Posts in category the racer’s view

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.

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.

Train, stretch, eat, sleep, repeat. Such is the life of a racer in training, and I like it.

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.

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.

Cyclocross Magazine columnist Paul Warloski profiles his return to cyclocross after a near-devastating injury. Follow Paul as he takes us along for a ride of trials …

Summer heat is at it’s high point. Twitter accounts across the eastern seaboard keep referencing the 90 plus degree temperatures and more and more often the cyclocross hashtag comes up on twitter. So is anything exciting happening in the wide world of pro cyclocross?

Our newest addition to the Cyclocross Magazine staff, UK-based intern David Evans is unveiling his new bi-weekly column all about racing cyclocross “on the cheap.”

I’m almost done with road season for the year, thankfully, so it’s time to get cyclocross-specific. Between having a coach, having a new ’cross bike and having a pit bike being built up as I write this, I’m feeling pretty darn pro, and pretty darn prepared for the season.

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.

Well, it’s finally happened! It was inevitable although it took quite a while! I’ve been completely transformed from a died in the wool roadie to an irrevocably addicted off road rider. I no longer crave hours of asphalt, instead I wake up in the morning thinking about single track climbs and rhythmic swooping descents.

It’s been a few weeks since Rumors and Rumblings, but things have been going on in the rumor mills around the ’cross world. There are races going on, ’cross racers showing their mettle and other ’crossers building their form day by day. So, where are things?

Adam Myerson is a bit of a cyclocross legend, especially on the east coast. Cyclocross Magazine publisher Andrew Yee distinctly recalls Myerson’s presence at his first race, and years later, he’s still a fixture in New England cyclocross and beyond. With an impressive set of palmares that come from 25 years of bike racing, Myerson is certainly an elite force to be reckoned with, even as some of his contemporaries abandon the Pro field for Masters races. Still, as Myerson (and his latest tattoo) will tell you, he lives by the motto “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop.”

Death Before DNF (“Did Not Finish,” for those of you who’ve never been faced with the concept of dropping out of a race) may be a bit extreme for a title, but when I was falling off the back of a race on Sunday, I contemplated titling this column “Know When To Hold ‘Em and Know When To Fold ‘Em.” Not only is that an excruciatingly long title, it’s also total crap in cycling.

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.

Summer has just begun and the road and mountain bike seasons are in full swing, but for those of us dedicated to cyclocross, the offseason is ending and training programs for the fall are coming together as the cyclocross bike is tuned up. Admittedly, my cyclocross bike never gets a rest and I’m always looking to tweak it to gain performance. In order to gain more performance, should I get a pair of carbon wheels, new tires, a sealed cable set, ceramic bearing bottom bracket? I hope that by reading Cyclocross Magazine, you will gain some insight to where your hard earned dollars should go.

Although I’m no longer going to win any prizes for prettiest legs, the crash that nearly took my life has offered a surprising gift.

The day I was brought in by ambulance, the doctors took me into surgery immediately, the first of four, and I spent eight days in the hospital.

This racer from New Zealand hit the cyclocross circuit in 2009, racing primarily in Europe, though she hopes to come to the States this season. First a mountain biker, now Whitson is trying her luck on the road circuit with an eye toward cyclocross in the fall. She took some time out of a travel-heavy road season to chat with us, and was particularly interested in talking about what it means to be a woman in our sport. It’s a topic that we don’t often think about, and the purpose of this column is to highlight great women in the sport, but also to focus on how women are looked at and treated within the cyclocross and cycling world.

For the past month and a half, I have lived and breathed cyclocross, as I took over as online editor for Cyclocross Magazine. And let me tell you, it is an extremely glamorous lifestyle.

Working in your pajamas is glamorous, right?

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.

It’s sometimes hard for me to get my head around this fact but, I’ve been racing cyclocross for over 30 years! That statement has me sitting at my keyboard shaking my head and laughing at myself. What is the world keeps me coming back? My last column explored the question of motivation. Here’s the next one: After doing cross for so long, what have I learned about how to get ready for the season? There are a few things that I’ve recently added to my list, and then there’s the processes that I’ve followed for years just to make sure I’m ready the first time I step off the bike and shoulder it over that first set of barriers.

We wanted to bring you some of the latest news from the cyclocross front, as road season for ‘crossers has kicked into high gear lately. With Luke Keough dominating the USA Crits series, Team Mountain Khakis, managed by Adam Myerson, is ramping up their season. However, the Keoughs aren’t the only cross racers in the series. Kathy Sherwin wins the Utah State Championship race. Bart Wellens had a super-long solo escape in the Belgian road championship that lotsa folks were talking about. Arnaud Jouffroy just won a mountain bike race, what will this mean for his ‘cross season? Nature Valley is over, how did the many crossers fare? And of course, the Tour De France starts tomorrow, which crossers will be lining up? NBC Tour de France All Access Discount Code?

Pint-sized racer Emma White has a lot to be proud of. At 13-years-old, she’s already raced and beat a good portion of the women racing in the New England area. And when she races in just her age group, as she did at Nationals this year, she’s a serious force to be reckoned with. Now, she’s in the middle of an intense road season as a junior, but took some time out to answer some questions for us.

Game face, pain cave, race face … as cyclocross racers, we’ve heard those terms thrown around nearly every time we’ve raced our bikes. But do you ever stop and think about what they really refer to, and what they mean for your racing?

You typically do not think about college during the summer. Just as you do not think about cyclocross in the summer. However, if you are reading this article then chances are you are hooked. Just as I am hooked. My name is James McCabe and I am a junior student at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I am also the president of the Cycling Club at Wake. Prior to my involved with the club my freshmen year, the club was just a bunch of road bikers with Australian accents. (Well, that was just one rider, but that is beside the point.) I have taken the Cycling Club from a bunch of disorganized roadies to one of the stronger cyclocross teams in the Atlantic Collegiate Cycling Conference (ACCC).

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.

During the season, I made sure I raced every race in the series, even races I don’t like, just to maintain my spot in the points for the trophy. To me it was purely a symbolic and tangible piece of evidence that I could still race my bike, just 18 months after the crash.

Even in the “off-season,” Georgia Gould is a force to be reckoned with. When we last checked in with her in our first Women’s Wednesday column, we learned that she’s been chasing a win in the Mountain Bike World Cup series, as well as the PROxct series. Recently, she finished in the top 15 at the Dalby Forest mountain bike race, and there’s still a lot of mountain bike racing to be done before the season is over and cyclocross begins. Lucky for us, Georgia had a few minutes to spare to talk to us about this season, her upcoming cyclocross season, and what it’s like to be a pro woman in cycling.

As May turned to June and as June is quickly disappearing, it’s occurred to me that the start of cyclocross season is actually not as far away as I thought. At first, this notion made me want to start jumping for joy. But then, it hit me just how unprepared I am for cyclocross season and just how big my “to do” list is. Like Mike Birner suggested in his piece on Building a Base in the Off-Season, I had made a list of what I needed to work on over the summer. And yeah, it’s a long list.

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.