SoCalCycling.com

[deeporbit]

If you are a cross fanatic like me I know how you feel right now. Anticipating the start of the season, waiting for the call up to the starting line for your race. I can hear the official saying to the hungry, pumped field. "You'll be racing for 35 minutes, are you ready?" In my mind I answer this question the same way everytime. "I am ready, I am alive, and nobody knows how bad I will suffer today except me. I was born to race."

The whistle blows! The race is underway. I shoot to the front and get into my rhythm. The chasers are breathing down my neck. I can hear the mashing shifts of reluctant gears as my bike blasts over the uneven surface of the course. Within 45 seconds I am caught and passed by not one, but two speedy youngsters. Soon I am relegated to my usual mid-pack position. However, this doesn't bother me one bit. I am a cross racer.

I race to feel alive. My friends look forward to my race recaps on Monday mornings. I get the calls and repeat the same pitch over and over. "You must race cross." A few may try, most will not. I do not let this bother me. My glory days of victorious celebrations happened in the 1990's. As a cross racer with a realistic vision of my abilities, fitness level, and mortgages I know first place is a longshot. But that will not stop me from coming out and giving it my all in each race. You may ask yourself, "Why go through the grief of getting to races, getting stuck in traffic, paying for gas, getting the kids ready, loading the bikes, driving 150 miles round trip for just 35 minutes of hell?"

The answer is easy... It's cyclocross.

I'll see you in Fullerton.