Jan 29th. Oooof!

Christophe badgered me the other day to start blogging again. "Dooooooo it!" he said. Starting is easy. As is forgetting all about it and going south of a year between posts.

I have been racing 'cross pretty much non-stop since September cobbling together one of the best seasons yet. It's been more about finding the perfect line and riding it as fast as I can while being smooth and oozing confidence than it has been about about results. Its funny because the results have been coming. A few trips to the podium, a few near misses to box and a lot of hard on the rivet racing deep in the cave. A lot has come together and clicked for me. Unexpectedly.

Mixing strong coffee with early morning rides, embrocation has become the ritual - the smell and the tingle signals go time.

Paying attention to the finer points of the preparation has yielded better quality in each ride, digging deeper from within and allowing the fall spectacle to overwhelm the senses.

Coming home totally blown has also become common place. They say that success breeds success. I have found this to be true. The great rides have snowballed and bad legs have been hard to come by. More time has been spent counting down until the next ride or the days until I toe the line again. Like a caged dog I can't wait to be released.

Speed, confidence, smoothness and strength. Cyclocross in 2009 has been good to me.