In The Crosshairs

Jeremy Powers Demonstrates the Dismount at the JBV & Fulcrum Clinic

Last Friday afternoon a group of Mid-Atlantic CX diehards welcomed Cannondale-Cyclcrossworld.com rider Jeremy Powers to the DC-region by hitting the single-track trails at Maryland’s Rosaryville State Park. Normally a favorite destination for the area’s MTB crowd, Rosaryville’s smooth and fast trails turn out to be ideal on the ‘cross bike. 

Powers, in town for the JBV Coaching & Fulcrum Coaching Cyclocross Clinic that went down August 28, was coming off a 30 hour training week and a couple hours of sitting on a plane. Needing a little extra time to get his legs going meant that I was just about able to hang on his wheel for the easy first lap and get a little helmet-cam footage. The other folks in the group were Steve Fife (Bike Doctor), Rusty Williford (Fulcrum Coaching), Bruce Buckley (The Bike Lane), Dan Tille (Fulcrum Coaching) and Kate Graham (BioWheels). 

A couple caveats before we get to the video. First, what you see is more or less a warm-up lap. Sure, seeing JPow ripping through these trails would be sick footage, but by the time he was doing that, I was hanging off the back and running into trees. Next time, I’m giving the camera to Rusty. Second, my filming skills are still in pre-season form and the camera angle is not ideal. Too many treetops and not enough action in the center of the frame. Finally, stick around for the end of the clip to see a little bonus coverage of JPow taking some time out of the ride for a session on one of Rosaryville’s skinny sections. 

Soundtrack by The Hood Internet. 

Thanks for watching.

Coach Mayhew rails the off-cambers at the clinic despite the bad wing.

JBV Coaching and Fulcrum Coaching hosted their second annual cyclocross clinic with Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com rider Jeremy Powers at Rosaryville State Park in Maryland, August 28th.

Over fifty participants joined JBV Coaching associate coach Chris Mayhew and Fulcrum Coaching president Dan Tille for a day of drills, instruction, entertaining commentary and friendly competition. Tille, Mayhew and Powers were joined by Fulcrum Coaching’s Rusty Williford and C3-Athlete Serving Athlete’s Marc Vettori.

In the coming days we will have some great posts to share with you from this clinic. Until then, here are some photos to give you an idea of how the day went. Check back every couple days as the set is sure to grow.

The full set of photos will eventually be available here. Below is the appetizer. Thanks for viewing.

Update: My gallery app that should be below doesn’t seem to be working great. You can click here and check out many more shots from the day.

Powers, Mayhew and Tille field your questions Friday night

In conjunction with the 2010 Fulcrum Coaching and JBV Coaching Cyclocross Clinic that takes place this Saturday, top U.S. cyclocrosser, Jeremy Powers, will be answering your questions at the Bike Doctor of Waldorf during a Friday night meet and greet. This free event, made possible by the Bike Doctor, Cannondale Bicycles and Swiftwick, is open to the public. If you live in the DC metro region, take advantage of this opportunity. Jeremy is here to share his knowledge on all things cyclocross. If you are new to the sport or a seasoned veteran this is a great opportunity to pick the brain of a rider at the top of his game. The meet and greet is scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m.

As if you needed another reason to attend this event, Cannondale is upping the ante by giving away a brand new Cannondale cyclocross frame. The only catch is you have to be at the Bike Doctor Friday Night to win.

Jeremy Powers is a professional cyclist with the Cannondale-CycloCrossWorld.com professional cyclocross team and the Jelly Belly professional road team. Last season he raced his way to 20 UCI cyclocross podiums and was ranked number one for the USA Cycling Cyclocross national racing calendar. In addition to racing domestically Jeremy has spent the last six seasons training and racing in Europe. He has represented the U.S. at the cyclocross world championships seven times.

Along with Jeremy, Dan Tille (Fulcrum Coaching) and Chris Mayhew (JBV Coaching) will be on hand to field any training, nutrition and technique questions you may have. Tille and Mayhew are experienced coaches and seasoned racers with the knowledge to set you straight on a plethora of cycling-related issues. For those also attending the clinic, this is a great time to get your questions answered, leave that much more time on Saturday for hands-on instruction.

