Here, Keough sails in to victory after sprinting McNicholas at CSI Day 1 in 2011. Will he be back again? © Cyclocross Magazine
by Molly Hurford and Lee Slone
It’s the offseason, sure, but that doesn’t mean cyclocrossers are in hiding. In fact, planning for the 2013 season is going ahead full-steam. This week, we checked in with Jeremy Powers about his new projects, took a look at disc brakes and their mechanical implications, and saw Curtis White step into the big leagues when he announced that he’ll be racing for Cannondale-CyclocrossWorld this season.
Luke Keough has proved that in addition to his already legendary ’cross skills, he’s a force to be reckoned with on the road. Now racing on UnitedHealthcare with brother Jake Keough, Luke took three wins in three days of crit racing at the Tulsa Tough last weekend. Both brothers are known for their sprinting prowess as well as cyclocross skills, and Jake also took a fourth place at the Air Force criterium in DC the same weekend. Also in the DC race, a roadie/cyclocrosser Tim Rugg showed off his bunny-hop skills when a crash forced him to attempt to bunnyhop a downed official—Rugg crashed, but managed to avoid hitting her, so well done!
The big question: while Jake Keough has abandoned knobby tires for the road, showing up at ’cross races exclusively to help pit for his brothers, will Luke be coming back to cyclocross this season? I caught up with him on a ride this week and asked. He cryptically replied, “I might dabble,” adding, “If I race, I plan on winning.”
We also caught up with Richard Fries, announcer extraordinaire and the man behind Providence Cyclocross Festival and one of the promoters for DealerCamp’s Midsummer Night’s ’Cross race, which just opened up for registration. While Fries is still playing a few cards close to his chest, he did let it slip that a few big names are going to be out in Utah for the Midsummer race, so if you’re around the area, make sure you plan to be out to watch the early season action! He also filled us in on some of the big news in store for Providence, including an expanded Builder’s Ball the night before the race, and a 100-girl clinic with Little Bellas for young women from the city, with Raleigh providing some bikes for the girls to practice with. He also hinted at some big names and big additions to the race schedule, so stay tuned.
News from around the Internet this week included a great piece over at BikeRumor about the Calfee studio. Building with carbon and bamboo, Calfee has some pretty neat gear to show off. If you want to see more of Calfee and cyclocross, make sure you pick up a copy of Cyclocross Magazine Issue 20, where we take a close look at one of their custom bamboo/carbon builds in our Considering Custom series.
And then, there’s this page that Lee stumbled upon, which should fascinate any brake nerd. It’s a montage of unique brakes, and while a non-techie may not find much to look at in that section, it’s a great piece for those of you drooling over which brakes to use this season. The same site also has the “extremely excellent” cyclocross history articles that Lee referred to (and was inspired by) for CX comic’s “history” section. So that’s worth a look too for anybody who hasn’t seen it.
Lastly, a brief public service announcement: QBP is recalling about 1,700 Salsa brand forks because they can bend above the disc brake mount. The forks were sold individually and with the Salsa Vaya and Salsa La Cruz framesets and complete bikes.
