My New Philosophy

i'm back from san francisco and my latest cross race. the race went pretty well, if not extremely expensive. the course was fast and dry with a couple of run-ups up staircases, and a couple sets of barriers. i raced the B race and got a very good start and sat on in third place for a couple laps. i felt really relaxed and comfortible. it was nice not having to claw my way through a field. myself and the two leaders had a pretty substantial gap on the field about 15 minutes into the race. on the third lap, i caught some air on a small lip that was immediately followed by a 5ft ditch. my front wheel came down hard on the bottom of the ditch, and i distroyed my beautiful ritchey carbon wheel. there was carbon blown out all over the place. i rode the rest of the lap on the wheel, and changed wheels in the pits. i came out in about 15th place. i ended up getting back up to 8th place, where i finished. i could have podiumed in the B race if i didn't lose so many spots with the wheel change. so here is my new philosophy: saving weight on a cyclocross bike by using lightweight, expensive, carbon wheels is a bad idea. 1300 grams for my ritcheys, or 1450 grams for some bomb-proof mavic/chris kings. i can save 150 grams elsewhere (like a single front chainring, which i'm seriously thinking about.) i'll call ritchey about rebuilding costs, but its probably more than what i paid for the wheels. the good news is the crack on the rear rim didn't grow, and didn't pose any problems during the race. but now i have two damaged carbon wheels. what i need to do is train more and race A's and get a frickin' sponsorship package. it seemed strange racing cross in dry, desert-like conditions. there were giant jack rabbits all over the place that sampson liked to chase. these mofos were huge. like the size of sampson with enormous ears. mary was all confused about them. she thought they were kangaroos or something. she couldn't understand that they make rabbits that big. mary took some pretty sweet pics this time though. she's finally getting the hang of our camera. it turns out having a balls out camera doesn't make it easier for novices to take quality pics. the triathlon was pretty fun to watch. mary's friends kicked some ass. a first, fourth, and second places, respectivley, in there age groups. blogger is being retarded and won't let me post pics. i'll slap some up here later.
-brooks