For directions to the Friday Meet and Greet with Jeremy Powers you can enter into Google or MapQuest: 3200 Leonardtown Road, Waldorf, MD 20601.

As an appetizer to the Friday night gig, we caught up with Jeremy to ask him a couple question about transitioning from road to ‘cross and his goals for the upcoming season.

Have you changed your approach over the years in how you transition from road to ‘cross?

Yes and no. Every year’s approach to the season is different because my schedule with Jelly Belly constantly changes from year to year in August and September. For example, this year I’m not racing the tour of Missouri because it was canceled.

That gave me the opportunity to relax a little bit in July andAugust, and come into the season more relaxed. In turn, this will keep me more on task for doing well in December through February.

In years past I’ve come out of the blocks with great form, fresh off Missouri and as the season and miles in the air add up, my form slips little by little as we make our way to February. So this little shift in timing and schedule is a huge change for me this year.

It’s a positive change and I’m constantly trying to figure out the formula to racing competitively here in the U.S. all season and still racing at 100 percent in Europe in January and February.

How have your ‘cross goals evolved over the years and how does this affect where and when you race?

Back in the day … I definitely did whatever races could to garner a sponsor’s attention to my results!  When I came back to the U.S. from racing in Europe in 2006, my number one goal was to find a good sponsor. I cherry-picked some races I could win and that worked out for me.

A couple years later, with the help of Cannondale and Cyclocrossworld.com, I’m trying harder and harder to bring my best form to the biggest races of the season! Vegas, Ohio, USGP, Nationals, Europe, Worlds.

I think once you get towards the top of any sport, you have to think about goals and what your weaknesses are so you can be the best you and get the most out of yourself.

I set a lot of personal goals, some that aren’t even related to racing, like drinking more water throughout the day or getting in bed at 10pm!

Looking at the scheduling stuff, the team and I try to build my schedule around what makes the most sense logistically and for our sponsors. There’s a lot of racing out there.

Sometimes a weekend on the east coast with some racing is a nice break from being away from home and living out of a bag.

Thanks for reading and see you on Friday.

Here’s the press release just out from USA Cycling on rule changes for the 2010-2011 season. Some interesting changes vis-a-vis barrier height, number of obstacles, feeding and the pulling of lapped riders. Also, some clarification on hot topics tire width and disc brakes. There is no USA Cycling rule on minimum tire width. This remains unchanged. Disc brakes are also a go (again, not a change, they already were legal).

Full release follows:

Rule changes voted in place for upcoming 2010-2011 Cyclo-cross season

Colorado Springs, Colo. (August 12, 2010) – USA Cycling announced today that its Road, Track & Cyclo-cross Board of Trustees has voted in favor of several rule changes for the upcoming cyclo-cross season.

The new rules are in line with the UCI rulebook and will take effect at the beginning of the 2010/2011 cyclo-cross season. The changes accomplish the following three things:

1) Establish rules for cyclo-cross race feeding

2) Change the manner in which lapped riders are handled to enable the use of the 80% rule currently utilized in many mountain bike events, and

3) Modify the rules regarding course obstacles (barrier height, distance between, and total number of obstacles on the course)

A summary of the rule changes is as follows:

Course Design

There are several important changes to course design as outlined below:

• The nature of the wooden planks has changed. Instead of having to be 40 cm high, they now can be up to 40 cm high. Also, the distance between the planks is now a range of 4 to 6 meters instead of the prescribed 4 meters.
• The number of obstacles has been changed from 6 total obstacles to 6 artificial obstacles. This might make it possible for some courses to have more total obstacles than in the past. However, the limiting factor is that obstacles can still only be 10% of the course, so if you have a 3K circuit, you can only have 300 meters of obstacles.
• The ban on artificial sand was removed and replaced with specifications that if you have artificial sand, it must be 40-80 meters long, straight, and have no lip up or down to access it.

Feeding

Feeding is now authorized under select circumstances:

• It must be at least 68 degrees
• Feeding must take place in the service lane only
• It cannot take place in the first two or the last two laps
• The penalty for feeding any other place or time is disqualification

Tire Width

The UCI has narrowed the maximum width of a cyclo-cross tire from 35 mm to 33 mm. The intent was to reduce the amount of equipment that many riders feel they must bring in order to be competitive.

