Like you need me to remind you that the gift giving season is right around the corner. But if you’re like me, just because you see Christmas decorations in stores after Halloween does not necessarily mean you still won’t wait until next week to start buying gifts. My guide to help you get that gift buying done (or to drop the hints to that significant other who isn’t going to buy you a Di2 gruppo no matter how much you beg) is a short one. In fact it only contains two items. These gifts, while cycling-related, are meant for your eyes and brain more than for your bike.
We are lucky in the Mid-Atlantic cyclocross scene to have several professional photographers shooting our races. Two of these guys, Jay Westcott and Darrell Parks, have spent years behind the lens and bring the sport of cycling to you in unique and stunning ways. Both have published works this year that are must haves.
Jay Westcott is a staff photographer for Politico who spends his days jockeying for position in the U.S. Capitol, among other places inside the beltway, to photograph politicians and other notable figures. He’s also shot more than his fair share of NFL games. His love of the bike drew him to cyclocross and he immersed himself in the scene this year. The result of full Sundays taking in the racing and the cyclocross party-down atmosphere is Red Right!, a visual diary of cyclocross, which chronicles the 2011 MABRAcross Super 8 series. Although Red Right! captures just one region of the U.S., it is a book that can be enjoyed by anybody familiar with cyclocross, bike racing, or just good photography.
Darrell Parks is a local Vienna, Virgina-based cyclist and photographer who works for PEZ Cycling News. Along with shooting the pro peloton for PEZ, he also has his cycling photography featured in this year’s VeloNews Calendar alongside notable photographers Graham Watson and Casey Gibson. The 2012 Darrell Parks calendar features images from the two largest U.S. Stage races, The AMGEN Tour of California and The USA PRO Cycling Challenge. Along with the cycling action, Darrell captures beautiful scenery and vistas. The landscapes that pro cycling races through are breathtaking and Darrell captures it all in this 2012 calendar.
The 2012 Darrell Parks Cycling Calendar is $14.95, plus shipping and handling, and can be purchased atwww.darrellparks.com/Calendar.html
Sample Pages from Red Right! by Jay Westcott
Sample Pages from the Darrell Parks 2012 Cycling Calendar
Stunning, right? Now go buy Darrell’s calendar and Jay’s book. And if you have a couple shekels left, maybe a shirt or some socks for yourself?
The Second Annual Luray Caverns CX took place December 11 in Luray, Virginia. A beautiful venue, challenging course and outstanding weather made this a great day of cyclocross. If you finished your ‘cross season last weekend, you made a mistake. This event is definitely the way to go out if you’re not doing nationals. Not a series race so it’s all about racing hard and going for the ultimate prize. In this instance, pie. Glorious sweet potato and pecan pie. Mmmmm, pie.
Luray Caverns CX promoter Chris Gould does a great job putting on top notch road and cyclocross events in Page County. The drive is under two hours from the DC Beltway. There’s no excuse not to go. In fact, here’s what you are going to do. In a couple weeks, When you unwrap that calendar that Aunt Marge is going to get you for Christmas, you know, the one with the puppies on it, the first thing you are going to do is mark Luray Caverns CX on the second Sunday in December. In pen. Easy.
Okay, not much time to shoot video today. But here’s what I got.
Capital Cross Classic marked the end of the MABRAcross Super 8 series. The return of this Mid-Atlantic favorite was better than ever with a new marquee course feature that gave the race a euro look and feel. The Bike Lane men and women got this one right.
I had the pleasure of calling the action throughout the day, which is always a ton of fun and made forgetting my own less-than-optimal effort on course easy. The one downside of announcing races is that it doesn’t leave much of an opportunity to shoot video. I was, however, able to sneak away for about twenty minutes or so and shot enough to get a look at the “chute,” the run-up and a couple other sectors of the Cap Cross course.
