amy alison dombroski

2010 Blogs

The first clinic I ever put on was with Blue Sky Velo last month.  Evidently it didn’t suck because CrossPropz Paul requested a 2nd clinic which went on this past Saturday.  I somehow messed the start time of the clinic up so I left an hour early.  Good job I did because I got quite lost on my ride out there!

I guess I wasn’t the only one…the venue was somewhat of a maze to find our designated set-up.  But once we had herded all the spandex clad cats we were ready to begin the crossiness.  I had anticipated a similar crew from the first clinic so my plan was to build on what I had taught the month prior and incorporate some speed into the skills.  However, Blue Sky Velo is a massive club, and each and every member held so much energy and excitement to learn and better their skills.  Blue Sky Velo ROCKS!  So again I had all levels and all ages to work with, which is quite a lot of fun.  Really, that’s the best group to teach because I can give little bitty tips to those who are looking for efficiency, or I can break it down for those who have never dismounted a bike.  And every member of the club was incredibly helpful to the beginners.  Everyone learns differently so it is nice to hear how others wrapped their brains around flying supermans back on the bike.  

Again the weather was perfect blue sky.  Boulder has been dealing with quite the wildfire so it was refreshing to breathe some clean air northeast of the bubble.  In this gorgeous weather we perfected our skills with CrossPropz being the best learning tool available.  It’s dern scary riding mach schnell into a wooden log when learning how to jump over barriers.  Paul’s CrossPropz take this monstrous fear out of the equation.  After a lovely lunch I tried to get the camaraderie less friendly by adding some competitions and relays.  But this group is far too chummy…no elbows were thrown!  No trash talking!  What?!  

Or maybe I am mistaken when I say that.  In the start relays we had a casualty.  The team captain pulled out of his pedal and went head over teacup…HARD.  Perhaps it was actually a thrown elbow?!  So with the state champ out for the day we cruised into more competitons.  To wrap it all up we played “Last Man Standing”.  I sent the 20 men out on a short lap, incorporating skills I had taught that day.  They rode around and around and around until there was one man standing and the rest were sprawled in the shade beneath a tree.  

Mission accomplished.  The beginners learned how this asinine sport works and the proper ‘crossers learned how to be more proper and all were ready for a recovery brew-pop at the end of the session.

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