Monthly Archives: August 2010
Windham World Cup Final
The World Cup Final at Windham is over, but by far will not be forgotten. The people in Windham just love the cycling events held in their town. This year saw the best mountain bike racers in the world converge in the Catskill Mountains for four days of riding, racing, parties and other festivities that the town and mountain had planned.
I spent a good part of the four days there too. I rode, I mingled, I met up with some people that I hadn’t seen since last summer’s races and I took lots of pictures. Thursday was packet pick-up and pre-ride day for me. The course was mostly the same as 2009, but a year later and rain earlier in the week will change it. I only rode one lap due to the wet conditions in spots. I know I’m only one person, but that’s one less set of wheels going through the wet areas again. I also wanted to spend time in the expo area before it got too crowded over the weekend.
On Friday, I again only rode one lap. The course was much dryer but I still didn’t want to over do it and practice times for amateurs was very limited too. I also wanted to spend time taking some pictures of the pro practice. By taking pictures during the practice, I wasn’t getting in the way of the official media. The World Cup downhill qualifying was also held on Friday. Those guys (and girls) are something to watch…big air and real fast.
No bike on Saturday. That was World Cup Cross Country race day. The women went off first, in the morning, and the men followed in the early afternoon. Both the men and women were fast. The top women were doing laps at ~19 minutes while the top men were ~16 minutes. And they are all just so smooth through the rocks and roots that we have here in the northeast. By the end of the day I had taken about 640 pictures between Friday practice and downhill qualifying, and then during Saturday’s cross country races.
Now it’s Sunday. Race day for me. The Cat 2 cross country race went off at 10:15 am. I was rested and I did feel pretty good. But I also knew that it was a challenging course with a lot of stronger riders in my class. But, I was also there to have fun. And fun I did have. The course was in great shape, mostly dry, very ridable and a lot of spectators along the way too. With no aspiration of winning, I had set a few goals for myself; finish, finish in 1:45:00 or less and have fun. My first lap was about 30 minutes, so a time of 1:45:00 was well withing reach. My second lap was about 34 minutes with my third being about 37 minutes. A finishing time of 1:41 and change wasn’t even close the top 10 times, but it was right there for a 23rd place finish, and meeting all of my goals for the race.
CrossVegas Competitors Announced
For the first time in American cyclocross history there will be a gathering of national champions like never before. National champions will represent 8 nations including:
Elite Men
- Tim Johnson (Cannondale – Cyclocrossworld.com) – USA
- Geoff Kabush (Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) – Canada
- Marco Fontana (Cannondale Factory Racing) – Italy
- Francis Mouray (Francaise des Jeux) – France
- Geert Wellens (Champion System) – Belgium (Elite Category)
- Joachim Parbo (KCH Leopard Cycles) – Denmark
- Zoltan Tisza (Tecnofilm Bentonexpressz 2000) – Hungary
Elite Women
- Katie Compton (Planet Bike) – USA
- Katerina Nash (Team LUNA Chix) – Czech Republic
In addition to the national champions the Elite Men’s field will be stacked with riders from the top 20 U.C.I. ranking. Riders like 5th ranked Gerben De Knegt of Holland (Rabobank Continental Team), Francis Mouray (Francaise des Jeux) at 7th, Christian Heule of Switzerland (Rendementhypo Cycling Team) ranked 9th and American Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) ranked 18th.
The Elite Women’s field will include 5th place Katie Compton of the U.S. (Planet Bike), 7th place Katerina Nash of Czech Republic (Team LUNA Chix) and 16th place Amy Dombroski of the U.S. (Team LUNA Chix).
Returning are 2009 CrossVegas champions Jamey Driscoll of the U.S. (Cannondale – Cyclocrossworld.com) and Katie Compton (Planet Bike) who also won in 2008. Ryan Trebon (KONA), winner of CrossVegas 2007 and 2008 will be returning. Trebon and Compton are CrossVegas’ only 2-time winners.
Don’t under estimate the other great riders who will be coming to CrossVegas including Americans Jeremy Powers (Cannondale – Cyclocrossworld.com), Adam Craig (Rabobank-Giant). Georgia Gould (Team LUNA Chix), and Meredith Miller (Cal Giant-Specialized). Tim Van Nuffel of Belgium (Vangoethem-Prorace), Martin Grujan of Switzerland (Cannondale Factory Racing), CrossVegas 2009 Silver medalist Chris Jones (Rapha-FOCUS) and Davide Frattini from Italy (HUDZ- Subaru) and many others.
