Guest Blogger Road Trip: #CCCNYR Chicago CX Cup & #CXnats

It's that time again when I hand over the keys to the blog.  Similar in principal to last years trip to Bend for CX Nationals, Corey Green will be guest blogging for the next 10 days as the run in to Nationals begins with the Chicago UCI races. This year it's a bit different.  Corey has chosen quite a task for himself.  Instead of traveling with two Masters aged micro-brew snobbing fart-joke loving buddies like he did last year with John Petrov and Gregg Shanefelt, this year Corey is traveling with two junior teenagers who may be polar opposites of each other: daughter Mackenzie Green and Justin Bieber...we mean John's son Spencer Petrov.  It's a sit com in the making, "I Love My Teenage Cyclocrosser."


Mackenzie Green - Corey's teenage daughter who loves cyclocross, but chooses to be quiet and reserved. While traveling she will most likely have her nose in a book received on Christmas day, playing a game on her iPhone, or doing what most teenage girls do - texting a couple hundred friends. Kenzie's goal for Chicago and Madison are to simply have great races, continue to build her experience and have fun. You must also realize that Corey is legally against saying anything remotely close to making fun of Kenzie in a blog. It would result in 10 days of teenage looks that all of you remember giving your parents as well as a general lack of forgiveness for embarrassing her.

Spencer Petrov - if anyone has spent any time with Spencer they will realize that his motor never stops. Most times he is reminiscent of that 2 year old toddler that is beyond tired, running frantic around the house getting into anything not glued down and non-stop chattering the whole time. The biggest difference between Spencer and that toddler is that Spencer never hits that wall where he collapses on top of himself, face down in his creamed bananas in his high chair - he just  k e e p s  g o i n g. If you have ever seen Justin Bieber Nyan Cat you sort of understand what I mean...it is like that...

Corey Green - driver and watchdog for the two above, plans are to race at Chicago and Nats and use his middle-aged body the best he can to not get lapped by Pete Webber and Adam Myerson. Cincinnati Master, Peter Hills will be in the same races in Chicago and at Nats and called up about the same time, so comparisons will be made to determine who had the best holiday prep to racing. Otherwise days will be filled with getting kids ready to race, pumping tires, cooking food, calming nerves and pretending that somehow this is a vacation from work.

This Friday the Toyota 4-Runner (official vehicle of TBBBE bloggers) will depart for Chicago, loaded up with 6 bikes, 6 extra wheels, tents, coolers, a case of lycra, left over mud from OVCX (for luck) and all those little things that you always throw in before leaving "just in case". We will return late, late on January 8th, after Nationals, filled with memories of good times had and a wonderful sense of accomplishment. Or we won't talk to each other for 6 months, it could go either way.

CX Nats: Day 2 - Time Trials, Old Folks and Single Speed

First Championship race of 2010 CX Nats

Day 2 of CX Nats brings the old folks (I mean that affectionately, as I am very near to racing on this day) starting bright and early in the morning and terminates with the Single Speed races. New to this year is also the time trials, which the Cincinnati area Lionhearts juniors raced today.

The old guys races started bright and early at 9am and saw a course drastically different than yesterday's snow fest. Almost no snow was left on the course, however the meltdown created pools of water large enough to rival the Great Lakes. If you pedal in these dang things you risk your toe being bitten off by an angry lake Trout or Salmon migrating up river.

The old guy races are always entertaining. They all take it seriously, but in a different way than the young guns.  Rather than risk a broken hip, they will cede a position to remain ambulatory the next day. Seeing as my bones are nearing this same spot in life, I deeply respect this point of view and hope for the same consideration when I am racing these races.

The US Bobsled team would be afraid...

With the increasing excitement associated with cyclocross in America, field sizes have grown exponentially in recent years. USA Cycling adopted a new strategy to place riders in the staging area - a TT to determine who the fast riders were. These "fast" riders would be placed up front and the slower riders in the back of the staging area. The issue became the fact that they TT course and the main championship course are not so similar. After 3-180 degree turns and an off-camber ice skate 180 into a boulder the size of Grant's Tomb, the TT course progressed to a 100 meter downhill bobsled run. At 10:30 in the morning when the Lionheart 13-14 year old boys heading into the TT course, the entire downhill slide was ice - and not just any ice. It was that ice that has been sitting underneath the snow that you keep driving over in your driveway and takes a  sledgehammer to bust off the driveway - lightly seasoned with a fresh rain of course.

Assuming you can get to the bottom without slip sliding into the sage brush, you go through a couple short power sections and then find yourself face to face with the monster. This monster is a run-up that would make Texas proud. (according to the internet everything is big in Texas)  The run-up scales approximately 80 vertical feet and is completely unrideable. You might be able to try riding it, but when we walked the course there was 6"+ of snow on it. For the first time ever I was trying to determine how to attach crampons to cycling shoes for the kids to make it up this monster.