This rule does not affect local events as we currently have no rules regarding tire width and the USCF Board of Trustees is not adding any tire width requirement.

Disc Brakes

This also does not affect local events, but the UCI will now allow disc brakes for international events.

Lapped Riders

For the second year in a row, the UCI has changed how lapped riders are handled. They now have two ways to handle it. For domestic events, there are now three methods. The officials will decide what method is being used at each race and communicate that method to the riders.

• Lapped riders can be left in the race and may finish on the same lap as the leader.
• Lapped riders can be removed at the entrance to the final straight once they have been lapped. Note, sometimes when there are few officials, these same riders are removed at the line, but the UCI requires that no lapped rider ever cross the finish line.
• Riders may be withdrawn per the 80% rule. For example, if the first lap took 10 minutes, then 80% of that is 8 minutes. This rule would require that each rider who is more than 8 minutes down every lap would be pulled. Again, this should happen at the entrance to the final straight or some other convenient location.

About USA Cycling

Recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and the Union Cycliste Internationale, USA Cycling is the official governing body for all disciplines of competitive cycling in the United States, including road, track, mountain bike, BMX and cyclo-cross. As a membership-based organization, USA Cycling comprises 66,500+ licensees; 2,200 clubs and teams; and 34 local associations. The national governing body sanctions 2,650 competitive and non-competitive events throughout the U.S. each year and is responsible for the identification, development, and support of American cyclists. To learn more about USA Cycling, visit www.usacycling.org.

We all have our cyclocross heroes. For some its Sven Nys or Katie Compton. For others it’s that really fast guy in the pro/1/2 race. For me, it’s Edwin Moses. Not exclusively, but he’s definitely on the list.

For those unfamiliar with Moses, he was the most dominant hurdler of the 1980s, winning gold medals in two olympics and boasting a consecutive win streak of 122 races. To put this into perspective, he did not lose a race for nine years. The guy was driven to win.

Most elite track athletes parse their efforts in early heats and finish just high enough to ensure they qualify for the next round. For Moses, a race was a race, and he was determined to win all of them.

I know what you are thinking. There are examples of these types of people in all walks of sports. Tennis, chess, competitive eating. Every sport at the elite level has someone that is driven to win everything.

So here’s the rub. Moses ran 400m hurdles. A grueling race that is a lung buster from start to end. Sort of like ‘cross. And if you watch Moses compete and then recall that image when you are practicing your barrier work, it all makes sense. The man was silky smooth over the hurdles. His head and shoulders never altered course and he almost never broke stride between obstacles. This is the mental picture I have when running barriers. Off the bike, over the barriers, on the bike. Keep the rhythm. All one motion.

Sometimes though, even the best don’t get it right. And I think it is this video that all of us that race ‘cross can relate to. It’s raining, the course is wet, but you feel good, you’re in the right position and then bam! It’s over. Just like that. So what do you do? You get up, wave to the crowd and go out there next week to start a new winning streak.

Thanks for reading. See you soon.

The Bicycle Film Festival returns to DC this weekend (www.bicyclefilmfestival.com/washington-dc/). It features movies touching all corners of bike geekitude including an encore performance of “The Cyclocross Meeting.” If you missed it in December, BFF is giving you another shot to see director Brian Vernor’s tale of U.S. ‘crossers training, racing and being big in Japan. Crazy concept, I know. Go check out the trailer and we will meet back here in two minutes and twenty-four seconds.

Now that you’ve watched that, watch this. Here’s the new trailer for the tenth edition of the festival. It’s sparkly.

So here’s the deal, the BFF hoopla starts tonight at 9 pm with a goldsprints kickoff party at Asylum in DC. The movies start Friday night at the Gala Theater, 3333 14th St. NW. Program 1 features The Cyclocross Meeting and starts at 7pm. Program 2 features Bike Shorts and begins at 9 pm. Day two starts Saturday at 3pm with Bicycle Dreams and continues with new films every two hours. Festivities wrap up Saturday night with an after party at Meridian.

If you live in the DC-area and like to see bicycle-related events such as the BFF come to town, you need to go support the cause. Much like pre-registering for a race, buying tickets online makes life easier on the BFF staff. So much so, that BFF DC organizer guy Chris Carraway will forehead kiss all purchasers of online tickets. Just tell him I said so, and get your free smooch.

