USGP Sun Prairie and CCC Hopkins Park in DeKalb

It's been a very busy couple of weeks here at SRAM HQ so just a brief note on the two past weekends of CX racing.

Sun Prairie, Wisconsin hosted the opening rounds of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross on September 22-23. When the USGP's title sponsor fell in to financial difficulties, SRAM was one of several existing sponsors that came up with additional funding to keep the series healthy. Trek Bicycles generously stepped in as the new title sponsor. After a few years of getting slaughtered in the pro race, I decided to race in the masters 35+ race both Saturday and Sunday this year. After a mediocre start on Saturday I made my way up to the lead group, but eventually faded and watched in frustration as the other three riders pulled away. I held on for 4th. Sunday, a horrific crash just after the start forced our race to be canceled. The Pro/Elite race was a couple of hours later so I quickly switched my registration and lined up in 62nd spot in the 'big show'. I had a decent but unremarkable race and finished in 41st. Still, it was a lot of fun racing in front of a large and vocal crowd on a really fun and challenging course.

This past weekend was the 2nd stop in the Chicago Cyclocross Cup. They changed up the course a bit this year, making it faster with fewer tight, low-speed turns. I hardly touched my brakes the whole race - which may indicate that they took out a couple turns too many, or may indicate I was pedaling way too slowly. Probably the latter. I had a very poor start and had to chance frantically in the first lap. I made it in to 2nd position just as Brian Conant of the Pony Shop established a gap on the rest of the field. I spent the rest of the race attempting to chase him down but in fact he just slowly but surely padded his lead all the way up to the finish.

There are always a lot of great photos and videos from the race posted on the ChiCrossCup forum. Here are a few of my favorites:

Idyllic fall weather. Photo: Edmund White

An 'artsy' shot of new SRAM employee and SRAM Factory Team member Michael Hemme. Photo: Edmund White

That's me in the series leader's jersey, which I managed to hold on to for another week. Photo: Edmund White

At last, indeed

I have loved Jackson Park ever since I arrived in Chicago in 1981.  In the eighties I played & coached countless soccer matches there.  Sunday mornings in summer I represented the illustrious Hyde Park club El Gringo Es Mandingo in the Third World Soccer League, and I coached the Mount Carmel Caravan JV squad in Jax Pk.  But that was another sport & another century.

Kudos to XXX Racing for making the very best of the pitifully small bit of the park allotted to us for this year's relay & series opener.  I like the twisty courses XXX always lays down.  Well, in spite of what I consider home field advantage & a successful relay with Scott a few weeks ago, I had a miserable series opener.  I started well & was in 3rd position for the 1st half of lap 1, then wiped out in turn 17 (or so).  The hard chase revealed that I'd over-estimated my fitness anyway, and then I stacked it into the double barriers on the penultimate lap.  Thanks to Matt Caron for his encouragement, his sage advice, and for capturing the moment.



Still, it was a blast to race with my 40+ cronies again, 80 of us in all.  I finished 13th.

And it was great to see so many colleagues & teammates racing well.  Congratulations to Bill, Rachael, Rachel, Dan, and David.  Big props to Tim, Richard, & Ellen for claiming front-row positions in DeKalb.  And to Scott for bringing home a handsome new jersey.

At last!

The Chicago cyclocross season is underway at last! It was great to see a younger generation of 'cross racer stepping on to the elite podium in yesterday's opening round of the ChiCrossCup. While I was born in 1969, I was joined on the podium yesterday by Paul Mumford of the Chicago Cuttin' Crew and David Lombardo of Vedigris-Village CX who were born in the 80's and 90's respectively. I suspect it won't be long before old folks like me are pushed off the elite podium for good. As well it should be.

Series leader jerseys are new this year. Photo: Ellen

Our hosts xXx Racing put on another great event. We had 662 preregistered riders, the highest in CCC history. I don't know the total number who lined up to race, but given the gorgeous weather, I suspect it also set a CCC record.

The double barrier. Paul is to my left, "rocking" the pink Cuttin' Crew jersey. Photo: Ellen.

My race was really, really fun. After about a half a lap it was Paul Mumford and I together at the front for the rest of the race. Paul was absolutely schooling me in the tighter turns. It's not usual for me to lose time in the technical bits and have to try to make up gaps in the power sections, but that's exactly what was happening yesterday. It's great to be pushed that way and I think I did manage to settle in and minimize the damage in the tighter turns and keep on even terms with Paul in the faster, sweeping turns by the second half of the race. Regardless, it was a wake up call of sorts for me and I'll need to work on my technique if I hope to stay in contention with Paul and the rest of the field this season. It's going to be exciting.

Warm Up 2 - Jackson Park Relay

Super fun! Thanks to Scott for putting us in 1st or 2nd position at the start of each of my laps in the 30+/40+ relay.  1st through 4th were never more than a few seconds apart for all 9 laps.  Only on my 4th & final lap did I hand off to Scott in 1st position. 
Having ridden disc brakes all summer, I guess I forgot how to re-mount safely & gashed my knee on my cantilever in my last lap - while making a pass, so well worth it!

