The U.S. Cyclocross Nationals are an annual occasion for the country's cyclocross community to come together, race bikes and swap stories about the sport. For cyclocross tech fans, it is also a great opportunity to check out the myriad types of bikes and builds amateur athletes from across the country are riding.
So far this season, we have gotten the opportunity to gawk at a number of Elite riders' builds, including Wout van Aert's Felt FRDx, Tobin Ortenblad's Santa Cruz Stigmata and Caroline Mani's Van Dessel Full Tilt Boogie, among others. However, these athletes have access to the latest and greatest, while the majority of us are forced to take a more "run what ya brung" approach.
With Nationals racing less than a week away, we wanted to take this Throwback Thursday to look at some of the unique builds from the past nine years of Cyclocross Magazine's coverage of U.S. Cyclocross Nationals. When placed against the backdrop of our profile of Jeremy Powers' SRAM eTap-equipped Focus Mares, the profiles also provide a great opportunity to see how cyclocross bikes have and have not changed over the years.
We hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane.
For living in the now, check out our already-growing compilation of coverage of the 2018 U.S. Cyclocross Nationals in Reno.
Zachary Schuster and Andrew Yee contributed to this throwback.
Use the slider to see each bike profile.
David Thompson’s ENVE/FMB-Equipped Squid – 2016 (Asheville)
David Thompson’s Junior Men 9-10 Nationals-winning Squid. © Cyclocross Magazine
The Junior 9-10 category isn’t usually a place you expect to find high-end specs, but David Thompson took every advantage he could get to take the title in 2016. His size extra small Squid disc ’cross bike featured a custom paint job as is typical of the DIY brand, but the build is what sets this bike apart from the competition. Making use of the frame’s 700c wheel size, Thompson was sporting his father’s ENVE wheels with FMB Super Mud tubulars. Balancing out the high-end build was an ENVE fork, Chris King headset, and SRAM Force CX1 drivetrain.
See the full profile of David Thompson’s 2016 Nationals-winning bike here.
