217: doing the belgium.

nice mellow base ride. gray, foggy, cold, misty the entire ride, pretty much perfect. About 3/4 this through we stopped at Northbrook for some fine donuts and coffee before heading back to finish out the ride. Very fun group including : Monkey, PMP, E-town, Tom Mc, Jebalicous, L-Web, Bilson, Dennisbike, Disco, Bill and me.

Northbrook Orchard Store sits on top of a rather long, and grinding climb. Just before the climb starts there is a set of treacherous railroad tracks. Normally I have no issue getting across railroad tracks, but this particular set has claimed many a rider, and in fact last year took down Tom.

Disco and I were just recounting how nasty these tracks are, and our plan to get off and walk them when Monkey charged across. She was almost clear when her rear wheel got caught and spun out, she stacked it up pretty good. Bill, veteran of Wilmington racing and riding, was following closely behind Monkey as she kindly took him down with her. He must have been saying to himself "message to self: avoid riding with the cross kids."

Once we made sure Diane and Bill were okay, Tom said to Diane perhaps the funniest moment of the day, "those tracks are really dangerous, if only we knew that, if only we had known that someone could crash there, and that when they are wet, it's best to walk them, sadly it appears we had no idea..."

we all laughed. Once at the store, the donuts were hot, fresh and just amazing. the ride ended up very well. I heart my fixed gear.

I was super stoked to get my newest edition of EMBROCATION cycling journal this weekend.

Jeremy Dunn has put together an amazing magazine/journal/snap shot of cross culture. Version 2.5 is a smaller version, but frankly still amazing. I'll admit I was more than stoked when Jeremy asked me to put together an essay, and when the article actually made the cut, I was doing a little dance in my living room.

For what it's worth I highly recommend picking up a copy, not for my essay, but for the overall experience...

respect.

fatmarc