... primo.

JV Squad and friends.

Lower Lookout Mountain overlook, after a killer descent.  Words can't describe how amazing the VA backcountry is.  Many more trips will be in order.

Hopefully I'll be back in the 'cross scene for HPCX next weekend, but only if I can carpool with someone...

There also may be a Michaux trip in my future...