There exists on the fringe of religion – Church Cross. It’s practitioners show up clad in the tunics of a home town, beliefs, or the crest of the master they serve. The sermon begins slow and relaxed, and the pace of the day begins to lean towards that of fire and brimstone. Hellfire and damnation and the devils hot fork stab at our pedals as we are whipped into believing we belong here. Where ever we are. That’s Church Cross, and there is no better cross practice in town.

The roadies decided that Palos really is that cool and held the Illinois State Road Race Championships in a big loop around the forest preserve that contains the best trails in the county, maybe the state. With my poor showing at the Meltdown, there was a need for me to exact some revenge. But good news, a 56th place off-road, meant that I merely need finish to best that performance on-road. That was about it. I kept threatening to the peleton that I would ride off the course and onto the trails and cut the course. A joke that probably ran dry after telling it twice, let alone three or four times. Ben Popper may have had the best idea of the day. Instead of threatening to ride off-road, he actually did, while we spun around the dirt goodness on crushed dinosaur bones and ground up tires. It was a day on a bike well spent.

Church Cross 9/14 Bemis Woods, Salt Creek. Great course, if anybody is looking to throw another cross race this is a great course. Wow, that was a fun ride with some great features. From unbelievably bumpy singletrack to off-camber descents almost to steep to ride. This is a great place to take the cross bike and get a good ride offroad.