Items of note

The Richard Sachs Cyclocross Team, D.B.A. Matt Pookums Kraus with one S and Josh One Too Many Mornings Dillon will be in East Meadow, New York this weekend for the Whitmore’s Landing Super Cross Cup Mac Series 11 and 12 (wtf huh – who makes up these race names, anyway?) without me. TLD and me (or is it myself) will take some personal time at home. Ahhhh Franklin County. But I digress. For this team email-to-all, the salient feature is the text I pasted at the page-bottom. Josh penned it and I am pleased to include it as part of a RS ‘Cross Team missive. Before I sign off, please be aware that my Smoked Out page over at the V place has been added to through the weeks and I’ll link it here for you all to click through to. Start with this —> XXXX . The Smoked Out forum is a sub-board over at the VelocipedeSalon and it’s a place where framebuilders could broadcast their inner thoughts, list their muses, talk about their business models, or just hold court. I have hosted the ordeal going back to the late winter, and dozens of my peers have taken threads and gone viral atmo. I hope you enjoy scrolling through the pages there.

Thanks for following us, and please read the words below.

e-RICHIE

From Josh Dillon -

Today is November 16th. It’s probably the birthday of somebody you know. Or maybe an anniversary. Or both. Here at the ‘Cross Reference it is roughly the mid-point of the US cyclocross season. Starting with this coming weekend in Long Island we will make a strong push for the US National Championship race held in Bend, Oregon on December 12th. While this season has been a couple of big steps backwards for me personally, in terms of results, I am very optimistic that this final push will find some glimmers of the hallowed 2009 season, when Dan and I went 1-2 in the Verge New England Cyclocross series. But if a “big result” isn’t realized in these closing weeks, which there is a good chance of being the case as changes in bike racing take years and not months, it will be a blessing just the same. This year has left me with no choice but to be grateful for the opportunities to travel and ride my bike with my closest friends. And that is a blessing in and of itself.

November 16th also happens to be 4 months to the day that my cousin was mugged and shot in the back in Hyannis while vacationing with his family at the Cape this summer. He was paralyzed instantly, and has battled (i mean fucking battled…not in the bike racing sense) to return to life as a husband, father, and counselor at a private academy in Connecticut. But everyday he thanks God to be alive as he could have died face down in a pool of his own blood in Hyannis on July 16th.

My fondest memories with him are from the ski slopes. Nowadays in ski films everybody and their grandmother throws flips off anything, but 20 years ago nobody did – except for Cuz. I will never forget the most idyllic of spring ski days on Bear Mountain at Killington (which for those not in the know has THE BEST deck facing square up the marquee Outer Limits trail…which by this point of the year had cleared away the gates from the steepest stop on the now defunct US Pro Tour and was wall to wall moguls the size of VW bugs). So with the sun deck packed with folks nursing their wounds with ice, as in ice cold alcoholic beverages, Cuz would throw a flip off the big kicker at the bottom of the run every time down and the deck would roar (as i type this i swell up with tears). So those days are over – but he is grateful to be alive, as is anybody who knows him. Everyday is a gift. He truly is inspirational. Not this year, and probably not next, but maybe in the next 5 years Cuz wants my Dad and I to take him heli-skiing. I will drop everything the day he tells me he is ready to go and make it happen.

Oh ya – bike racing. So this hasn’t been the best of years for me or the team for results – but I am grateful to ride today. And am really looking forward to the weekend and the next.