Although the Super 8 season has ended, there is still cross racing to be had in the Mid-Atlantic region. Next Sunday is the 2nd annual Luray Caverns CX. This is a phenomenal venue and course and a race worth attending. Even if you think your form is gone, I guarantee you have at least one more race in you. Come out and have some fun. No pressure. Just race to race. Beer garden, drumline, caverns, what more can you ask for?
After Luray, we will be heading up to Philadelphia for the Bilenky Junkyard Cross and then in January it’s off to Madison to be a fan at Cross Nationals. Lots of cross left this season!
Okay, here’s the video. Thanks for watching. And, Erin, heal up fast. We expect to see you racing the Super 8 in 2012.
About this time last year I went up to Philadelphia to play around with my new video camera at the Bilenky Junkyard Cross, a holiday party masquerading as a cross race or vice versa. This event is nuts and if you have the time, you should definitely check it out. The course winds its way through a working junkyard and includes flyovers, teeter-totters and fluids. Lots and lots of fluids. I shot all day and threw some raw footage of the race up on the Internet. Many, as in tens of thousands, curious people checked it out. That was really cool.
I went back to Philadelphia earlier this year to interview some of the folks who raced and also to talk to the event’s host, framebuilder Stephen Bilenky. After going through dozens of edits, I ended up with an eight minute short film that I submitted to the Bicycle Film Festival. Out of the hundreds of submissions, the Bilenky Junkyard Cross was chosen to travel the world as part of the BFF’s shorts program. That was also really cool.
The one drawback to being part of the Bicycle Film Festival is that I agreed to delay posting the video on the Internet for everybody to see. This bummed me out a bit because I really want to share it with all of you.
This was my first attempt at making a short film and it was a ton of fun to make. It was made a whole lot better with the help of several people. Sean O’Donnell and Ryan Dudek strapped on helmet cams for the race, put in a full day of helping with and participating in interviews, and gave great feedback during editing. Linda Mattioni and Kris Molendyke were great sports and added sooo much to the story. For the two festival showing of the film I saw, Kris pretty much stole the show. Stephen Bilenky allowed us to invade his shop for a day and share the story of how Bilenky Cycle Works was started.
I also owe a huge thank you to Peter Nicoll and Bruce Buckley. Peter is a filmmaker by trade and could not have been more giving of his time and expertise. Bruce is a pro photographer who continues to give me tons of insight on what makes a good photograph. I trust his eye more than most anybody else I know. Both of these guys willingly sat through close to 20 edits of this film and helped improve the final product each time.
I hope you enjoy the film and thanks for watching.
Capital Cross Classic goes down this Sunday in Reston, Virginia. It’s the finale of the BikeReg.com MABRAcross Super 8 series and a race not to be missed. This venue has been hosting cross races for well over a decade and sets up awesome for a fun yet challenging event. Unless something drastic happens between now and Sunday we will not have the “epic” conditions encountered in 2009. For the sake of the park, that’s probably a good thing.
Not many changes in the course from in the past other than the removal of the dicey off-camber section on the descent after the run-up. But fear not! It has been replaced with an equally dicey yet more fun roller-coaster ride down the hill.
It’s all here in the preview.
Thanks for watching and see you Sunday. Come say “hi.” Buy a shirt.
The 2011 Rockburn Cross took place this past Sunday in Elkridge, Maryland. Full fields, sunny skies and Howard County Parks & Recreation’s first beer garden highlighted a day of racing on a demanding course. The sand was fun, the single-track is always a blast, and a new run-up let the superior bike handlers show their skill as they rode the steps with ease. The video covers mainly the elite men but starts out with some clips from the masters elite and men 3/4 races. Music is by Rancid.
Thanks for watching and see you in two weeks at Capital Cross Classic. If you are not attending, you should be. No excuses. It’s Cross. And it’s Classic.
This Sunday is Rockburn Cross, race #7 in the MABRAcross Super 8 Cyclocross Series, and the Mid-Atlantic mountain bikers’ favorite course. Rockburn is known for its long single-track stretches and punchy terrain. Word has it that the Adventures for the Cure crew is going to plot out the course a little different than in the past. But for the most part it will capture the same features as previous editions. One big change to the event is that it will have a beer garden. Yay! And if you are going to serve beer, I believe there is some unwritten rule stating that you must do so near or adjacent to the barriers. This means that the placement of the barriers, as seen in the video below, is different than last year, so just disregard the no longer on point commentary that accompanies that part of the course.
