Man, the Bike Monkey crew in Santa Rosa knows how to put on a race! The course was super flat and super short and, other than two single-bike-wide bridges and a gnarly tree root, was a straight-up DRAG RACE which totally played to my strengths. I got a decent start just hammered, hammered, hammered for 15(!) laps… and did great! I finished 8th/38 and was the last rider to stay on the lead lap. I celebrated afterward with a beer and a brat, as usual. I guess the trick now is to get that same performance in fields three times as large, like they are at the BASP races. None of the fields were very big and the course wasn’t particularly challenging, but everyone was stoked to race and had a great time.

CXSR (and also Livermore) might not have the flash and prestige of the bigger series in the region, but they are invaluable for racers looking to pick up extra starts and work on the race fitness. Another advantage of having these “feeder” series around is that they almost double the length of the racing season out here. The bulk of the racing naturally runs from October through December just like everywhere else, but when you tack on Livermore, which starts in early September, and CXSR, who hold their last race in mid-February, you get a regional cross calendar that is nearly six months long! Needless to say, I feel very lucky be racing in a region that offers so many opportunities to compete. The only downside is that I usually run out of steam before the race calendar does! I’m trying to work on that, though.

AV Club: The root claims a victim!

- Nick in SF

VeloCross was a blast again this year!  There is something fun about getting to ride down into the infield of the Velodrome?! Went out hard, took a couple laps to stabilize, and ended up with enough in the tank to finish strong and reel in a few riders on the last lap. Eric Swenson and I took turns pulling each other around the course for most of the race.

Ran the POV camera off the seatpost again and ended up with another cool vid.

I’m editing the vids down to just the first lap for posting on the web, however… if anybody is interested in the full race files, let me know. My camera receords the full 45 min race.

Mike C.

VeloCross Video

Hello from Down South.  I’m new to team, but excited to be a part of it.  I had hoped to fly the Crossniacs colors Halloween Weekend.  However, I crashed hard at a local race; who would have thought that a WET, MUDDY, old concrete velodrome would be slippery?  I ended up with road rash, bruises and a sprained wrist in a splint.  Splint came off last Friday and I was stoked to fly the crossniacs banner in Bimingham, AL. 

The Sun finally came out and we had a mostly dry course for the first time this season.  That is a good thing for me.  Especially when you add a mostly flat course with just enough technical sections and dismounts to throw off the true roadies.  The race was at a cool venue right downtown in Birmingham.  It was an old iron works factory that has been turned into a museum/historic landmark.  It was cool to be racing under the bridges and around the old foundry buildings. You can find some links for pictures at bamacross.com. Margot had some great shots that really show the chracter of the course.

 Usually I get a good start and then start to fade with a profound lack of fitness.  However, this day I couldn’t get clipped in and ended up around 15th off the line.  I guess not too bad since that left about 60 guys behind me.  After the bottleneck at the first runup the leaders were gone.  So, I settled in with a group of about 5 or 6 guys.  We rode together for about 2 laps, but no one really seemed like they wanted to work together.  I tried to get some guys to pull through and start a chase, but didn’t seem to work. 

So,  I hit the gas on a “fireroad” on the back side and kept the speed up through some barriers.  I managed to leave this little group behind and started working on catching some guys.  The course was really cool, with some nice 180 turns and chicanes.  It had one short runup on some concrete stairs and then a nice zigzag up, down and back up through some soft foundry dirt that was almost like volcanic sand.  The technical sections and dismounts allowed me to reel in some guys and then I hung on on the fast pavement sections.  I was able to move up through some guys and ended up alone in 10th.  Best finish of the year out of a pretty big field.  I turned right around and did the CX3/4 race immediately after I finished.  Not sure of my final placing as I left before the results were up.  But I know I wasn’t last and I wasn’t lapped.  I guess that shows that even though I am out of shape, I am starting to race myself into a little bit of fitness.  Hopefully that will bode well for the rest of the season.

We don’t have the numbers down south like cross crusade, etc., but we are growing and CX4 has been having 45 to 70 guys each race.  For me, that seems like a lot.  In the few Cat 5 crits that I have done, they usually limit the field to 50, and from my old MTB days the fields never seemed to be that big.  So, it takes a lot to get used to that and to work through that many guys.  The Bamacross guys did a great job and it was a great day.  Looking at a double this next weekend with a Bamacross race on Saturday night and then a Georgia series race on Sunday.

Like I said, excited to be a part of the Crossniacs movement.   Talk to ya’ll later.