Make Your own PVC Cyclocross Barriers
For me, the hardest part of cyclocross racing has always been getting over the barriers. The only thing to do is practice, practice, practice. So, I decided to go online and find plans to make my own barriers. I came across several different designs and materials used and thought the the quickest and easiest would be PVC tubing.
Off to the hardware store I went to pick up the materials that I needed. Here is a list of what you will need to make two barriers 4 feet in width:
- 21 feet of 1/2 inch PVC tubing (2-10 ft lengths plus 1 additional foot if your store will cut it, otherwise 3-10 ft lengths, additional cost)
- 4 – 1/2 inch 90 degree elbows
- 4 – 1/2 inch T’s
- 8 – 1/2 inch end caps (optional, additional cost)
- PVC cement (optional, additional cost)
- About $10.00
- Saw (I used a hacksaw)
- Sharpie marker
- Tape measure
- 20 – 30 minutes
You can use 3/4 inch if you want your new barriers a little beefier. 3/4 inch will cost a little more. If you want the barriers wider, just add to the total feet in length that you will need.
From one 10 ft length, cut two 4 ft pieces. These will be the horizontal width of your barriers. Cut the remaining two foot section in half and set the pieces aside with your other one foot section that your store cut for you. Take your other 10 ft length and measure and cut four 12 3/4 inch pieces. These pieces will be the vertical upright that will give you ~ 13.12 inches in hight. UCI specs put the barriers at 40 cm in hight, that is just under 13 1/8 inches. From the remaining 5+ foot piece of tubing, measure and cut the remaining 5 – 12 inch stabilizing legs for your barriers.
Now, put it all together. Press the 90 degree elbows onto your 4 foot horizontals. Press the 12 3/4 inch vertical uprights onto the the other end of the elbows. Press the T’s onto the bottom of the vertical uprights. Press the 12 inch stabilizing legs onto the T’s and press the end caps in the the legs (if you are using end caps). Your result will look like this:
When you set up your new barriers for practice, UCI sets the distance between the barriers at 4 meters. That equates to ~13 feet 1 1/2 inches. Have fun!
First Win of the Season: Tour de Schenectady MTB Race
Today was the annual Tour de Schenectady to benefit the Schenectady Cancer Foundation. The day’s activities included a 55 mile road bike ride, a 15 mile road bike ride and a mountain bike race. I, of course, participated in the mountain bike race. The race was held at the familiar Central Park Nature Trails in Schenectady. These trails are a lot of fun to ride. It is nearly all single-track, and when it is dry like today, the trails are fast.
It looks like it was my day today, getting my first win of the season…finally! I got off to my typical slow start settling in around forth. After a small blunder on a log crossing, I was still in forth but with at least a 30 second gap between myself and third. There was a lot of race still ahead, so I just rode my pace and as I felt I could ride faster, I did. Today I felt great, and being familiar with the trails, I rode all out from about the mid point of my first lap. Going into the second (last) lap, I took over the lead at the start/finish. My legs were loose, the bike handled perfect, so I was able to shift up to a higher gear and hammer. My final (second) lap was 4 minutes faster than my first lap. I guess I put those sprint intervals to good use today.
This race was probably the best I’ve felt all season. My plan is to ride easy this week, and hope I can bring the same to Windham next weekend.
Weekend of Road Racing
I spent the weekend off the mountain bike and on the road bike. There were a couple of road races scheduled over the weekend, and I new that they would be very good events.
First up on Saturday was the NY Capital Region Road Race (CRRR) that is put on by the Capital Bicycle Racing Club (CBRC) in Albany, NY. CBRC puts on some great events: Capital Region Road Race, Johnny Cake Lane Spring Series, Uncle Sam Cyclocross Gran Prix and Bethlehem Cup CX. They do a great job with their races and the events are a lot of fun. The CRRR is always a big event for the area and this year drew about 400 racers. The race is a difficult race if you are not a quality road racer. There are several very steep climbs over each 20 mile lap. For me the climbs hurt, but I rode them and finished the race in 41st position. Sure it might be last but I had two goals going into the race; finish and a time of 2:45:00 or less. I did both.
Second on the weekend was the Annual Altamont Criterium promoted bu Anthem Sports (Tour of the Battenkill, Tour of the Catskills). I’ve never races a Crit, this was close to home and it was a 25 minute race for Cat 5. I can do this right? Well, I did a little research on crit racing and decided…yeah, I can do this. The course was a .7 mile course with a slight uphill to the finish. I new it was going to be fast, just how fast I didn’t know yet. The first 2 laps I was able to stay with the lead group until the attacks started. So I just settled in with about 5 other riders for the next 10 minutes or so until the field was really broken up. I was a little nervous about my “crit skills”, but I’m a pretty good bike handler, so after a few laps I was taking turns 1, 2 and 4 with little braking and turn 3 for the last few laps with little braking. I was much more comfortable racing in a group then I thought I would be. My overall finish was a mid-pack 15th place -1 lap with an average speed of 21+ mph. I’m good with that, I was lapped with only two laps to go. Overall, I did much better that I had expected I would do, and I think there will be more crit racing in my future.
