The Golden Lady blessed Ice Cross #1 with ideal riding conditions: muddy and none too cold!
The soil was soft, but there were many patches of treacherous ice and goose dung.
There were some pretty interesting rides out for the race, including the Surly 29er pictured.
Great handlebars!
Rusty Peugeot? 23c fixie? No problem! Let's cross!
The course was an shortened, more technical version of the standard Jackson Park route.
The leaves were soft and slippery, even though they looked autumn crunchy.
For the first heat, the action was pretty good. But riders would eat a donut after each lap...
Nobody is really muddy yet, but the crashing had yet to commence.
By the second heat, the death spiral was started to get more difficult.
Next, we raced madison style.
The donut spilled into a pile of frozen goose dung, but nobody really noticed.
Colavita skinsuit! Matching bike and barriers!
Eventually, more folks showed up. But the early arrivals were getting tired.
8/10.
9/10.
4/10.
7/10.
Wha?
The fast riders lining up for another round of madison.
Both riders chose very aggressive lines, right through the ice.
Charge!
Mr. Colavita: Where's the whiskey?
Nico showed up and demonstrated his ability to trackstand on ice! He wore his orange Tour Da Chicago champ jersey in solidarity with the Tatitos.
Mr. Colavita moves on to beer.
Nico: That's a women's skinsuit. You know that, right?
50% goose dung. 50% mud. 100% fun.
Susan & Liz getting a hang of the hold madison thing.
Francisco: Tag me! Patrick: Slow down!
Burt zooms up to tag Joel.
Tim on his fixie Surly & Rory in his not-white-for-long 2009 UCVC kit.
Jesse marking Patrick.
Both were taking conservative lines for the first lap.
But Jesse was holding back...
...and he makes his move on the spiral barrier!
But Patrick wasn't done yet... taking the spiral on foot.
Madison round two start.
Liz showed off a season of handlign drills today.
Rory's barrier form has improved a lot in three weeks.
Francisco's fixie sprint form.
For the third race of the day, Patrick goes out hard.
The chase group was noncommital at first.
It's Rory's friend Burt!
Too high!
Liz and Joel in a dogfight.
Liz and Joel move up.
Patrick shows his "skipping" barrier form.
Jesse tends to accelerate over barriers. It's not the purest form, but it's fast.
There was absolutely no grip on this 180.
Had to include at least one full color photo of Tim.
Tim's rear Surly wheel died, so we traded shoes and bikes.
What a great image, and in January!
For the third race, there was a donut handicap. The first four finishers of lap one would have to dismount and eat a donut before continuing.
Pedalty or prize?
It was like early autumn.
Muddy Fuji.
Goose droppings on the Schwalbes.
It was warm enough for knickers only.
The pink bike rides again!
Jesse's ATACs shed better than my Aliums.
Muddy Susan.
Muddy Campy.
The TIME Alium pedals don't shed that well, but I never missed a clip in or out.