The Best Runup EVER

Honestly, when I walked the course I was out of breath walking slowly up the hill. I may be past my peak, but I am not that far out of shape....yet. This was a serious hill that was going to challenge even the most experienced rider and not just kids. Assuming you still have any air in your lungs, you now have only about 300 meters to sprint to the finish. In short the time trial course was really hard and very difficult to do well on.

So, let's get back to racing.

The best race of the day was easily the Women 40-44. Two fabulous racers (Wendy Williams and Gina Hall) battled the entire day back and forth with a sprint finish down the final straight won by Wendy Williams. Hats off to these women for a great race on a hard course.

Wendy Williams battling Gina Hall

Adam Craig attempts to revive the Daisy Duke look

The most entertaining race went to the Single Speed. When you see a single speed race you are bound to see costumes and get-ups that make you wonder. Today there were a few notables. First place in the race and in the entertainment factor went to Adam Craig who won the single speed National Championship while sporting Daisy Dukes, a solid white BMX helmet and a Rabobank jersey. I didn't get a picture  of him standing on the podium receiving his medal, but I can only imagine what the brass at USA Cycling thinks of this look.

An honorable mention goes to the guy pictured below with the solid disc and the front Spinergy. After considering the possibilities I am certain that he confused the race for the TT and showed up with his SS TT bike. While weight on a single speed bike is often not the primary consideration, those wheels have to be in the 2300-2500g range. Even a non-weight weenie has to look at those and ask "why?" A search is out for this guy's friends to determine whether they even considered giving him any assistance on the approach. This looks a lot like letting your friend leave to a fancy dinner without warning him about his awful hat hair and spinach in his teeth.

Tomorrow will bring the juniors races in the morning and more Masters fun in the afternoon. After I get done coaching the kids in the morning, we will have several roving reporters with cameras wandering about looking for the best of CX Nats.

Cyclocross Nationals 2010: B Races-aka Course Preview

Organizers chop ice off the start grid at 2010 US CX Nationals

(The following was written by Corey Green, our reporter for 2010 CX Nationals in Bend.  After reading this the only advice I have to those racing is to wrap yourself in Saran wrap, wear your water-wings and affix an ice axe to your handlebars.  Since this was written our other reporter Gregg Shanefelt of Zephyr Wheel Sports finished 9th in the Men's Open Non Championship race.  Results link click here.  Enjoy!)


Today was B race day, which is more commonly know as "preview the course at race speeds with other crazy people day". The B races are the only races at CX Nats that a Cat 4 CX racer can enter, so the field has a wide range of skills. Today I saw guys on mountain bikes and guys wearing pants!?!  So, you can't enter this race too serious or you will be at risk of actually thinking you accomplished something by beating the guy out there in his jeans and hiking boots just looking for a fun ride.


The race is really good for taking laps at race speed and testing multiple lines through the elements. Where can I pass? Where will the dollar bills hand ups be? How close are the port-o-johns to the finish line? Can I ride this run up, or should I remember that superman has a cape but I do not? By taking this approach you can learn a lot about this course and help your race later in the week.



Cyclocross Magazine's National Championship Course Preview - 12/8/10 4pm from cyclocross magazine on Vimeo.


CX Magazine posted this preview, which was taken today about mid-afternoon after the four B races had finished their circuit of the course. Prepare yourselves as what you see might frighten you - and I will say that the earlier in the day you raced, the harder it was to ride. At 8am during previews there was still 6+" of snow on about 50-60% of the course.


The start is one of the best starts anywhere (photo above of organizers chopping ice.) Long, smooth, beautiful blacktop. The kind of blacktop that makes a roadie wet his pants a little bit when he is riding over.  Oop!  That roadie would not be excited about the 180 in snow at the end of the start though. The start was pretty controlled today, but the outside line is a horrible line on this start. Of course a 180 degree turn in much at 20+ mph isn't exactly a joyride either.

After the 180 comes a long segment of straight. When you look at this course on a map you might think to yourself "there is where I will pass people. I have a lot of straight line power, I am superman!" But then again, you don't have a cape and this section isn't as easy as the map suggests. The ground here is soft and squishy. As you might see from the cameraman he is being fussy about picking his lines through this section. This is most likely because he wants to save his rims. Below the appearance of plain mud and ground is rock - ugly rock with sharp edges - a pumice type rock. Hit one of these wrong and it will pierce the most protected tire.


There is then a sweeping right turn (complete with all mud) that leads into a lake. Well, it wasn't a full on lake when we raced in the morning, but from the looks of the video we may need to put boat oars in the kid's back pockets. Coaches will also be required to train in CPR and complete a life guard test to supervise this section of the course. When we rode this at noon today it was about 8" deep and frigid (yes, snow runoff). That water would spray up on your legs en masse and instantly freeze your feet. The best part? You are less than 2 minutes unto your race.


