September 15, 2007
Kruger's Kermesse, a farm crit
I bicycled out to Sauvie's Island today for a tune-up race for the cyclocross season, an unusual off-road criterium race modeled on a popular Belgian race called a Kermesse. Basically we did laps of a bit over a mile on farm roads of varying quality. Mostly hard-packed dirt but plenty of loose gravel, sand, pot holes, a little mud. I have switched my Surly over to single speed and raced in that category. It was lots of fun, especially since they lined us up along with the top men and women's riders. The top men lapped me a couple of times, it was fun to see how fast they could cruise around the course in a tight paceline. I felt pretty good, it's tough to know how to measure your effort over the 55 or so minutes. Single speed was perfect as it was mostly flat with just a few mild climbs and one descent. After the race I hung out with Beth and Sarah and watched Drew and Dan compete in the two-man relay. Always a pleasure going to Sauvie's Island, a real rural getaway from Portland. Here's the race captured by my GPS which I started about a half mile into the first lap.Now off to an early bed to get some rest for tomorrow's half-marathon that I'm doing with Beth.
Posted by Dave at September 15, 2007 08:27 PM