More dry, dusty cyclo-cross today, domestic and foreign alike.
At the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross stop in Kentucky, Georgia Gould laid a humiliating beat-down on the women’s field, outclassing everyone for a second consecutive day, while Jeremy Powers took over from Tim Johnson in putting the ol’ Louisville slugger to Ryan Trebon.
Across the pond in the Czech Republic, Zdenek Stybar played the Roadrunner to Niels Albert’s Wile E. Coyote, going “Beep-beep” and then kapweeeng on the bell lap, leaving Albert standing there with his jaw on the ground, his Acme® ’cross bike collapsing into a pile of parts underneath him. I swear I actually saw the course rise and settle under Stybar’s wheels as he rocketed along to keep his undefeated streak intact in front of a partisan, boisterous crowd in Pilzner (mmm, beer).
I didn’t get out myself, unless you count a bout of leaf collection and removal in tandem with Herself. A neighbor uses our maple’s leaves for compost in her extensive garden, and it looks like we’ll have a record haul this season — we’ve already collected six bags’ worth and there are still a few green leaves on the tree.
Mad Blog Media 
Georgia Gould is my new hero. She was out there cheering on losers in the Men’s Master’s race. I couldn’t fucking believe it! I’m in between the second chase pack and getting pulled and there was Georgia Gould cheering me on!
Word has it that the SSCXWC took place today in the Emerald City. Rain, mud and PBR were to tap (and I don’t necessarily mean “as on a keg”). I do believe that the next go-round will be in the City by the Bay. Congrats to all who partake in this sort of insanity. However with the muck and crud we have today in NorCal a SS might not be a bad idea. I think if I start training tonight….
Ms. Gould reminded us all of how good our women cross riders are…no good. Well, maybe we have one good one who lives here in town.
And then there’s the top US man at the World Cup…2 laps down.
We use our leaves as compost too. They’re great fertilizer for the grass under the trees so that’s where I leave ’em! The mow-and-blow guys who take care of cutting our grass chop ’em up a bit when they come by, but other than raking some out of our driveway now and then so they don’t get blown into the garage, for me that’s it. I stay away from rakes, shovels, lawn mowers and other garden implements if at all possible.
LOL Larry… I’m the same. I’d rather have a root canal than spend an hour digging, mowing, clipping, trimming – anything that has to do with stuff growing.
I’ve never understood the whole process: Karen spends hours and hours planting, feeding, fertilizing, nurturing and then, when the (fill in the blank: tree, bush, flower bed) finally gets big and is, to my completely untrained eye, flourishing, you chop the hell out of it and cut it back so it looks like a freakin’ skeleton. What the hell’s the point?