I realized exactly what is was I liked about sports right after executing a near perfect Cyclocross dismount in front of three Chicago city workers who were adding a drainage ditch to the Des Plaines River Trail.
I was blasting along on a short power ride in wild 88 degree October weather when I saw a crew with trucks and bulldozer blocking my trail. Without slowing down more than enough to scan the approach: I dismounted and kept running with the bike, hopped a parking block, hit the ground and hopped a 4ft wide ditch, hit the ground and immediately hopped a small downed tree, hit the ground then threw my leg up, mounted and fired right back down the trail. As I snapped back into the pedals and powered off getting back to full speed rhythm I realized I hadn’t done that but a few times in the last 10 years, how the heck did I just do that!? And then it hit me “never over think the situation”. Sport is primal. Sport is in instinct. I saw the gap, I analyzed somewhere in the nether regions and I jumped like a frickin deer. Boom bam done! I knew everything without ever having to think about it.
