BELLY CROSS CORNWALL PARK

Great morning at Cornwall Park: the return of Belly Cross, a Mark Peterson produced cyclocross race through the forests of open fields of Bellingham's oldest park. Above, the start of Class C race, wherein we took off LeMans style--run around the crazed maniac in the skull mask and yellow wig, then hop on our bikes and get going. I was in the Master C category but more on that later.

More interestingly, Baker jumped into the Youth race and won it! Below is the podium, as it were, from left to right, first, third and second. The second-place kid is named Liam, but I've no idea what the middle kid's name is. (Sorry.) Kind of funny, right before his race, Mark asked me if I would ride ahead of the kids to show them the course. I really wanted to watch Bake race so I almost said no, but since he was in first or second the whole time, I got to watch his whole race unfold. Below, that's me in orange vest with Bake just behind. I really had to push it to stay ahead of these guys. Bake and the two others broke away from everyone pretty quick, with Bake and Liam going back and forth for the lead. It was thrilling. At one point, Liam bounced off a rock and hit one of them big, hard, green things that are real tall--a tree, I think they're called--and Bake got ahead to stay. (Liam was OK.) Below, Bake crosses the finish. That's gotta feel good. As I said, I did the C race, Masters C for dudes in their 40s and above. Right off the bat, I got tangled in the tape and one of the gates. Konked on the head too as riders zoomed by. Kind of set me back quite a bit. I made back some ground but for much of the race I was in no man's land by myself. Still had a great fun.

Check out my spiffy shirt and socks.

Finally met Dessa of Dessa's Days, a Seattle cyclist's blog I check often. Nice guy. I think he finished fourth.