Bikerumor » Sneak Peek: 2011 Manitou R7 and All-New Marvel XC Suspension Forks!
(From BikeRumor.com) – We just got our hands on some nifty little internal documents showing that for 2011, Manitou has completely revamped their classic R7 to drop about 40g, improve stiffness and load bearing and make it look much slicker. The new casting brings the R7 down to 2.95lb to 3.05lb, making it one of the lightest fully featured XC forks on the market. Follow up calls ensued:
“Basically, our R7 tooling was worn out and rather than just redo the same thing, we figured we’d use this opportunity to redesign the fork,” says Rich Travis, Manitou’s Product Manager. “So we used FEA design to improve load tolerances and drop weight, and while we were at it we improved mud clearance and made it look better, too…More info here…
2010 NYCROSS.com Cyclocross Series
The 2010 NYCROSS.com Cyclocross Series race schedule is now out. What I love most about this series is that most of the races are a 45 minute drive or less for me.
9/11: NYCROSS.com Cyclocross Clinic, Kirkland NY
9/12: Kirkland CX, Kirkland NY
10/3: CX at Ommegand Brewery, Cooperstown NY
10/16-17: Uncle Sam Gran Prix, Troy NY
10/24: Saratoga Spa CX, Saratoga NY
10/31: Wicked Creepy CX, Bennington VT
11/14: Bethlehem Cup, Delmar NY
12/12: Possible Albany Race.
Capital Region kids finish 375-mile bike trip
Nowadays, most kids are content spending their summer lounging around an air conditioned house. But while Ryan Harrington’s friends spent their time inside, comfortably playing their video games and watching TV, the 14-year-old was busy tackling a 375-mile bike trip across New York State.
Harrington was one of 11 kids who took part in Sky High Adventure’s “Shape Camp” eight-day Erie Canal trip. The group, whose ages range from 6 to 16, traveled along the canal from Buffalo to Albany.
Click for full story: WNYT.com – Capital Region kids finish 375-mile bike trip
Darkhorse 40
The 8th annual Darkhorse 40 was by far one of the best mountain bike races that I have ever done. It was my second time racing the Darkhorse 40…last year was a DNF. Held at the Stewart State Forest in Montgomery, NY , the race course consists of two 20 mile laps of some on the best single-track the region has to offer. Fast and flowing sing-track.
This year saw a consolidation of classes. Elite/Cat 1, Cat 2, Singlespeed and Team. No age groups, no Cat 3, all open classes. What does this mean for the racer? Bigger fields. Way bigger. My Cat 2 field was 143 racers. Last year with the age groups I had 56. Overall the race is capped at 400 racers.
At staging for the start, I tried to get myself up as close to the front as I could, but I ended up around mid-pack at the start. The start of the race was on a 3/4 mile paved and dirt road, so it allowed me to get past quite a few riders before we hit the race course. The course was dry, dusty and fast. I felt great and the bike was handling great. The only problem was that I apparently got a little lazy in tuning and setting up my bike. I never checked the brake pads. I didn’t realize that I was in need of replacing the rear disc pads. About three miles into the race one pad of my rear brake was metal an metal, just like your car when your brakes wear out. Front brake was good, back brake at least slowed. It was noisy, but it worked out. I just wasn’t sure what kind of damage I might be doing to the rotor. At about the 20 mile mark I found out. I got a rear flat, so as long as I was stopped, I inspected the rotor. Actually, it wasn’t bad at all. Obvious grinding, but not bad. After, removing a thorn and replacing the tube, I was back on the course trying to catch as many of the dozens and dozens of riders that went passed.
I rode as hard and fast as I could. In fact, I think that the majority of my second 20 mile lap might of been faster than the first. I caught as many as I could but at this point I had no idea how far back I was. Then I got to the last 6 miles or so. I didn’t hit the wall, but I was tired. I worked hard to catch up after the flat and I just got tired. The last 6 miles were tough. My final result was 89. Not what I wanted or even thought where I would be. I rode very well and overall I felt pretty good but mechanicals happen. You just have to go with it and do the best you can.
