Hey, I own a cross bike!

Melinda and Cheeto at the S.C. crit.

I decided I needed a change. With the cyclocross season a mere 3 months away I changed my riding schedule. I blew off the Monday night road (race) ride in favor of something easier. The Monday night road ride was getting harder and harder to manage after a weekend of increased distances and work load. I decided I would go ride with the Bicycle Trip’s Monday night moto. Although mountain biking does beat you up more than road riding, I knew I could find someone in the group to ride mellow with. This seemed good in theory, except on this particular Monday the Bike Trip was having an all staff meeting after work. Bugger!

I decided on the way home that I would go for a cross bike ride by myself instead. After almost 5 months of racing and a Big Basin ride I had decided that I didn’t want to ride my cross bike ever again! So my cross bike hung in my garage for almost 4 months totally neglected and ignored. The mere fact that I wanted to ride my cross bike I took as a good sign!

Imagine to my surprise when I got home to find David Gill in my front yard feverishly working on his cross bike. I notice that he was installing one of my new road tire on his bike (remind me to change the combo to lock on my garage!).
Mike: “What are you doing?”
David: “I’m installing a road tires on my cross bike”
Mike: “Why?”
David: “So we can go road riding”
Mike: “Where’s your road bike?”
David: “At home; I couldn’t find my (road) shoes”
Mike: “But I’m not going road riding, I was going to ride my cross bike”

David then showed me his rear cross tire with a pinky sized hole in the side wall and the failed boot that had been jury rigged to get him home the last time he road the bike. I walked into the garage and grabbed a cross tire and handed it to David. I walked back into the garage and grabbed my cross bike from the rafters. It was then I noticed that I had a flat as well. I threw on my race spare wheel and we were off.

My cross bike which during the cyclocross season had become an extension of my body felt so wonderfully strange! It was almost like having a new bike. David and I headed up the train tracks, up Fcon and then up Ucon where at the top we ran into Mike Martin and Cheeto the wonder terrier. For those of you that don’t know Cheeto he has a wonderful life! He gets hauled up hill inside a backpack with his head poking out. Upon the arrival at the first single track or downhill, Cheeto is de-packed and set free. Cheeto is a single track machine! The twister it is the harder it is to keep up with him. When the trail straightens out and the mechanical advantages of gears overwhelm his 4” legs Cheeto will let you pass him if he is in the mood and If not, then it’s a fight to the next corner. Cheeto has done more drop/shuttle rides since he was a pup than most gravity junkies with 8” travel bikes will do in a life time!

So David, Mike, Cheeto and I wound and wove and zigzagged our way through loamy redwood forest singletrack behind the U. We then made our way down Mailboxes, bypassed over to Fence Line and then Down into the Poison Oak Forest. By the time we rode out of the ravine and onto Cow Pies, I was absolutely euphoric! I had truly forgotten how much fun it is to ride a drop bar cross bike in the dirt!!! This ride has got the fires burning again for the up coming cross season, but probably more important was having a kick ass ride with a couple of great friends appear out of nowhere!