Some of you may remember Richard Carlson’s feel-good bestseller from 1997. Come on, you can admit it if your read it. I read it.
I don’t mean to knock Carlson’s premise, but there are times when you really should sweat the small stuff. I found out Saturday that a cyclocross race is one of those times.
Usually, for example, pulling your front brake is a sweatless way to stop your bike, but when the trails look like this, pulling your front brake is an invitation to get up close and personal with the snow.
Most of us don’t sweat about treating our bikes as beasts of burden. But when those roles are reversed, even guys like Ryan work up a sweat.
Keeping my chain on a chain ring is another thing I don’t sweat over—except in cyclocross. This happened to me three times on Saturday...
Finally, small things like tripping over your front wheel can really slow you down. With just three laps to go I worked really hard to reel in two competitors. I finally caught them at the base of the uphill run. I moved around both of them on the hill, thanks to my long, gangly legs, but somewhere near the top I lost my focus for long enough to actually step on my front wheel. I didn’t fall completely over, but I did lose a lot of time untangling my foot from my spokes. This actually happened twice, and in a race that only lasts an hour, there isn’t time to not sweat over small stuff like that.
Richard Carlson obviously doesn’t race ‘cross.
P.S. Here's a little video of one of the races. There's some good shots of Ryan.
'cause it's the little details that derail your dreams
ReplyDeleteAs simple as it seems
The separate little things that you should have done
Define your life, honey, one by one
By the way, that was a Mason Jennings song that your post reminded me of.
ReplyDeleteHey dude...I think I rode a few laps with you. In fact, I think you witnessed my attempt to wreck my ability reproduce.
ReplyDeletegreat shots. you'd probably have better luck keeping that chain in check if you got rid of all of those extra gears.
ReplyDeleteYeah Mike, I remember you saying something about that. But trust me, I didn’t see anything. If I was watching you instead of my line I would have gone down in a second. It looks like tomorrow is shaping up to be more of the same.
ReplyDeleteI hope all of your equipment is working.