After freezing your feet into popsicles you turn a few relatively easy sweeping corners and head into a nice long straightaway. This straight is one of the few times you are not fighting your bike to stay under you and gives a chance to go fast! At the end of that long straight section you hit a cambered, BMX style turn that, if dry, would be super fun to rail and propel your momentum back the other way. Only problem is the snow and mud make it nearly unrideable. Even the cameraman of this video got into it and gave up. As you are trying to ride it your rear wheel is falling away from and you either power-drift it all the away, or you hit a stake, stop your momentum, and run through the corner.


After butchering that corner you head back along a long straight and through some nice sweeping turns. These are entirely passable and in some cases you can ride them like a real cyclocross racer. Another long straight and you are back to the fun sections, or at least that is the way they explained it to me. Now we get to do the drop-in/run-up combos. Remember back in Junior High School when you were play football and your coach made you run in place, drop to the ground and get right back up? and you just kept doing them? Yeah, that it what these felt like.


The first drop in is pretty simple and easy. Smooth, good ground, no real need for being in a certain line or speed. But, the run up following is killer. I tried to ride it one lap just to see if I could do it and failed miserably (see pic). (Editor note: you look like you need an ice axe)  The run up is quite steep and with ice and snow you can't get the speed necessary. After scaling Mt. Bendverest, you got to remount in another lake at the top - if your feet had warmed any after lake #1, they weren't warm anymore.


After surfing through the lake over a slow downhill you got to another run up which is again, unrideable. I tried and failed. You sense the correct pattern here. The problem with this run up is it never learned the meaning of "smooth". This run up may have been part of the WW2 attack on Normandy with the bomb craters that line it on each side as you try to scale it. Another quick remount and you are on to the next dropin/runup.


The next dropin has a major case of schizo. One line is smooth and straight and makes you feel all warm inside when you get to the bottom. The other line could have also been involved in the Attack on Normandy with bomb craters in all the wrong places. I took this line once, and only once, and had a near "oh shit" moment, riding a front wheel wheelie stand for a couple seconds until the body weight could be placed back over the bike. The runup partner here is an easy ride and can be cleared pretty quickly if not trying to pursue it with 10 of your new-found friends.


Once you have cleared the dropin/runup version of Candyland you have a couple longer straight sections to gain some speed and feel good about yourself - and lake #3. Once you go through lake #3 your feet won't ever be warm again until after your race and you have been standing in the shower living through that painful feeling of regaining warmth.

The Best CX Nationals Bike Trailer EVER

Crossing over the street you hit some really nice grass. Deschutes Brewery has very nicely groomed grass on their side of the course. It is well kept and thick and feels like velcro on your tires - the kind of sticky that makes you feel all warm and cozy inside. This is a section very reminiscent of the cross back in Ohio.


At the end of the grass is a great runup. It is a runup that is deceptive and fair. A lot of times you can ride it and really make time up it. If you get off the right line or can't get speed with people around you, it really becomes a run up and this segment becomes very hard to do fast. You see the remount at the top is off camber. Last year when the ground was frozen your rear tire would be sliding down the course while you were trying to remount. If you did a flying remount your weight would shove the tire further down the hill.


Once you ride you white knuckle the descent back to ground level and hit a freshly paved road section for the final stretch before the start finish. This final stretch includes two difficult elements - the flyover and the steps.

Inside the Best CX Nationals Bike Trailer EVER

The flyover (pictured above) really isn't hard and over the week it will (should) get easier. However, today there was six inches of snow in this section, making it difficult to carry enough speed to get over the flyover with any efficiency. The last section of pine board seemed impossibly difficult.


Descend the flyover and head through a few more lakes and onto the final challenge of the course - the steps. These steps are just wrong. They look great and make for a great spectacle racing, but their size makes them impossible to get the right step on. They are too short to take one at a time with any speed, and just a touch too small to take two at a time without making your heart rate spike. You do them like Tiny Tim one time and like crazed lunatics on the stair master the next time. Either way your heart is through the roof before the finish line, making a sprint to the finish very hard.


That is the course that your National Champions will be determined on this week. The conditions combined with the course will make for difficult racing and the winner will certainly earn their prize. Now that you have the settings I will be on the lookout for more oddballs and oddities this week.

OVCX @ NATS

I wish I was there to see Morgan Webb’s face when his daughter Eden stood on the podium with a Silver Medal. (Photo: The little medalist herself with daddy pictured left from Velonews-how sweet is that!) What happened to Anna Jean from Louisville? Seems like a tough break for one of the fastest women in the OVCX. I hope Karen got the “look I’m in front of Ned” photo when her husband BioWheel’s Doug Hamilton was lapped by cycling hero Ned Overend. So many stories. But I have to admit, sleeping in on Sunday morning might have been worth missing Nat's.

