Important Cross Lessons

I've never raced cross before but after an abrupt end to the road season I decided to go ahead and race some cross this year - Craig and Kristi are always talking about it so I figured it had to be pretty cool - turns out it is! I went out to the cross practice at Marymoor last week and figured I was good to go to race at StarCrossed. At the practice I learned how to dismount from the excellent teachings of resident CX veteran (aka Craig) - after some practice dismounts we let it rip around the practice course and I proceeded to fall on the ground several times and have a lot of fun.

At the race the following Saturday I wasn't sure how things were going to go and was worried about the whole getting-off-the-bike thing. The race was going pretty well, as you can see here from these excellent pictures taken by local photographer-extraordinaire Tom Kelley (tpk-photography.com):
I was even doing ok on the whole getting-off-the-bike-thing:


However after only a few short laps I learned something very important about cyclocross racing:
Make sure you have a good mechanic!