Onno's Blog

This Sunday morning saw another installment of the cyclocross race in Cobbs Hill Park here in Rochester. Sadly – well for me that is, don’t think the riders minded – it had been much too nice a weather the last few days so no heroic muddy pictures for me.

Still, it is a fun race to watch. The course has technical sections through the trees, fast parts, the climb up to the reservoir and then the descent back. The course was a bit different from last year: the route up the hill was harder and there was a sandy section that was not there last time. Those few zigzags through the sand caused a few problems for many of the riders.

Paul, Cliff and John of RBC fame were riding, the chap from the Towners bike shop entered (don’t know his name, he looks just like my nephew Martijn though), and Shana together with a few others I recognized from the Tuesday Night winter rides.

A few like Paul did both the Masters race and the Open Men’s. Madness, I say, but he seemed to enjoy it.

Each year (this is the third time) I think I should join in. But each time I think of this too late before the event leaving me with no time to practice a on the mountain bike. Which reminds me that I do need to check on that bike. The TNUA rides have started!

The pictures are in the gallery.

Today Full Moon Vista organized the Cobbs Hill Cyclocross. While some months ago I had ideas of participating this time after taking photos last year, I did very little training these last months so that was not an option really. So spectating it was but I wanted to try other shots than just the typical cycling race photos that I took last year and during the Omnium in August. Whether I succeeded will be in the eye of the beholder. I did get some cool shots using my fisheye lens but there were also many shots that seemed like good ideas when shooting but turned out to be of the “what was I thinking?”-category when viewed afterwards on the computer.

I ran into Bruce and I got to admire Yellow Bike. Paul participated in the masters category, finished 8 – very good, I say. He had transformed his old Bianchi into a cross bike and rode it instead of the mountain bike last year. He said he felt a lot faster. The weather certainly allowed for fast riding – dry, sunny, nicely warm. Michelle also rode. On her fixie no less. A cyclocross ride on a fixed gear bike… have you seen the climb up to the reservoir? Do that in fixed gear ohh six, seven times? Craziness, but she did it. Speaking of weather, it was an absolutely beautiful day with the autumn colors in full swing.

Anyways, in the gallery as usual.

Today was a darkish, rainy day. It reminded me of England. On such days I would take the mountain bike on to the trails and get wonderfully muddy. Before entering the house upon return, the bicycle and I would first go under the garden hose in the backyard. From my house in Hazlemere it was almost a case of just crossing the road and many trails lay before you.

Here in Rochester it is a little more work but not much to get to some areas with a high mud potential: right on Culver, over the 490 highway and there is Cobb’s Hill park – in a few weeks the scene of a cyclocross race. I traced parts of the race route. The climb up to the reservoir was easier than I thought but then the twists and turns through the woods were very tricky. In Hazlemere 12 years ago I was a lot handier, I am a bit rusty now. From Cobb’s Hill park I crossed over to Ellison Park. Here certainly was a plenty supply of mud, I splashed about very happily and yes the garden hose was applied upon return.

Somewhere during the ride the front suspension locked up (maybe a leak?) and the start./stop button on my Garmin Edge computer seemed stuck I noticed when getting back but it did correctly track the route.