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Jon the M's |
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Okay, so technically, Jon wasn't running a cyclocross clinic, he was organizing a 'cross practice.
For me, though, it was a clinic, never having ridden 'cross before.
It was just a clinic without much more instruction than "follow the course" and "don't smash the barriers."
I joined Jon, Brad, Fred, Stan, and Josh at an undisclosed location. It was 6:30am on a Thursday morning and still dark. And it was entirely unclear how I would follow a course I didn't know in lighting in which I couldn't see. By the time that Jon and the others had set up the barriers and laid out the Chicane, though, there was enough visibility to practice the barriers. Several minutes later, I followed Jon and Stan for a practice lap, and before I knew it, found myself queueing up for the "race." As we grouped a few hundred feet from the right turn at home plate that would serve as the "hole shot," I pointed out to my fellow riders that they might just want to stay clear. After all, I was a rookie on 35 pounds of steel mountain bike that just might put a dent in their carbon fiber 'cross bikes. And perhaps put a dent in them, which wouldn't bode well for their upcoming Saturday race in Canton. I "let" the group get away and took the hole shot last. I rode two laps of the roughly 1-mile loop and had an absolute blast. Below are some pics and video from the morning. If I thought that Bob the J clinics were expensive, Jon the M may have me buying a whole new bike. "N+1" indeed.  Pit Stop  An argument for N+1 Barriers 1  The Chicane The Chicane in Action The Bridge  Barriers 3 Barriers 3 in Action ... ... and More Action ... ... and More Action Video from solo practice 2012-11-14 Video from practice 2012-11-16 (Note course altered to include playground instead of "back 40") |