In addition to the preview, course designer Mike West put together this a animated Google Earth video that takes you through the course. This will help you better figure out what has been changed from last year. Unfortunately, I didn’t look at this handy clip until after I recorded my commentary.
Okay, so watch the videos and we will see on Sunday. If you want a shirt or socks, please do not hesitate to ask. I will have plenty at the race.
Mario Bros. Course Preview (with real time commentary–if you listen closely–by Todd Bauer and David Kegley)
Hey everybody! We’ve got all new shirts with an all new design. A design we are confident will appeal to everyone. It doesn’t matter if you are a brain trapped in the body of a game show hostess, an aspiring kickboxer who doesn’t want to sell anything bought or processed or buy anything sold or processed, or if you are just hanging out in the parking lot of the Gas & Sip, this shirt is for you.
If you have absolutely no idea what any of that means, it’s okay. I’ll explain. It all started in 1989 when a young Cameron Crowe directed John Cusack and Ione Horovitz in a coming-of-age teen dramedy called “Say Anything.” We first meet our protagonist, the off-center but lovable Lloyd Dobler as he … Oh, just go watch the trailer and meet me back here. I’ll wait.
So that’s the inspiration and here’s the shirt. These came out looking sweet. Black American Apparel short sleeve tee shirts available in men sizes S/M/L/XL and women sizes S/M.
Dobler Approved.
Cost is $20 per shirt plus $3 more for shipping. If you are interested, you can PayPal a gift or donation to CXHairs@gmail.com. Just make sure to put your shipping address and the shirt size(s) in the comment box. If you want more than one shirt, shipping is still only $3. And don’t forget we still have socks, too! Super cool 5″ cuff SwiftWick socks with the classic Public-Enemy inspired CXHairs logo on the back. Socks are $15 per pair. Throw a pair in with your shirt order. Shipping will still be just $3. NO LARGE SOCKS IN STOCK
Socks!
Pretty stoked with this year’s gear and hope you will be too.
NCVC broke the mold and started from scratch on this year’s edition of Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross. A bold move, especially when you have one of the longest running and most popular cyclocross events in the Mid-Atlantic. I’m sure there were those that raced who missed the long gravel stretches but they were few and far between. The new course, with big flowy turns, a nice drop in and a fast ride through the lily ponds, still demanded lots of power but was overall a joy to ride. And the long uphill finishing stretch? Brutal at the end of any race. Even more so if you’re in a dog fight.
The video features four races from the day’s MABRAcross Super 8 Series festivities, including the tandem. The aquatic park combined with the time change made for some really nice shooting conditions by the end of the day.
Thanks for watching and we will see you this weekend at Schooley Mill.
Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross presented by NCVC is one of the oldest cyclocross events in the Mid-Atlantic. The course has changed here and there over the years but nothing like what riders showing up for race #5 in the BikeReg.com MABRAcross Super 8 Series will experience this Sunday. Gone are the long gravel drag strips and the fun but sometimes daunting drop in [UPDATE: New intel confirms that the drop in lives! And is joined by a tricky off-camber left turn]. This may be good or bad news depending on your strengths. What remains is a revamped course that centers around a new prologue, finish line, more twists and turns and a better announcing area. Food vendors and a moonbounce will also be centrally located. And the lilypons will still be featured. The idea is to create a technically exciting course that embraces the festival atmosphere the Super 8 Series promotes.
Check out the map for details on the new course (click on it for a larger image).
Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross new course design
And if you just want to see what the grounds look like, or reminisce about the past, here is the video preview for last year. Again, this is NOT the course you will ride on Sunday. For all of those who do not read this and just click the video, I’ll patiently await your Monday morning e-mails telling me the preview was wrong.