See you at the movies.

Beth Mason facing conditions she did not find in Iraq. Photo by Eloy Anzola.

A year ago we published an interview with licensed physical therapist, certified bike fitter, and Cat 1 road and cyclocross racer Beth Mason. If you haven’t read it, take a couple minutes and do that now. Although Beth currently lives in West Point, New York, she has strong ties to the Mid-Atlantic racing community. During the cyclocross season Beth will make it out to several MABRA and MAC races and periodically sets up shop in Northern Virginia for several days of bike fittings. 

In addition to being a top-notch physical therapist and bike fitter, Beth also holds another job: U.S. Army officer. Maj. Beth Mason has spent most of 2010 serving a tour in Iraq. Now safely back in the states, she is restarting her fitting business with a four day stint in the Mid-Atlantic. 

As of today, she still has a couple slots available for an in-depth session that, according to Beth’s website, includes the following: 

“A detailed history, flexibility assessment, and static and dynamic positioning. Dynamic positioning will include the integration of the state-of-the-art Retul motion capture system for bike fitting—you have to see it to believe it! At the end of the fitting session the client will be provided with documents detailing their position, and their optimal bike position. Special emphasis is always placed on the foot/pedal interface, with respect to cleat adjustment, and wedging and shimming when necessary.” 

If you suffer from aches and pains on the bike or want to make sure you’re riding efficiently, do yourself a favor and contact Beth for scheduling or questions. She can be reached at bethbikes1@gmail.com or 410-562-4776. 

I caught up with Beth recently to ask her about her tour of Iraq and what it was like to ride a cyclocross bike in the desert. 

Thanks for reading. 

Many readers know you as a bike fitter and Cat1 racer. They may not know that you are also an officer in the U.S. Army and recently returned home from a tour in Iraq. Welcome home and we are glad you made it back safely. I know that before you left one of your goals was to keep as much bike fitness as possible. This seemed like an ambitious challenge that I’d like to have you walk us through.  

What cycling gear did you have shipped to Iraq? 

I had my Blue CXC cyclocross bike with Ksyrium wheels and Hutchinson Bulldog tubeless tires, a Cyclops Fluid trainer, a trainer tire, a floor pump and an inadequate stockpile of inner tubes. I quickly went through all of my tubes and had to call in favors from across the globe. I was sent sealant, tubes, tire irons, CO2 cartridges … I felt the love! 

Describe your accommodations and if storing bikes, trainers, etc. was an issue. 

I had my own Containerized Housing Unit (CHU), which was about the size of a tractor trailer box. Initially I stored my equipment and bike inside and really had no issues. Eventually, however, I was able to move my things to a “bike CHU” that I shared with the senior enlisted soldier who had a mountain bike and some equipment.  Continue reading »

UCI Legal? You Betcha!

Your UCI has announced new rules for the upcoming cyclocross season. Disc brakes are a go. Those 34mm tyres? Not so much. Just remember, these are UCI and not USA Cycling rules, so this won’t affect you unless you are racing a UCI event. Here’s a run down of the new rules from usacycling.org:

Following the recommendation of the Cyclo-cross Commission, the UCI Management Committee has approved modifications to its cyclo-cross rules which will take effect at the beginning of the 2010-2011 cyclo-cross season. A summary of the changes is as follows:

(1) Disc brakes will now be allowed in cyclo-cross competition.

(2) The legal tire width in competition has also been changed. Width shall not exceed 33 mm, whereas before the maximum width was 35 mm.

(3) Continental Cyclocross Championships have been established.

(4) The “6 obstacle limit” has been changed to a “6 man-made obstacle limit.”

(5) The height of barriers is now a maximum of 40 cm instead of a defined height of 40 cm.

6) Man-made sand pits are now allowed and the dimensions for them have been established.

(7) The distance between planks has been changed to a range of 4 to 6 meters between.

(8) Commissaires may now authorize feeding if the temperature is above 20 degrees C. This feeding takes place in the pit lane, but not during the first two or the last two laps.

9) The commissaires may now invoke the “80% rule” and remove a rider who is behind the leader by 80% of the leader’s lap time. Thus, riders can be pulled before they are lapped.

