Posts in category Featured

“It’s not a billboard. It’s just a bike race.”
Cyclocross Magazine’s Joey Mullan has taken it upon himself to interview race promoters all around the country this season to provide you with some insider details on the huge amounts of work that go into planning races and series’, and the people who are just crazy enough to love what they do.
The first promoter we’re taking a look at is Ryan Rickerts of the Cascade Cross Series, which will happen this year from October all the way into February in and around Bellingham, WA.

The sheer diversity of our cross community is one of the many things that I love about it. Across the country it’s populated by people who have found their way into cyclocross from so many different backgrounds and for such a variety of reasons. Talking with them, learning their stories, is one of my favorite things to do. I come away from every new encounter with a deeper understanding of the fact that we are truly a unique community.

Wow, mid August is upon us and that can only mean one thing, pulling out the practice barriers, heading to the local park and getting our hup on! With that, Jesse Anthony has certainly been getting his HUP on at the Tour of Utah, can he take the points jersey? Johnson and Wells head high to attempt to race 100 miles above 10,000 feet. Amy Dombroski has been productive and looks to be on track with her ’cross program. Daphny Van Den Brand has announced her retirement after the 2011–2012 racing season, can she do the triple? In this week’s working man’s edition: Tristan Schouten and Brian Matter head to the first round of the Midwest Triple Crown, The Ore to Shore.

A short catch-up: I wanted to cycle from Barcelona to Paris… These moments were the crux of the matter, I taught myself some discipline. What happens if you don’t stretch, prepare, feed, or clean properly? Well, lots of things, and few of them pleasant. Each time there was no option but to carry on. I was alone in a foreign country, without much to do except cycle and read and think, and I had a train to catch in Paris. Carry on.

Clement’s Donn Kellogg has spent a good part of his life around tires, and after relaunching the Clement brand and bringing cyclocrossers the PDX and LAS cyclocross clinchers in 2010, he’s been focused on expanding his tire line-up with both additional treads and tubular tires.

The result of his efforts? A tubeless, seamless cyclocross tubular that eschews the hand-made construction of cyclocross tubular tires like Dugast, FMB, Challenge and Vittoria, and instead adopts Tufo-like technology but promises a more supple casing.

John Gatch is a do-it-all-er when it comes to cycling. A long time racer, both in road and cyclocross. Announcer for some of the biggest races held here in Cincinnati. Promoter and organizer for the OVCX race, Gun Club CX. He even has a podcast. I was excited to have the opportunity to interview him. Despite his busy schedule, John took the time to answer some of the questions I have always been curious about. He is somewhat of a legend around the cycling community and I hope you enjoy his answers as much as I did.

Subscribers coast to coast are reporting that they’ve received the latest and greatest edition of our print magazine – lucky Cyclocross Magazine Issue #13! Copies are also showing up at the bike shops and book stores that stock our publication too [See our list of “Top Shops”]. Of course, you can always subscribe to the world’s only dedicated cyclocross publication to make sure you never miss an issue.

There are some moments that are undefinable. There are some days that are just great. And then, if you’re really lucky, there are weekends full of those moments, one right after the other. This was one of those weekends.

Welcome to Part II of our “Director’s Cut” of the ECCC Cyclocross Program. We’ve talked to some of the behind-the-scenes workers who make the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference run so smoothly, especially during cyclocross. It’s certainly no easy task, since races aren’t strictly collegiate, and the calendar has to take location, size, elite fields and timing into consideration. It’s make even more difficult (or easy) this year since Nationals are now in January, right when most students will be on winter break. Because of this, the collegiate season will be extended well into December, which could affect students who would like to make it home for the holidays, but who are in contention for top spots in the conference. Last time, we heard from Drexel’s Joe Kopena and Tim Manzella. This week, we talk to Union College alum and New England cyclocrosser Steven Hopengarten.

