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rider diary

• Cyclocross and Guacamole: Over Before It Began

  26 October 11 • 0 comment

  

  Mark is a recent Texas transplant who was responsible for bringing cyclocross to Rutgers University while living in New Jersey. Last time we heard from him, he had started to find a “family” in the TXCX community, much as he had in New Jersey years before. This was his first season of racing in Texas, [...]

• It’s Always a Good Day to Ride: Sponsors, Challenges and Settling into the Season Routine

  25 October 11 • 0 comment

  

  Sponsors, Challenges, and Settling into the Season Routine by Paul Warloski On Mondays especially, it’s often challenging to stay positive. I’m tired, a little cranky and sore after a weekend of travel and racing. Dealing with seventh graders who still have the same daily amount of energy is a chance to truly practice “choosing a [...]

• “You Got This”: Amateur Women of the Verge Series, Part IV

  13 October 11 • 2 comments

  

  Cait is in her second year of racing cyclocross and rides for Geekhouse Bikes. When she’s not racing, she’s a horse-training, figure-skating, gymnast-ing, computer-nerd-ing, bike-mechanic-ing mermaid. If you see her at a cyclocross race, be sure to ask her about power animals. [Editor's Note: it will be the best conversation of your night. Guaranteed.] She [...]

• “You Got This:” Amateur Women of the Verge Series, Part III

  7 October 11 • 0 comment

  

  Kristina Donehew is in her first year of racing cyclocross and races for Hup United. In her earlier years, she played some college and professional tennis. After four surgeries she discovered cycling and has ridden road, mountain and track with limited racing experience. She is just getting back on the bike after a five year [...]

• Craig Richey’s Rider Diary: Season Openers and the European Invasion

  4 October 11 • 0 comment

  

  Canadian racer Craig Richey is starting his season in the US this year, though like last year in Belgium, he’s finding himself up against some of the top Euro pros . He checks in with an update on the season so far, coming straight out of New England, the place some might consider to be [...]

• Mical Dyck Rider Diary: From CX to Xterra to CX

  4 October 11 • 0 comment

  

  Mical Dyck in her element – on the ’cross course. ©Doug Brons Mical Dyck loudly announced her cyclocross season’s intentions in Seattle, rifling off the front of the Elite women’s pack at both StarCrossed and the Rapha-Focus GP. She claimed fourth and second places in those races, respectively, and was the last hanger-on when World [...]

• Rider Diary: Gabby Day’s US Adventures

  30 September 11 • 0 comment

  

  Since mid-September, UK-based racer Gabby Day has been on the East Coast in the US racing in the MidAtlantic and New England races, from Nittany to Nor’Easter. This Wednesday, she finished second at the Midnight Ride of Cyclocross in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and updated us on how her trip to America has gone so far. (Our [...]

• A Fine Line – Trying To Stay Upright In Oregon, Part II

  30 September 11 • 0 comment

  

  This season, we’ll be following a few racers who have some interesting stories to share. From a freshly-minted elite racer to a newly declared master, we have a wide variety of racers we’ll be hearing from. We’ll catch up with them intermittently as the season wanes on, and hopefully we’ll be able to chart their [...]

• “You Got This”: Amateur Women’s Nor’Easter Edition

  28 September 11 • 3 comments

  

  Preparation for my trip to Burlington, Vermont and Nor’Easter ‘Cross came with a lot of expectations. After a weekend where I went flying off my bike like Joey hitting a barrier, I was ready to make the three hour plus drive to Burlington worthwhile. I wanted to get a Verge point which would earn me callups at series races for the rest of the year.

• Behind The Scenes: Soigneur Wilfried de Pauw

  26 September 11 • 0 comment

  

  When watching the big names like Sven Nys or Daphny Van den Brand cross the finish line, you often see someone running towards them with a jacket and water bottle in hand. This “behind the scenes” character is a soigneur – the backbone to most every cyclist on race day.

• It’s Always a Good Day to Ride: And Now The Real Fun Begins

  24 September 11 • 0 comment

  

  Paul is ready to ride – stop by and see him at the USGP today! Photo courtesy of Paul Warloski

  By the time you read this today, the mwi cross circus will have gathered under the black and green tent near the start line in Sun Prairie, WI for the first weekend of the USGP.

  It’s the start of the racing, the travel, the camaraderie, and off-camber downhill turns. The heckling, suffering, mud, and crashes.

• Racer Profile: the Master

  22 September 11 • 1 comment

  

  Neil is a Masters cyclocrosser in his third season of racing in the Mid-Atlantic region. Bikes and bike racing have always been part of his life, starting with BMX racing as a youngster, evolving into recreational MTB riding in college, eventually ending up in competitive amateur road racing and cyclocross today.

  For the 2012 season, his goals are to score points in his local race series, improve his skills, and continue having more fun racing bikes than any adult should rightfully be able to have.

• Racer Profile: The Newly Elite

  21 September 11 • 2 comments

  

  It’s every racer’s dream to upgrade to the Elite field, to line up at the start with the pro racers that we love to read about. Every year, more and more racers are starting in the Elite field, and we wanted to hear what it feels like to go from winning in the lower categories to starting in the back of the grid with racers like Jeremy Powers in the front.

• “You Got This”: Reports from the Amateur Women’s Field at Verge, Part 1

  19 September 11 • 0 comment

  

  It has been whispered that the Women’s field is one of the fastest growing in cyclocross racing today. Looking down the line of the first race in the 2011 Verge Series, Green Mountain Cyclocross, this is visually apparent – a mass of close to 50 competitive cyclists tensely await the whistle. This is ten riders more than last year and while this may not seem like anything more than a tiny victory compared to most other sports, even other types of cycling, that number is huge. If ten new women race every season that means there could be close to 60 next year, and so on. Not to mention that because this is the Amateur Women’s category, most of these women are only a few seasons in and keep coming back or, even bigger, are brand new. We have been talking. We have been recruiting. We have been having fun, seeing results, getting better and telling our friends to join in.

• Urban Ecology Of A Stolen Cyclocross Bike

  6 September 11 • 2 comments

  

  Two years ago, I started bike commuting to Arizone State University (six miles each way) after not having ridden in a decade. I decided to get a versatile cyclocross bike. It could be easily converted between a road, touring, commuter and light duty mountain bike. While cyclocross is one of the fastest growing sports in America, ’cross bikes are still fairly rare. I starting racing in a local race series with about 50 other people, got hooked and was interested in getting a faster race bike. About 10-50 bikes are listed on the Phoneix Craigslist every day, but a ’cross bike only appears every week or two, and it was never the right size or what I was looking for. So, I started upgrading and customizing my bike over two years, while putting about 5000 miles on it.
  Then it got stolen, a comedy of errors ensued, and all was amazingly resolved in less than 24 hours.