This ain't 'cross weather

Yet another week of hot, hot, hot weather, riding through dust clouds and dry, yellow grasses, not the cold, grey, and mud that cyclocross is supposed to be done in.

Maybe against my better judgement I went back to do the Wednesday night cross ride over in Louisville at the old River Road Country Club. The course is far more twisty and curvy than I like, I prefer a more open course, but still if I am going to try and get back into racing this fall, the more I can ride with the fast guys the better.

Last week was the first organized cross ride that I had done in nearly 2 years, and boy did it show. I could not stay up with the group that I used to beat on a regular basis a few years ago. In the great scheme of things it mattered not at all, but it was frustrating to my competitive side.

This week was a lot better, I was still not leading the B group (but I don't really care that much about that, if I did, I would not have made my cross bike a 2 speed), but I was at least about to stay with the group and get a good workout, though I think that I have to play around with the gearing for my bike a little more to get it where I want it. It is a balancing act between having too easy a gear in the small front chainring and too hard a gear in the big chain ring. Last week I ran a 15t in the back, and this week a 17t, I think I will try a 16t next week and see how it goes.

We did 6 hard laps split into 2 groups of 3 with one medium lap in between, and by the end, my legs were covered in dust and sweat. After the ride I took my socks off, and it was like black and white between my ankles and rest of my legs.

It is nice cause one of the big racing teams over in Louisville is buying water and gatorade for the rides, so it is great to have something nice and cool to drink at the end of the ride.

25=48????

First ride post: Kate and I took the tandem out for a ride today with the idea of doing 25 miles (or so Kate claims, I was thinking we were going to do 30). It was the first day in nearly 2 weeks that the temperature was less than 90F.

We started from home and rode out to Indiana Highway 62 and headed up toward Charlestown. We rode through Charlestown and out Tunnel Mill Rd before turning off on to Charlestown-New Market Rd. This is one of my favorite roads to ride on, it has a great long down and uphill either way. The pictures of the corn and the old log house are from this road.

Once we turned off Charlestown-New Market, we rode to the small settlement of Otisco, a Native American word that means something similar to "many waters run dry." We stopped for something cold to drink, and yes, the store owner did have gas, she ripped one when I was paying for the drinks. At this point we were probably about 18 miles into the ride.

The photo card was full at this point, so we don't have any more pics, but we continued our ride with me choosing roads that I knew did not have big hills on them. Unfortunately, this also meant that the ride ended up being a lot longer than 30 miles.
When it was all said and done, we rode 48 miles today in about 4 hours (including stops). Probably around 38 miles we had to stop for a couple of minutes cause both of our butts where sore from sitting so long. We finally did make it home and laid out on the rug in our TV room.

Still, even if it was a lot longer than we had planned, it was a nice ride on a great day.

Meet Luke's Bikes

Croll Road Bike - age unknown, bought off Ebay.

Comfortable ride, mix of Shimano equipment, and of course lugged.

Plus it has really nice wheels.




1979 Schwinn Paramount (0ne of the last made in Chicago)
currently resides in Cadillac, full Campy Nuovo Record
Nervex Lugs, Reynolds 531 - it's the 1953 Corvette of American
bicycles - purchased from my neighbor





Interloc Racing Design Crossfire Cyclocross bike - only bike I have ever won races on.
Currently a dingle (double single) speed, great fun to ride, have to see how it works for racing this fall





Kate's bike - Jamis Quest - silver and black (her favorite color)
shown here in monochromatic splendor
Reynolds 631, and most important, a Terry Firefly saddle (it has flames!)





Burley Duet - great bike (but sometimes Kate is a back saddle driver)