Cyclocross and racing: times, they are a'changin...

I've decided that enough is enough. I'm getting rid of my road bike.

And I will be replacing it with a cyclocross bike. Since I moved back to Hadley, I have only rode my road bike twice because so many of the roads here are dirt. Hell, it takes me a mile and a half just to reach pavement from my driveway, which makes for an especially rocky ride on those skinny 700x23c tires if the road's just been graded. I usually just end up riding my 29er because it's nearly impossible to make a road loop around here without including at least a couple miles of dirt. After mulling things over for a while, I decided it'd be best to get a cross bike.

Today, I headed down to Kinetic Systems in Clarkston to talk with those folks about cross bikes and scope out my options. Looking at all the shiny cyclocross bikes just waiting to get muddy, I wished I could take one home. I hopped on a beautiful Bianchi for a minute to get a sense of what size bike I'd need, and I was quite surprised. The 49cm Bianchi felt much roomier than my 50cm Trek women's specific road bike (which to be honest, is a little too small for me). In fact, the Bianchi was probably a little TOO big for me. Now I know that cross bikes are sized a bit differently than road bikes, and that I'll probably need a 47cm bike. How come no one ever told me that? And doesn't that just sound funny, trading out my too-small 50cm bike for a bigger 47cm one?

Everyone there was extremely helpful, and Jeff even convinced me to go to their cyclocross clinic on the 11th. I'm going to learn all about those nifty skills that are specific to cyclocross, and maybe even try my first cyclocross race. Which leads me to...

Racing! After Ore to Shore, I've decided to dive right into racing. This weekend I'm going to be racing the Logsplitter point-to-point, a 26 mile race through the Hartwick Pines and Hanson Hills. And the weekend after that, potentially the Addison Oaks time trial (along with the aforementioned cross clinic/race). And then in November, Iceman. This is going to be an exciting fall!

Finally, if you're interested in buying my road bike, drop me a comment here or on my MMBA classified post. That page has photos and lots of information about it!