Probably the Most Fun I've Ever had on a Bicycle

Cyclocross is the fastest growing niche in bike racing -- combining the best of road and mountain biking with a little bit of hurdles thrown in. 45 minutes of all out racing from the gun. A great way to stay in shape during the fall. Also a great spectator sport in that courses are at local parks and weave so much that you can see the entire course by standing in the middle.

I work out on my 'cross bike a lot, just haven't raced. JB and Stan gave me just the nudge I needed to get back on the Cyclocross bike after Leadville.

I tried it a couple of times years back. My only hesitation in doing it again was the harsh reality of the lung-buster nature of this style of racing -- going from a standing heart rate to 170 in about 20 seconds. Those kinds of thoughts tend to keep me in bed.

OK, so what better place to start that a national level race? Gloucester hosts one of the country' leading races with an amazing course -- right on the ocean. It's a 45 minute drive. Easy.

After a quick warm up lap, lesson #1 learned for the first timer: start order is based on number. 125 riders and I had the 120th number. Welcome to the back row. Given that, my goal switched from trying to top 10 to maximizing the number of racers I could pass.

The start went right into an off-camber descent and a 180 degree turn. Elbows were flying -- made mountain biking seem downright polite. Stan was right at the first corner and yelled, "Be Smart." He was right on the money, guys were crashing everywhere.

Right from the corkscrew turn we flew across some pavement and into a double sand pit -- that again crashed a lot of guys out right away and clogged up the course.

Then onto a twisting course, up and down, lots of 180s and some long straightaways. Went by my first guy a he gave me a bump. Racing with contact -- I guess 100th place is serious business.

I started to pass a bunch of people. It was a blast. Lots of tricky off-camber corners and power climbs. Only one set of barriers (I've got a lot of technique to learn). I started to feel like I was really making progress when I reached the carbon wheel, skinsuit crowd (my bike looked like a clunker in comparison).

Although staying upright was priority one, I crashed hard in the 3rd lap, rolling a tire in the process. The front wheel was making a funny sound after that as grass was sticking out from under the tire.

The crowd was huge and encouraging ("pick off those two guys in front of you, go!"). Folks I didn't even know were into it.

I managed to pass 10-15 guys on the last lap and almost crashed as I tried to impress Stan with a last-corner sprint.

By the end, I'd moved up almost 70 slots. Had so much fun, I came home and signed up for next weekend in Providence!

Might have finally found my niche in cycling: no climb over 20 feet, lot's of sprinting, elbows, technical sections and cold beer and warm waffles at the end. This has my name written all over it!

Video here: