How did you spend your Friday evening? Having a nice dinner out, going to a movie or play or concert? A nice stroll on one of the last nice evenings of the summer?

Me, I got my partner-in-crime to leash the dogs up and join me down at our neighborhood park while I worked on dismount/remount skills. Great thing is, it covered three needs all at once: practice CX skills, walk/run the poochies, and time together (well, sort of…). She’s great when it comes to cross season–she supports my racing habit (even when it gets a bit pricy) because she’s seen me when I was laid up with an injury a few years back and knows how ugly life can be like when I’m not riding and racing. Maybe not your idea of a Friday night out, but it was just what I wanted and needed today, and I plan to be faster and smoother than you over the barriers this year.

It was the first day we’ve seen sun in a week and it felt good to get out and finally test out the new Tufo tubulars. Hard to tell how nice they’ll really be, since I didn’t do any high-speed stuff, but I can tell they accelerate quickly. That may have more to do with the Mavic Ksyrium ES wheels they’re glued on. Tuesday night will be the first real test—more on that later.

andy