Cyclocross puzzle

Sunday, as I was huffing into mile 12 or so of my "really somewhat epic" 18 mile round trip ride, just coming up the hill near the lake, I hear the tinny voice through the megaphone: "...elite men coming up next!" A little further and I see cars with bike racks, flags, and pop up canopies-there's one that says Shimano, is it a fishing tournament? No! It's my first sighting of a "Cross." No, not that; I mean, public property and everything, but it's a race, not a...cross. It's a bunch of guys who look like roadies riding really swell looking bikes-al carbon frames and everything-and I must say, somewhat slowly, around a dirt track meandering along a section of open space within the confines of the lake property, the trail marked by thin wooden stakes with bits of surveyors tape knotted on at the top. Unless I'm wrong, like if the surveyors tape is to frighten birds away, this is what they refer to as a Cyclocross Race. But it doesn't look like much of a race, I mean, they're riding so slow, why is that?
When I was 12-13-14 years of age, all of my friends and I would ride-and I mean ride-everywhere, as fast as our legs would take us. Dirt tracks, sidewalks, homemade jumps, small hills, big hills, we'd ride from the flatlands in town up into Bel Air-and I mean up-down Mulholland Drive and back down Roscomare or Beverly Glen or Sepulveda. We covered a lot of ground in a day, we worked hard at it.
So when, a few decades later, as I'm just trying to keep the E in epic, and I come across these dudes chugging along like Shetland ponies tethered one to another at the carnival, well, it's just not very impressive. Will somebody please tell me what I'm missing? I have respect for anything bicycling that anybody wants to do, don't get me wrong. I just don't get it. Beefing up an otherwise fine road bike-and rider-tossing some mtb stop you now rocks and all brakes on it, along with some knobbies and call it ..what? Slow riding on a road bike in the dirt? Wouldn't you just use a real mountain bike for that? Wouldn't it be faster?

Keith Richards; Living Life

Keith Richards' memoir "Life" was published recently, and despite a sense of "here we go again, another dip in the Look at Me, I'm a Celebrity" pool, I took a look.  It turns out that that what Richards has crafted, along with his writer pal James Fox, is a life story so compelling and readable, so loaded with swagger and sureness of place, I was really quite surprised. It turns out that Keith is not just another too big for his britches star type, and he's not one to miss the nuance and texture of day to day life. His memory is-apparently-very good, and the stories he relates, and the sensitivity he shows to the times and to the individual players, is remarkable given our (my?) natural tendency to dismiss those with massive notoriety. He goes deep here, like someone trying to set a few things straight. A great read, and the audiobook is read partly by Johnny Depp, and part by a Brit whose name is name is Joe Hurley, Keith himself reads a bit, too. Very worthwhile, whether you have a strong interest in the Rolling Stones, or were just alive and recall the time a little, it's great stuff.   

Comeback, again

By the time I got home today and flipped on Game 1 of the ALCS, the Rangers had jumped out to a 3-0 lead (it was really more like a suggestion by Texas, hoping the Yanks would see their need, and go along). It didn't work out that way.
Back in June, I took one of my sons to see the Yankees in Los Angeles, interleague play with the Dodgers.   I was thrilled to see Andy Pettitte throw, Posada catch, A-Rod at 3rd, and Jeter. I spent a little and got two  Field Level seats, halfway between 3rd and left field. It was a great day, a full stadium, nice to be taking in a game with my son. Fast forward: 9th inning, everything's great-Dodgers winning, we're watching a couple of classic teams, Dodgers are winning...Dodgers are not winning, the Yankees have come from behind and killed us, 8-6. So when The Rangers went up 5-0, I thought, "well, this should be interesting". The fans in Arlington were so excited, so sincere, so unaccustomed to being in the situation they now found themselves in-at home, beating a great team, everything going our way. Yankees win 6-5. Standard. Look at the faces of the Rangers players, then look at the Yankees; there is such a tangible difference, the Rangers look like high schoolers. They'll need to win one at home tomorrow in order to have any chance.

Go Padres

As a Dodger fan, it sure is swell to see the Padres showing some signs of life against the Giants yesterday. It's just one of those things: My team is not going to win, so naturally I hope that their arch rival will do poorly as well, i.e. Go Padres! Of course, this sentiment is a close relative to "I never really liked Alberto Contador", and, for better or worse, it is the essence for many fans of anything other than Division Champs or World Champs or the Top Podium position. And oh yes, the Dodgers lost yesterday. It has gotten to the point where I'll stay up to see the end of a game in order to be sure that they DO lose-it affirms for me that the world is still somewhat normal.

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Doping

I watched the second part of "The Tenth Inning", Ken Burns' follow-up to his "Baseball" doc, last night. http://www.pbs.org/baseball-the-tenth-inning/ 
Burns couldn't not continue the story, what with the enormous change in public perception of the game since doping became common knowledge. Like a good fastball, the film nibbles around the edges for quite a while before really getting into the meat of it, at one point showing Canseco, McGwire, et al in testimony to the Senate. It was so easy to dislike Barry Bonds and, apart from disliking him, to just mentally invalidate his accomplishments. McGwire is shown at one point, having been chastened by a member of the Committee, just deflating like a blow-up doll; his world turning surreal as if he never considered the consequences-everybody's doing it!
About halfway through the movie, my Blackberry hollers red at me. I grab it and begin my own little personal deflation: News Alert-"Contador Tests Positive For Banned Substance; May Lose Tour Title". Well, sometimes the serendipity of it all just reaches up and throttles us, doesn't it? I was never a Contador fan-apart , of course, from the pure talent he displayed for one of the truly beautiful sports-or the pleasure we all derive-fan or not-from watching him execute again and again, perfectly. To think that Andy Schleck could wind up being "the winner" for 2010 would be about as hollow as watching Bonds break Aaron's record. On the other hand, I was never a Contador fan...