Cross racing on the Specialized CruX

Bikes taking over my apartment

Was great to race cross with teammates this weekend as Bruce and Jeff made the trip down to Delmar, NY for the last of the NYCross.com series.  Only doing a handful of cross races I really have a steep learning curve and so far making slow gains but gains none the less.  My two biggest lessons I learned from this past race, back row starts suck and GO FOR IT.

In cross racing you have call ups, the higher ranked riders get placed near the front of the field which is great if you are a ranked rider but for me, not so much.  Since this is only really my third weekend of racing I have zero ranking coupled with the fact I registered the day before meaning I was the very last call up, even had my own row.  My mistake this week was getting comfortable, I found a group and just sat with them instead of just going for it and making moves up.  I eventually made it to no mans land a minute or so behind the next group just chasing like hell (actually chasing my own teammate Bruce).

My strategy in most crits is to sit in, do no work, and sprint for the end.  This has actually treated me well as until this past year I top 10'ed every crit I had ever entered (minus mechanical/crashes).  Yeah, this doesnt work at all in cross racing so I am learning the meaning of the 'whole shot' and will just go for it next week until I pop.  The true story of this weekend though was the new Specialized CruX which I got to race for the first time.

2012 Specialized CruX w/SRAM Force

This bike simply rocks.I had been racing on another bike (which shall remain nameless) and just cannot believe the difference in performance.  The internal cable routing although a pain for mechanics is great for riders when dismounting the bike and throwing it over your shoulder.  I had heard mixed reviews about the TRP EuroX and their lack of stopping power however  I LOVE the extra brake clearance for muddy courses like this weekend which had some big downhills into lots of mud so really tested those brakes out, no problem.  Overall this bike is set to be raced and raced hard right out of the box (some assembly required) and comes with everything from chain catcher, to gel wrap, to some solid all around tires.  The other aspect of the bike I am loving are the CrankBrother Candy pedals which I picked up at Interbike this year.  I joke around that I actually got the bike to go with the pedals.  Again in this muddy course I did not have a problem clipping in due to mud, I just had problems clipping in cause I am an idiot and start to pedal before actually clipping in, not CrankBrothers fault.

As I look at BikeReg.com I see we actually still have a few weeks left of cross racing as it goes far into December.  My question is do I really want to race in the snow?  Can I give up more weekends for the long travel times? Each race is 4-6 hours away.  I sacrifice a lot in terms of a social life for cycling and believe it or not the road season is around the corner.  My problem is cross racing has just been so much damn fun.  Decisions.  When is your cross season ending here in the northeast?

NYS Rankings???????

New York State Rankings for Team Wear on Earth

Cat 3’s	RR rank	Crit rank	TT rank	Cross rank
Bruce	75	22*	NR	NR
Tim	NR	32	139	NR
Cat 4’s
Jeff	174	93	35	NR
Ashton	133	36	NR	NR
Kyle	145	75	60	NR
Mike	360	74	80	NR
Cat 5’s
Eric	88	13	6	NR
Phil	128	21	25	NR

RR = Road Race; Crit = criterium; TT = Time Trial, NR = Not ranked

*= NYS Champion for that event

Looks like things have changed a little in the USA Cycling points system and they are trying some new mathematical algorithm.

“USA Cycling's Results & Rankings system allows you to search results from races across the country as well as compare the nation's top riders across various disciplines, age and ability categories. Our revamped rankings program aims to provide increasingly accurate rankings using an innovative new algorithm emphasizing quality over quantity. The new system looks at who a rider competes against, and not which events, or how many. A rider's overall ranking is determined by averaging point totals from their top three races. The lower a rider's point average, the higher they are ranked.”

~USA Cycling

Cycling on the rise?

This past weekend I made my first but defianitly not last cyclocross appearance. I felt a little out of place one because I am a roadie, two because I am incredibly out of shape, and three because I was at a collegiate cross race...sorta. See cross does something pretty cool as collegiate cross is mixed in with senior races open to the rest of us card carrying USAC members. I was never fortuent enough to race in college and had an absolute blast racing with the B's against athletes from Army, RPI, Rutgers, and other schools.

The amazing thing about the Northeast is that we have racing at every level and for every age. I enjoyed watching the stars and strpes jersey fly by me at Spa:CX last week on the shoulders if Emma White, the junior national champion, then heading off to ME, NH, and VT where there is an incredibaly active cycling scene between many of the independent schools who have formed a high school cycling conference. This conference is really an untapped resource
for cycling as it gets little to no press or attention of any kind and I can only hope that this changes. These juniors can absolutely crush it on a bike.

After returning from VT through some light snow and passing out in my own bed, forgetting what the feel of my own sheets are like, I found myself raking mountain biking trails behind Clarkson University. Mike and Josh from the shop and some dude who I dont know were busy for a solid 3-4 hours with rake in hand getting the trails ready for use in the crisp air. While we were champions of the rake, Alex McAndrews of Clarkson University was busy winning the Collegiate DH national championship for D2 by over 30 secons. Alex simply crushed the run and still beat the D1 winner by over 10 seconds. This man is a true champion and deserves to wear those stars and stripes as he is one of the hardest working athletes I know. Lord knows how many times Alex and the rest of the Clarkson team has ridden those trails, must be nice to have a trail network like that on your own campus.

So you might be asking where the heck this rambling post is going and to be honest I am not really sure where the end will be. Today the St. Lawrence University Cycling Team gained club status and will field its first spring campaign on the road competing within the ECCC in almost 10 years. Tomorrow I will have the chance to ride once again with Zach Stockman, student at SLU and an alumn from one of those New England High Schools with a cycling team (KMS), who has really been the ring leader in getting the team up and running. Hashing out plans for the coming years, jersey designs, and logestics in-between tempo intervals will be the highlight of my afternoon tomorrow.

See in the last week I have seen how we can help grow the sport of cycling by starting off with the kids race at Spa:CX , to junior national champions and high school cycling leagues, onto the collegiate programs and national champions, and then hopefully onto the next step.

So once again you might ask where this post is going? Simple, bring your kid to a bike race.