"Team Rochester" and the Grinnel Iowa Spring Classic

Kits showed up.  No sponsors, no extra logos, no nonsense. I like the orange and the classic look.  The quality is great too.  Rochester may not be my favorite place in the world, but it is where we live and this is a sort of working man's look and vibe that I can appreciate.

It was a bit of a dreary day and the gravel was wet, loose, large and gravel-like.  I read this stupid article about "you might be a cyclocrosser if" on the way down.  In my head I was thinking, you might be a cyclocrosser if you were racing your road bike in these conditions and enjoying it, that's for sure!

I was able to get away from the field as soon as we hit gravel and continuously opened a gap for the next 35 minutes or so.  I couldn't see anyone looking back from the top of the tallest rises on the course at that point.

I was having a great time riding too.  The conditions were engaging in and of themselves.  I love riding when it takes your whole body and mind up and you can't think of anything else.  My bike was floating over everything.

My day ended prematurely and in disappointment when some chain of events occured leading to a broken chain, derailleur and derailleur hanger (the order isn't totally clear but I was just riding when it happened).  I hope I can recapture the same feeling on my bike sometime soon as before the damage.

This is the last of the Spring Classic's for me this year.  Wish there were more!

Photo credits go to Natalie Rekemeyer.  Also, thanks to the Rekemeyer's for acting as my secondary sag wagon.  I didn't catch the name of the people in the first van that picked me up, but thank you too!