I, for one, am grateful for my local cyclocross scene and its close cousin, short-track mountain biking. As a child, I rode my department store fake BMX bike through unifinished construction sites, making up my own obstacle courses and trying to clean every feature I could find. (At the tender age of ten, I didn't know what trials riding was but probably would have enjoyed it.) As a forty-something adult who rode every day for transportation but was definitely out of shape by modern cycling standards, I entered my fitst short-track race on a dare from friends. Since then I raced four full seasons of 'cross and four-plus of short-track. After a 2+ year hiatus caused in great part by a career change, I came back to "race" (euphenistically speaking, anyway) an unsanctioned "demo" event. Two weeks of riding my old mountain bike in preparation, practicing dismounts (I still suck at mounts) and bunny hopping; at nearly 52 I am still dreadfully out of shape and don't care. I'm having a blast.
I owe a great deal of this to my local scene for being as friendly and non-judgmental as any bunch of folks could possibly be. I come in last, red-faced and out-of-breath, and get cheered as loadly as the woman who crossed the line first. Definitely an un-racer in most of my bicycling life, but there will always be a place in my heart for my local 'cross scene. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