David

What can you say? Vital Stats:

• 1247 racers total for the day
• 251 participated in the Single-Speed CX World Championships (38 female racers)
• Largest category, Masters 35+ C with 173 racers
• Women’s 2008 champ, Sue Butler skips SSCXWC for UCI Nommay World Cup
• Thunderdome from Mad Max complete with swinging chairs & body parts
• Non-UCI shortcut = Stripper Bus (must have money!)
• Men’s 2009 SSCXWC champ: Drew Mackenzie – Island Racing Club from Victoria, Canada
• Women’s 2009 SSCXWC champ: Kari Studley – Velo Bella from Bothell, Washington
• States represented at SSCXWC -  Oregon, California, Washington, Utah, Colorado, Hawaii, New York, Idaho, Arizona…and out of town guests from Japan & Canada

Links Importante!

>>photos (including the Stripper Bus Shortcut) at OregonVelo.com

>>CX Mag write-up of the event

>>video & pics of the Thunderdome at BikePortland.org

Below are pics I snapped. Unfortunately, the Pac NW AllStarz are injury-ridden so Brian Johnson was our only rep.

-Buddhabelly, Pac NW AllStarz

No call up for me and I was late to the line which resulted in being 2 rows back at the start. The 45+ were also in with all the young punks in the B group. I sprinted the start, cutting down the side and pulled into 6th place and that’s where I stayed until the hill. The hill was the only defining section of the course, whoever could climb moved forward. I moved into fourth place and second in my group with Gregory out front. It was a hot day for a cross race and with no feed zone, I followed the two Ridley riders ever lap as they got water at the top of the hill. With 6 laps to go I flagged down Chris and asked him for a hand up.

Thanks Crossnica Chris for the great support, after completing his own race he ran up that damn hill at least three times cheering me on.
I really enjoyed the race; I felt like I did my best and made few mistakes.

 Now I have just one more race before I hang up the race bike for the season.

Ladric.

Teammates old and new are family. And they are always there for you when you need them the most. You have not truly experienced bike racing until you really understand what a teammate is.

Today was Back To Shool Cross in Northfield. Mikey P and I rolled down together. We have been teammates on many different teams. This year we are both riding for different cyclocross teams. The course was pretty brutal. It had a steep climb that was painful in the 42×27, add to that a short course and we climbed it 12 times. There was also a board that most of us were bunny-hopping. I’m not the best at it, but made it over every time. I got the traditional good start and held back a little to see if that would help me from blowing after a few minutes….it didn’t really help. Midway through the race Mikey P and I hooked up and took turns for the rest of the race. It was great having a “teammate” to share the work. 15mins left in the race I was popped, so Mikey P was kind enough to tow me around the rest of the race and keep us away from those chasing us down. Thanks again Mikey. I ended up 4th in 35+ and 9th overall.

Jared

We are building Syndicates across the country. Welcome to the Crossniacs

MA Syndicate (aka East Coast)
David Alden-St.Pierre

GA Syndiate (aka Deep South)
David Smith

And 2 more additions to our MN Syndicate and our 1st Jr member
MN Syndicate
Thomas Manderfeld
Tristan Manderfeld (jr)

Jared

What a beautiful day. 60 degrees and sunny. I arrived early to catch the Midwest Single Speed Championships and saw Marco Lalonde put on a clinic and win by 1 min.

The course was twisty, turny and grassy. Pretty technical with 180s and grass to pavement sections.

My coach told me I needed to slow down my starts as he thinks I’m blowing up after I sprint as hard as I can to get into the top group. But today I had to go hard from the start. The start was critical because it went from pavement to a 180 to grass, so I knew I needed to be top 10 going into the 180. I got a good start and waited for my normal fade, but it didn’t come today. I was able to stay on the gas the whole race. I was top 10 and stayed there all day. The course took many victims today. I saw a ton of people go down around corners and a few mechanicals. I knew I had to ride smart and not make any mistakes today, and I did. I was able to hand with the fast group today and ride wheels. I got into top 5 at one point and had to slow it back a little because I was about to blow. Dan Swanson caught me with 5 laps to go and I let him tow me around the course for 5 laps. I couldn’t pull through, I just wanted to hang on. I told him the race was his and not to worry about me. With a 1/2 a lap to go I let up a little and let him go and rolled in 2nd in 35+ and 7th overall. My best race of the season so far.

My coach has taught me to train smarter and rest harder.

Jared

The Colorado Syndicate represented in Lafayette for the School Yard Cross Race yesterday. The course was fast and technical with a 2 mile lap of grass, sand and mud. The mud section was crazy with it’s own cheering section. Chad, Travis and myself put out a solid team effort yesterday in the 35+4 cat. I had a small mechanical on lap two, but managed to work my way back to a mid pack finish, but Travis and Chad killed it by putting over 2/3 of the field behind them for the day.

Mike B. tore it up in the always challenging 45+ cat. His solid effort made it a successful day for the Colorado Syndicate.

Hey Freaks -

Cat 3 race, Lap 1, looking back off of the seatpost. What an awesome course.

Had a strong first lap, unfortunately could not hold that pace. Cracked like an egg!

Video is pretty cool though, click the link

Mike C

Fridley Fall Back Seatpost Cam