cx provincials

as always, a blast. in fact the whole cross season has been a blast to this point - well, the civic park course was more than painful, but still fun in a sick sort of way. mud, pea gravel, turns, climbs, the course had it all. a few quick observations:

• singlespeeders rocked, taking 7 out of the top 10 spots in the senior event
• the mud bog was more than a challenge, running it was better than riding in terms of racing because your bike stayed clean and if you were not riding a mountain bike, it was more often miss than hit
• 39X17 was good, but i think 39X18 would have been better - scott m. and i discussed the merits and difficulties of singlespeed cross and it is the acceleration out of the corners where we can, if pushing too big a gear, lose a lot of ground to the gear-heads. of course having said that, long straights also prove challenging - it seems like we're damned if we do, damned if we don't. definite benefit is not having a derailleur spin into your spokes in the mud (sorry allan).
• belgian beer is wonderful, especially when accompanied with fries and mayo
• there might be no better club house than the belgian club (waiting for the flames on this one)
  
• pea gravel sucks - took me 200 -300 meters to get clipped in after every run through the stuff.
• there are no better pictures than cross pictures (kevin, dave b, aiden's (with some help from me))
  
• the fans at provincials (and all cross races) make racing even more fun
• thanks to ian, tom, olympia, and everyone that helped put on a great event.