Want to know what to look for on Cyclocross Magazine this week? Worried you might have missed something last week? Fear not, because we’ve got it all mapped out for you. Every Monday, we have a preview of what’s in store for the week, and we’ll let you know about some of the great articles that you might have missed last week. If there’s any story you’d like us to cover, any burning question you want answered, or any cool racer you’d like to hear from, let us know! Leave messages in the comments, find me on the Cowbell Forums or email molly [at] cxmagazine.com.

Gluing tubulars can be stressful enough, and there are so many different “best ways” of getting the job done. This week, we wanted to look at one question that we hear a lot when talking about gluing up tubulars: when gluing new tires on a wheel that’s been used and glued before, what kind of prep should you be doing? And more specifically, how clean do you want your rims to be before gluing on new tires?

Canadian racer Craig Richey is back in North America after his first season racing ‘cross in Belgium. He checks in with an update on off-season successes and plans for a big adventure this August.

It was one of those rare days this summer in Wisconsin: sunny, 75 degrees, mild winds. I was camping with a buddy in Boulder Junction, home of some beautiful northwoods roads and trails.

My friend was going fishing, and I was headed out on the ride. The training program told me to ride zone 2 for 80 minutes.

When I returned, my friend asked me where I’d been.

The summer months really are winding away but the high temperatures of August are showing no signs of relenting anytime soon. With a little over a month before the season gets under way, the rumors and rumblings are starting to get juicy. And, how do we know that? Well on Twitter, Veldrijden_info is no longer silent. So, the big news of the week is Tom Vannoppen’s drug bust. But that really shouldn’t cloud other good ’cross news like Nicole Duke joining the Cannondale–Cyclocrossworld.com team. Nys double flats at the London test event and would rather take an Olympic Medal over the ’cross World Championships. Tim Johnson heads to the high country for a week of epicness, how will the former “roadie” handle seven days of mountain bike racing? In this week’s Working Man’s Edition a new working man’s ’cross team comes to Colorado featuring Spencer Powlison, Grant Holicky and Scott Tietzel.

In Issue 13, we take a look at some “Mud Myths” that, as racers, you’ve surely heard from coaches, old racers, mechanics and spectators. In particular, myths exist about deep carbon rims and their effectiveness when the terrain gets soggy. One of three myths lined up to be confirmed or busted in this issue was, “Does a carbon rim really track better in mud?” We wanted answers, so we took some time in the “CXM Lab” (read: muddy course) with these myths and some serious gear in mind, all for science’s sake.

by Molly Hurford Kathy Sherwin has been popping up on our radar at Cyclocross Magazine quite a bit this past month. First, she took a …

Geoff Proctor truly is a Jack Of All Trades: not only does he manage to stay involved in cyclocross at nearly every level, from junior development to running camps to sitting on the UCI commission to racing, but he also manages a full-time job as an English teacher teaching AP Lit. He’s also responsible for EuroCrossCamp, a hugely successful venture that is now in it’s ninth year. That he had time at all to sit down and answer a few questions for us was amazing, especially since he just finished running his USAC Cyclocross Development camp for junior racers.

When we recently posted that Christian Heule had joined the Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com crew, we also mentioned that Stu Thorne, who runs the team and owns Cyclocrossworld.com, …

You already know that cyclocross is good for you — you are informed reader of Cyclocross Magazine, after all — and you certainly know ‘cross is good for your body. It strengthens your legs, and it strengthens your arms and core. It’s good for the heart, and for the lungs, and for the waistline. It’s good for pretty much everything — except the skin of your calves and ankles that your pedals always tear up.

Cyclocross Magazine is partnering up with Echelon Gran Fondo to bring a first-ever dirt option to the organization’s rides. In addition to a variety of road offerings, the Hood River, the Oregon, fondo adds “CrossMountain” routes – either 30 or 45 miles mixing paved road, singletrack and dirt forest roads in the stunning Columbia River Gorge.

We started each day with early morning strength conditioning—running bleachers, doing plyometric stations with power skips, lateral hops, ab work. Late morning entailed specific cyclocross training on a cyclocross circuit and, in the afternoon, we did some big training rides in the mountains.