I guarantee this list of OVCX racers at CX Nationals is not complete, mainly because I swear I saw Ryan Lindsey from Zepher/Cycledots yesterday but even upon a double check he remains buried in a list of bib numbers. Sorry bud. I was pretty CX-eyed by the time I got to the day 4 results. It was especially tough to figure out who is actually from the Ohio Valley area in the Collegiate Results. If you don’t see somebody you know, send an email or view full results from the 2008 Cyclocross Nationals in Kansas City on the USA Cycling Website here or at the KC Cross Nationals website.

PHOTO: a familiar mullet-#2237 and a familiar Texas Roadhouse jersey #355 in the U23 race from VeloNews.

B Women
1 2276 BOREM, Nicole Warsaw, IN DRT Racing 00:44:40.00
DNS 2265 LEWIS SROKA, Julie N. Royalton, OH Lake Effect Cycling

B Men 30-39
2 2088 MESSER, Andy Columbus, IN DRT Racing 00:42:54.00
17 2015 MYERS, Ryan fort Wayne, IN NA 00:45:51.00

B Men 40+
14 1749 SROKA, Rudy N. Royalton, OH Lake Effect Cycling Team + ST
26 1741 HEPPNER, Blaine Louisville, KY Bike Clicks/Team Louisville

35 1745 COLLINS, Joe Louisville, KY Team Louisville + ST
38 1723 CRAFT, Jeffrey Madison, OH Lake Effect Cycling Team + ST

Junior Girls 10-12
2 1637 WEBB, Eden Louisville, KY Red Zone Cycling 00:38:53.00
8 1638 HALEY, Frances-Jane Louisville, KY Red Zone Cycling 00:48:02.00

Junior Girls 13-14
4 1290 MOSSMAN, Hannah Cincinnati, OH One Call Now 00:31:58.00

Junior Girls 15-16
7 934 MORRIS, Colleen Cincinnati, OH One Call Now 00:32:11.00

Junior Girls 17-18
5 940 MORRIS, Michelle Cincinnati, OH One Call Now 00:30:28.00

Masters Women 45-49
12 1602 LEWIS SROKA, Julie N. Royalton, OH Lake Effect Cycling Team 00:46:27.00

Masters Women 30-34
DNF 1577 DALLAIRE, AnnaJean Louisvile, KY SoBe-Cannondale

Masters Men 35-39
29 1140 MESSER, Andy Columbus, IN DRT Racing 00:48:51.00
44 1039 MYERS, Ryan fort Wayne, IN NA 00:50:28.00

Masters Men 40-44
26 1257 WEBB, Morgan Louisville, KY Barbisol 00:48:36.00
35 1235 HEPPNER, Blaine Louisville, KY Bike Clicks/Team Louisville 00:49:52.00

Masters Men 45-49
7 1302 SHOGREN, gunnar Morgantown, WV SoBe Cannondale 00:47:43.00
9 1313 CARD, JONATHAN SYLVANIA, OH SATURN OF TOLEDO 00:48:31.00
25 1411 FAGERBERG, Erik LOUISVILLE, KY Calistoga Racing Team 00:51:07.00
45 1332 MANDROLA, john louisville, KY Calistoga Racing Team 00:53:51.00
59 1377 COLLINS, Joe Louisville, KY Team Louisville + 1 Lap Down
70 1388 OTTING, mike cincinnati, OH Mercyhealthplex/7hills Racing + 1 Lap Down

Masters Men 50-54
14 829 CRAFT, Jeffrey Madison, OH Lake Effect Cycling Team 00:50:10.00
28 851 SROKA, Rudy N. Royalton, OH Lake Effect Cycling Team 00:52:44.00
44 835 TOLER, Richard Dayton, OH Team Kreitler Rollers + 1 Lap Down
56 861 HAMILTON, Doug Fairborn, OH BioWheels Racing/Reese-Campbel + 2 Laps

Under 23 Women
8 408 BENSON, Emily Medina, OH DRT Racing + 1 Lap Down

Under 23 Men (may be some discrpency between KC results & USA Cycling)
19 Clayton Omer 53:28.0 344 Calistoga Racing Team
26 322 LLEWELLYN, Andrew Louisville, KY Calistoga Racing Team 00:55:02.00
37 334 EDWARDS, ZACHARY FORT WAYNE, IN DRT RACING + 2 Laps Down

DI Collegiate Men
5 Mike Sherer IU
7 Kip Spaude Lindsey Wilson
8 Issac Neff IU
12 Clayton Omer Lindsey Wilson

Elite Men
51 Ryan Knapp BikeReg.com

Elite Women
35 Betsy Shogren Sobe Cannondale