cyclocross
There are 19 entries for the tag
cyclocross
Jan. 17, 2010 - A cool, but welcoming morning was upon us at our UCI-famed Hansen Dam Park in Los Angeles this final day of the season filled with lots of fun racing with our core cross crowd -- new SoCal High School MTB League and snappy BMX 10-14 and younger nationally ranked kids coming all the way from San Diego to celebrate the finale of the season. Read More...
The final race of the Cyclocross season for me was this Sunday at Fort Ord. Some would consider the weather we are now having "real" Cyclocross conditions! For those of us here in CA, it was the first real mud of the season. Being near the ocean, Fort Ord is typically very sandy. Even their mud is sandy, which is very different from the sticky, clay mud we have here. Cyclocross racers have many different categories for mud! Read More...
Sunday was the final of the Surf City Cyclocross Series in Aptos, CA. We all had a 3 week break from racing over the holidays and while I took advantage of some time off work to do some riding, I had not done anything close to race intensity since the last race! The CX season is definitely winding down and fields are getting smaller - I think the only people still racing in the US are those here in CA and those going to Worlds at the end of January! ... Read More
Of course it snowed. We were expecting it. It always snows at Nationals, accompanied by ice and frozen ruts. Sometime during the event, a blizzard comes along and blows away the tents. Cross is a winter sport and snow is normal for a winter sport. If you went skiing and it snowed would you be surprised? So deal with it. Or that's my official attitude.
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This week the town of Bend, OR hosted their 2nd national championships of the year with Cyclocross nationals for all ages: juniors, masters and elites... This week, temps hit minus 20 overnight, which was another record! We arrived Wed. late afternoon in time for a couple laps of the course before dark. It was about 15 degrees and most of the course was covered in snow. I now had 2 days to learn how to ride in snow! ... Read More
...Kerry decided to go about a foot to the left of the gap and bunny hop the curb. I was right on her wheel and thus could not really see the curb and was just expecting to ride though the gap. I didn't really have time to react when I saw her bunny hop and I hit the curb pretty hard with my front wheel. Luckily I was leaning back enough that I didn't endo, but it made for a pretty squirmy landing back on the loose, soft mulch. At first I thought I might have flatted... Read More...
This is a classic course and similar to the one that was used for the USGP of CX in 2005. It has a bit of everything: 200m pavement start/finish, some flat power sections, loose turning sections, small sand pit, 2 run-ups (one with a barrier at the bottom) a double barrier and a couple of very short climbs. The most treacherous part was a new for 2009: a deep, steep sandy descent right into the 2nd run-up that got more and more churned up as the day went on. ...Read More
It was a perfect day at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco -- 70 degrees, a huge turnout of racers, and a cheering crowd high on, um, well cyclocross I guess.
In my 55+ race, the dawn prelude to the day's racing, I got away with the juniors again. This time I got edged out by some kid from Santa Cruz -- sorry don't know his name -- who got in front of me over the last set of barriers. Actually I think that this is kind of great. The juniors should certainly be beating me. ...Read More
...It was just Janel and me duking it out for 2nd overall and 1st in the 45's. And what a battle! This was definitely the hardest I have gone all year. We were passing people from the A wave which started a minute before. Janel was a little better on the technical parts, and when she passed me with a lap to go, I thought I might be dead. But somehow I dug deep and went really hard in the pedaling places; on every hill and straightaway. ...Read More
Race # 5 of the Central Coast CX Series was at Manzanita Park in Prunedale. We raced race #1 here as well. I like this course - a little climbing, some sandy, technical turns, bumpy descent - a bit of everything. Finish is a gradual uphill pavement sprint of about 200-250m. Unusual for this race however was no dismounts at all. They removed the barrier before the run-up we had last time, making it rideable (although a bit of a grind!)... Read More
This was the famous Night Race at Sierra Point. As a racer and more of a "morning person", I am not a huge fan of racing at night, but I will admit it made a great spectator venue. They had construction lights set up around the course, so visibility was not really a problem in the race itself. Everywhere else was pretty cold and dark though – made it hard to find all your black clothes in the back of your car! ...Read More
...Just 2 dry creek bed crossings, 4 hairpins, a double barrier and the race was mine. All I had to do was not mess up. Then I messed up... The first hairpin around a big tree was a little loose and my front wheel washed out and I went down. ...Read More
Sunday was race #3 in the Surf City Series. Venue was the same as the Halloween race, but they changed the course a bit. Mainly they added more times off the bike, which is not so good for me! Besides the same finish line double barrier, there was a set of uphill double barriers, a short stair section, & then a kind of long run up. The tricky thing about the run up was that at the top of it was a short, bumpy downhill into a loose turn, & then the same steep but (barely) rideable uphill... More
This race is always on the calendar, on account of the Halloween Hijinks that are so much fun. This year, John, Lizzy Allbut and I dressed in an Underwear theme, based on some brand new size 50" waist men's white boxer briefs we happened upon at a thrift store. All 3 of us wore them, with formal suspenders, black bras, and panties on our heads. No hidden meaning, but so obnoxious that we made quite an impression. Pretty comfortable to race in, too, on an almost 80 degree day. Read More...
We had a good sized women's Elite field of about 25 riders including no less than 3 "retired" pros who have competed CX at the World Cup and Worlds level: Kerry Barnholt, Carmen D'Aluisio and Gina Hall (making her first CX race appearance of the year). The rest of the usual top NorCal suspects were there as well. The course was pretty good for me: only 1 time off the bike per lap with a double barrier going around a turn only about 20m from the finish line. Read More...
... This was the first CX race I have done where I only used my small chain ring (a 34). There were just never any real power sections where you could get any speed - the few straight flat sections were on loose, bumpy sand and grass, and the descents all had short uphill turns at the bottom where you needed to low gears and did not want to risk dropping a chain with a front shift. Nobody else I knew used their big ring either. Read More...
... The descent was a really fun single track with shallow, banked turns that you could really fly down. Then there were 2 sets of tape zig-zag sections on dirt/grass fields and 2 barrier sections. Some of the turns were pretty loose and off camber, but compared to the other races I have done this year, I would say this one was probably the least technical. No run-ups! ... In general, if there was a course I could win on, this would be it! ... Read More
The race was at the Soquel High School course where I raced last year. Course is basically flat but with some steep little kickers up and down the sides of berms, some of which are loose and off camber. There was also a long section of power sucking turns and zig zags on bumpy grass. There is quite a long steep, loose run-up... Read More
Sunday was the first race in the Bay Area Super Prestige Cyclocross Series in McLaren Park in South San Francisco. The BASP series... is the most competitive of the NorCal CX race series. The series is 5 races and McLaren Park is probably the most demanding course. It definitely has the most climbing and also features the longest run-up of the series. What goes up must come down though, and in between the climbs and run-up are some very bumpy, single track technical descents... Read More