This year, you’ll be faster. You’ll train harder and you’re going to maximize every pedal stroke, and in order to do that, your bike has got to be lighter. There are a few easy ways, a few hard ways and ways that cost more than others to make that happen.

Want to know what to look for on Cyclocross Magazine this week? Worried you might have missed something last week? Fear not, because we’ve got it all mapped out for you. Every Monday, we have a preview of what’s in store for the week, and we’ll let you know about some of the great articles that you might have missed last week. If there’s any story you’d like us to cover, any burning question you want answered, or any cool racer you’d like to hear from, let us know! Leave messages in the comments, find me on the Cowbell Forums or email molly [at] cxmagazine.com.

Some of our top cyclocrossers did pretty darn well when switching to wider tires and suspension forks at mountain bike nationals a couple of weeks ago (their results are listed below.) Amy Dykema, a wonderful photographer, was there to capture the event with her camera and shared some of her favorite shots, which can be viewed in the gallery below.

We’re just over a month away from the opening race of the American UCI ’cross season, Nittany Lion Cross and it’s sounding like things are heating up in the world of pro cyclocross. Cannondale–Cyclocrossworld.com announced the signing of Christian Heule for the 2011 season. Katie Compton won the Steamboat Springs Stinger. Bart Wellens, Sven Nys, Niels Albert, Sven Vantourenhout, Tom Meeusen, Rob Peeters and Ben Berden race with motocrossers for charity.

Last week, we reported on Raleigh Midsummer Night’s Cyclocross Race, with full course preview coverage, race coverage with a full photo gallery and a peek at Raleigh’s new line of cyclocross bikes. But what you may have missed is our great video of the start of the Elite Men’s race, featuring riders like Craig Richey, Russell Stevenson, Zach McDonald and JT Fountain. You can tell that it’s early on in the season by the relatively small size of the field, and the fact that some of these racers had a hard time keeping the rubber side down as they fought for the holeshot, causing a small crash right at the start. As our publisher/head cowbell ringer for Cyclocross Magazine, Andrew Yee, put it: “This is when the holeshot isn’t worth it.”

Cyclocross Magazine grabbed an exclusive preview of the new Ultegra-level CX70 cyclocross components while at the Raleigh Dealers symposium. The Shimano mini-group includes a front derailleur sized and tuned for the smaller chainrings used in cyclocross and available in a top-pull and bottom-pull cable configuration.

When I began working with Rob Brandt, the brand manager for Stevens Bikes, I had lots of questions. Rob graciously took time away from a busy work life to provide me with answers. Some of the things he said surprised me, some confirmed my long-held opinions. I found Rob to be bright, insightful, and open. He told me about himself; how he came to cycling; about ’cross bikes; about ’cross in general – it’s present state and it’s future; even a bit about Stevens, the company he represents.

If there’s one thing you can say about the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference, it’s that it certainly doesn’t have a lack of leadership. There’s always some willing junior, senior, grad student or graduated and grateful alumni willing to (or roped into) taking over where graduating students leave off. And if you’re lucky, those graduating might just stay around to fill in the gaps. For the next two weeks, we’re talking to some of the behind-the-scenes workers who make the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference run so smoothly, especially during cyclocross. It’s going to be an interesting year for Drexel’s Joe Kopena and Tim Manzella.

It’s that time of year again: time to pull your cyclocross bike out of storage, take a good, long look at it and think, “Well, now what does it need?” Because we’re bike racers. And our bikes always need something, preferably something shiny and new. However, if you’re on a strict bike budget, there are some sneaky ways to upgrade or update your bike for the season, there’s an easy solution: accessories. (And yes, we realize that this piece reads like a fashion magazine article on making that Little Black Dress look brand-new by simply adding new jewelry or shoes.) Still, if you’ve been racing on — or just bought — a stock bike, we have some suggestions for how to dress it up so it stands out in the field (hopefully because you snagged the hole shot.)