Staying around for the podium shot was nearly a big mistake.  I only managed to get on my Eurobike flight with the help of a kind counter-to-gate escort from Swiss Air!



Aiming for inside corner on lap 8



Made it!



Hand-off:

http://bit.ly/QNBwaC

Warm up

This past Sunday XXX Racing hosted the Jackson Park CX relay races for the third year in a row. 2-person teams alternate laps so the racing is very intense - roughly 6 minutes of intense racing followed by 6 minutes of recovery for each rider. Just like last year, I teamed up with SRAM Factory teammate J.P. McCarthy in the Master's 40+ race and we won it again. This time we also beat the first 30+ team which was on course simultaneously.

And again like last year, I teamed up with David Reyes for the Elite race later in the day, and we again finished 2nd overall. Michael Hemme won the Elite race for the 2nd year in a row, this time teamed up with out-of-town ringer Shaun Adamson of Cycle-Smart. Mike is a new SRAM employee, but already outfitted with SRAM drivetrain and Avid brakes:

Photo: Edmund White

The Elite race was pretty exciting, with David and I swapping the lead with Mike and Shaun at least a dozen times before the end. Mike and I raced the 2nd-to-last lap against each other and he came out ahead, coming in to the transition zone a few bike lengths ahead of me, so Shaun had a small gap on David starting the final lap of the race. And that's how it finished up as well - David put in a good sprint but couldn't overcome the small lead that Shaun was able to maintain throughout that final lap:

It rained lightly throughout the race, but intensified during the final lap. Photo: Edmund White

And once again like last year, I did the final race of the day, the co-ed event, with my wife Ellen.  My legs were shot by then but Ellen was racing like a pro and we improved our placing to 7th this year. Good job, sweetheart...sorry I was so slow.

Pachinko

How to describe course conditions and my race at the cyclocross national championships yesterday? Friend and fellow racer Rheudabaga called it riding in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. I think that sums it up perfectly.

They don't call it Badger Prairie for nothing... All photos: Ellen

My last trip to Nationals was two years ago in Bend.  There, I started in the second row and managed to be in third position when we turned off the paved start/finish straight and on to the dirt. This year, I had a front-row start and may have actually led the first 10 feet of the race, but try as I might, I was back to about 15th when we left the long pavement section. When we made our first right turn on to the worst section of frozen ruts covered with a thin layer of slippery mud, the race exploded. Have you ever seen a Pachinko machine in action? Suddenly each of us was like one of the little steel balls in a Pachinko machine, bouncing randomly left and right, smashing into each other and onto the ground. Ninety seconds into the race I was already running to the pits with a mangled bike. My father-son pit crew of Paul and Jake Schilling (thanks guys!!) got me sorted out, and I was back on course in 27th place.

Negotiating traffic

Applying a little 'body English' before my back locked up

Kevin of the Pony Shop digging deep.

I moved up slowly, dodging out-of-control riders as I went. All the frozen ruts made the already-bumpy course murder on my back, and with one lap to go I started falling apart. I could no longer use 'body English' to keep my bike under me, so my forward progress came to an end, and I even gave up one spot after crashing a few more times. I finished ninth, a respectable result but one that leaves me hungry for more next year!

1st and 2nd place  - teammates Brandon and Peter of Boulder Cycle Sport. Unbeatable?

My post-race cyclocross bike maintenance regimen…

The ChiCrossCup crew put on a fantastic UCI race weekend over New Year’s Eve / New Year’s Day. I won’t try to summarize for you, because there are tons of great stories, comments, photos and videos to be found on the web, starting here and here and here. It was muddy – really muddy, and due to a miscommunication on my part, my two-person volunteer pit crew for Sunday’s race was not present and I did the entire race (until I got pulled, that is) without a bike change.  I love the post-race pictures of my bike below:

New Red crankset revealed!!

Firecrest rim profile is super aerodynamic.  

Ultralight crankset was a huge advantage this weekend.

I thought this might be a good opportunity to share my post-race bike maintenance regimen with you. After every muddy race, and there have been several this year, I have a two-step plan:

1. Hose off the bike

2. Oil the chain

That’s it. In fact, since I built up my “A” bike for this year in September, I’ve done 29 races and subjected my bike to a lot of power washing, and I am still using all the original bearings, cable and housing, chain, brake pads, etc. I’ve had to make a couple of bike repairs due to a soft rear derailleur hanger (finally cured with a steel one-off hanger), but all the typical maintenance items are still going strong. 

On a final note, while there are still a couple of weeks left in my CX season, I think my body decided to go in to winter hibernation a month ago. I’m still having great fun out there and I really appreciate all the heckles and cheers, folks. Thanks so much!