“@CXHairs what, no love for Jones on the AToC cx rider GC?”

-Tweet from @cjonez

It’s embarrassing enough that we left out some of the United States’ best ‘crossers from our Amgen Tour of California CX Classification. But what is even more embarrassing is when one of the guys we omitted calls us on it.* After posting yesterday’s update we received the Tweet at the top of the page from Christopher Jones (Team Type 1). You may know Chris from, among others, his 2009 cyclocross podium appearances at Cross Vegas, NACT Gloucester and both days of the Providence Cyclocross Festival.

Frattini Leads The CX Mountains Classification

In fact, Chris ended 2009 with 10 top 10 finishes in UCI cyclocross races clearly making him eligible for the AToC ‘Cross classification. What makes our omission even worse is that Mr. Jonez is killing it on the roads of Cali currently sitting 17th, 2:05 off the lead.

We also overlooked the brothers Jacques-Maynes in our haste. Ben and Andy both have exceptional CX results and easily meet the JPows “podiumed in a UCI event” criteria. Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) currently sits 41st and Andy Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) is 78th at this year’s AToC.

With the recent hubbub over USA Cycling’s proposal to use a time trial to determine starting positions at Cyclocross Nationals, today’s stage will be a good look at how the ‘cross specialists do in the discipline. Maybe these guys will give us some insight on how to shoulder our bikes whilst wearing those funny looking helmets.

And now for the updated and corrected standings. No change at the top as Sagan continues flying the flag for the cyclocross troops by winning stages and the points jersey. Dude has some power in those legs, no doubt. We’ve also included the climbers and young guns in our round up to drive home the fact that the CX guys can do it all.

CX Classification

1. Peter Sagan  0:09

2. Chris Jones  2:05

3. Tejay Van Garderen  37:56

4. Ben Jacques-Maynes  45:46

5. Lars Boom  59:37

6. Davide Frattini 1:18:16

7. Jeremy Powers  1:30:42

8. Andy Jacques-Maynes 1:31:46

Points

1. Sagan 49

2. Boom 20

3. Powers 6

Mountains

1. Frattini 20

2. Andy Jacques-Maynes 9

3. Boom 8

4. Powers 5

Young Rider

1. Sagan

2. Van Garderen

*It’s actually pretty freakin’ cool that Chris saw the post. And like a child, we are learning the wrong lesson from this. Screw up and you get attention!

After posting yesterday’s Amgen Tour of California CX Classification standings, Jeremy Powers got in touch to help lay down some guidelines for the competition. First, to better define the field, only riders that podiumed in a UCI cyclocross race are eligible for the CX classification jersey. This makes it easy to eliminate the occasional ‘cross dabbler (read: Lance) and concentrate the jersey race on the cyclocross professionals. Powers also suggested classifications for “most time spent off the front, most awesome, most foreign, funniest …”

JPows (aka Bernard Van Ulden) running for cover

Not sure what we can come up for some of those, but for funniest, I believe Tom Boonen (Quick Step) may be leading that race despite not being a CX guy. When asked about Lars Boom’s Stage 4 performance, Boonen said “Lars Boom should get a medal for today, a medal that says, go back to cyclocross.”

For today, we are going to feature “Best Cyclocross Dismount or Remount” at this year’s Tour of California. So far, we have two nominees for the award. The aforementioned Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly), who managed to jettison his bike in the pile-up that bloodied Armstrong, and hop over bodies and bikes without going down.

Sagan remounts on Stage 3

The second nominee is Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo), who went down on Stage Three. Sagan hit the deck, rolled once, got up, grabbed his bike and executed a beautiful running remount. Sagan did this on a climb and did not lose his spot at the front of the field.

Those are your nominees. Tell us via comment or Tweet to @CXHairs who should take the prize.

As for the GC standings, Tejay Van Garderen had a good day moving up to third in the CX race. Sagan, by winning the stage, moved into a big lead on points. Powers picked up some second place sprint points as well.

CX Classification

1. Peter Sagan  0:15

2. Lars Boom  31:32

3. Tejay Van Garderen 36:29

4. Davide Frattini 46:59

5. Jeremy Powers 59:25

Points:

Sagan 34

Boom 20

Powers 6