With the wonderful weather we’ve had, I hope everyone has gotten out to enjoy it. Yes, I know it got almost cold a few mornings, but hey, that’s no reason to not get on your bike. Just layer up and remember your gloves. Fall colors are best seen from the back of a bicycle, after all. With the days becoming shorter, take advantage of the sunlight before we go back to standard time and dark evenings, though that will make your morning commute a little brighter when it comes. Remember your good front and rear lights, folks! And some reflective gear, too. Dawn and dusk are low contrast times of day and bike lights can be difficult to see, so don’t skimp on brightness.
This weekend was a busy one for cycling events. Pioneers Park saw cyclocross races Saturday and Sunday, where a good time was had by all. For those of you unsure as to what that is, think of an obstacle course with distractions, where cheering and heckling are encouraged while racers jockey for position under sometimes difficult conditions. The sport seems to have an addictive quality, and those who are into it just can’t get enough of it’s shenanigans.
Others of us went to Blair to set out on 127 miles of gravel for the Omaha Jackrabbit. They like to bicycle in Omaha too, and host some very nice events. You can find out about them from Omaha bike shops or the on-line community. Harvest time is in full swing and there is beautiful countryside and lots of minimum maintenance road to be ridden in the Blair, Uehling, Omaha Indian Reservation, Decatur and Tekamah area. They call the wind resistance riding Nebraska’s mountains, and that may be true, but some of those hills really change any notion of a lack of the real thing. We had plenty of both kinds, but I still wouldn’t trade the beautiful day spent on a bike.
Others were out doing actual mountain biking this past week in far flung places, and I can hardly imagine a better activity on days such as we’ve had. Those riders of roads have had their fun too, with group rides based out of Lincoln bike shops taking place.
What ever kind of riding you like to do, I hope you got out to do it.