WHAT! ..is your favorite color??

Fall swiftly approaches bringing with it the chilly, breath seeing mornings; the yellow to orange to brown shift of the leaves; the frosty car windows (although without a car I don't have to deal with that aspect as much); and the light jackets and hoodies of college life. Yes my friend, it is arriving. I particularly noticed this most interesting fact when I went for a ride a day or two ago and the sun was fully up yet I couldn't help but wish for arm warmers when I passed through the shade or went flying down a hill. The second time this came to my senses was when I heard on the news while watching the tv on MARTA that the fall equinox is saturday.

Fall is always nice as a rider, you get to experience crisp, clean air in Atlnata (yes, a rarety i know), and the scenary is great (even blurred into a multitude of colorful streaks as I zip buy). Of course with the crisp air comes a chill that requires more material on your body than just one thin layer of lycra. Yes, this means I cover myself in the fabric. Well, I'm generaly covered, but I mean the bottom half of my legs and my arms. None-the-less fall is a most exhilerating time to ride.

Trees...

My road season ended today with a call from my coach. I found out he wants me to focus on cyclocross now because it is coming up quick fast and in a hurry and he thinks i have a real shot at winning the whole thing (which I must say is pretty darn sweet). It has sort of givin me some time to reflect on my season though and some of the "exotic" (if only I could actually claim that) places that I've been. In all actuality, there was probably immense beauty in some of the places I've raced. Let's face it, I've raced in Tennessee two or three times and I've been all over Georgia. There had to be some beautiful scenery. In thinking about this I tried to recall some of what I had seen. I noticed a definate trend in what I remebered...it was all green and sort of blurred together with occasional splotches of color here and there. In racing, you never get to really experience the beauty of where you are riding. However, I can recall scenary on training rides very easily. For instance, I went mountain biking for the first time yesterday (yeah, it was fun but I am no world class mountain biker by any stretch of the words) and I remember all 5 or so trees that I nearly clipped. I can picture them in my head clear as day.

Even though I had marked success this season, every race that favored me even a little (races with GOOD uphill finishes where a strong pull up it would demolish the field giving me an undisputable win) I got jipped out of. In Dahlonega I missed a turn due to a) my concentration on the road in front of me and b) poor markings and a lack of volunteers to say 'turn here' like they have in tennessee and by the time i realized it i had gone 15 minutes in the wrong direction which put me out of that race. In a race in Rome my cassette came unscrewed from my wheel (i didnt know that was the problem at the time, otherwise I would have swapped wheels) so I had to ride the wheel truck in to the finish. And then Finally, the last race to favor me (Murphy, NC) got cancelled.

O well, I'll get 'em all next year. I know what I can do to thwart any attempt by my bike or the race directors to eliminate me from the race...