Anyone have a CX / XC merger or conflict?

[Jeff Potter (of OutYourBackdoor.com)]

I took the plunge this fall and bought a pair of CX tires for my old
sport touring bike. I stripped down the bike, installed tires and, wah-
la, I have an intro cyclocross machine.

I've known about 'cross for decades, even dabbled in it some way back.

But now that it's catching on like beer-tent party wildfire I said
"Me, too!"

It truly is a convivial thing. Maybe more so than the Crit Village --
maybe because of its beer-factor. Maybe for many it's not so serious
either. Loops around the park down the street -- whoopee!

I've been practicing some the past few weeks. Yeah, I know I'm late to
the fun. I just ride down the road a half mile to the local park and
run up the hill then zoom thru the smooth leafy woods and around a
trail and hurdle some park benches then back up the short, steep hill.

Darn, it's fun!

It's a rhythm thing. It's also a short-outing. I wouldn't want to do
more than like 20 minutes of those small circuits but when I get home
the rhythm stays with me and sometimes I feel like going back out!

Dismounting smoothly, at speed (no braking) then remounting after an
obstacle at a full run, without breaking stride (no stutter-step!) --
dang, it's fun! There's a flow to it. A nice blend of actions.

A final good thing about CX is that I'm casual about my summer cycling
and always find that I'm finally getting fast'n'fit about September,
when all our local road clubs hang up the cleats and when 25mph might
not feel so swell at 40F, in the dark, wet, autumn gales, or maybe
that should be 20mph, due to the new expansion cracks in the newly
harshified freeze-thaw roads. CX by contrast is toasty warm, in a way.
The mud isn't hard, anyway. I'm game for weather this time of year,
just not weather while going fast on a road bike.

Anyway, enough CX witnessing from silly me who hasn't even done a
race... the upshot is that I haven't been rollerskiing!

--JP