Bike Driving Practice

Dear Readers,

It's July. Officially we can begin to talk about cyclocross.

I met some good friends: Consorto, Travis H, and Dennis Smith (www.dennisbike.com) for some cross fun riding Saturday morning. Travis was testing Cannondale's new cross bike complete with a lefty fork and 45mm gravel tires.

The ride starts out with 25 minutes of flat fire-roads. Not the most entertaining riding, but fun enough and certainly a great place for friends to talk a little junk and shake off the early morning start.

"If this kit makes my ass look big give me a thumbs up!"

We arrive at Lums Pond State Park. The outer loop there is roughly a 30 minute ride all double track, weaving in and out of the woods, some sandy sections, some hard pack and even some pine forest. There are tons of tight twisty corners, open yet slightly technical sections... Plenty of tight turns to head into too hot and see how much you trust your tires. It prompted Dennis to call the place "the new Beacon!" It was perfect.

Just last week, I was driving a bit hard here on the file treads and ended up doing a Pete Rose Slide across the trail on one hard corner... I kept this in my mind as I pushed the corners harder, encouraged by my partners in crime this week.

While the intention was not to push the pace, and certainly not to race each other, it was the kind of group that has ridden together enough that inevitably things got a little froggy. The trust of years of experience of battling each other on rides like this where the only prize is pride and smiles in the parking lot makes this kind of ride special.

The pace gradually crept up as we carved around the park. Jump out of the corners...Use the edge of the tire to corner... take the sven line... watch for an attack- it was so much fun...While no one was trying to pass each other, you also knew that if you fucked up a corner, one or two of your friends were coming past you. 

At the end of our first lap, I made such a mistake, got off the line and drifted into a soft spot. I stood and tried to sprint, but Consorto made the line cleanly and smoothly took over the front of the group.

In my ear, I heard Dennis's voice, as if he was my own personal Jedi Master, " you didn't use your front brake at all. you had the corner, but scrubbed speed with just the rear, that caused you to slide off the line and into the mud..." He delivered his lesson as his momentum carried him past me, and I had to stand and power out to barely keep his wheel. School was in session and I just got some homework.

We knocked out two consistent laps, and finished up with smiles of exhaustion and stoke on our faces.  We picked up the fire-roads and finished up our ride...

Bike Driving Practice. It was amazing... Hoping to get out for a similar ride again soon...

thanks for reading.

respect
fatmarc