In The Crosshairs

Wes Schempf is not in this video. But he did win at Taneytown.

The 2010 MABRAcross Championship Race took place months ago in Taneytown, Maryland. In all of the tandem and junkyard cross hoopla, the bread-and-butter helmet cam video from that race must have been lost at the bottom of the gear bag. But fear not, it has been revived and is now available for your viewing pleasure.

For a change of pace, this race took place on a relatively dry course. Taneytown is usually a muddy bog. But not this year. That’s not all bad. It’s nice to mix it up every once in a while.

And speaking of mixing it up … what do you get when you combine instrumental tracks from German electro-goth-metal superstars, excerpts from a possibly-past-his-prime Bostonian stand-up comedian and POV video of aging cyclocross racers? I’m not sure. But here it is.

Thanks for watching.

The Virginia Cyclocross Series Final went down last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia. Our crack reporting team of Chris and Elliott made the trip down from D.C., to give a little MABRAcross flavor to the proceedings. We spend a bit of time before the race with the boys to get some behind the scenes footage of Sheetz and host housing with a little pre-race banter thrown in for good measure.

The footage is all captured on the helmet-cams, so the quality is more mumblecore than blockbuster, but that’s okay. You all know the drill: cyclocross is punk rock, blah blah blah. In any event, it’s entertaining footage. And the race isn’t half bad either. It was pretty cool having two guys off the front of the race, trading pulls and wearing helmet-cams. That Chris forgot his race bag and is wearing a Route1Velo skinsuit is an added bonus for the home team.

Soundtrack for the video comes from Project X and Death Before Dishonor.

We still have a couple more odds and ends out there to get posted, but the CXHairs.com season is definitely winding down. Great times for sure and we look forward to doing it all again next year.

Thanks for watching.

The Cheat At Schooley Mill

Schooley Mill Cross, day one of the Howard County Double Cross, took place November 20. The course set up dry and fast with a couple more twists and turns than last year. The mud wasn’t there this year, which made this race a bit faster, but the added technical features seemed to keep everything in check.

For our soundtrack today we sliced and diced some beats in the CXHairs lab. Boy, it’s amazing what you can do with today’s technology. My apologies in advance to Bad Brains, Noir, Queen Latifah and Warren Zevon.

Thanks for watching.

Tille churns Rockburn sand

Rockburn Cross, day 2 of the Howard County Double Cross and race #9 in the BikeReg.com MABRAcross series, takes place Sunday, November 21. Twists, turns, ups and downs make Rockburn a favorite for many cyclocrossers in the Mid-Atlantic. Although there may be a different turn here and there, the word I get from the race organizers is that the course will not undergo any major changes for 2010.

Back with us again for course commentary are the dynamic duo of Dan Tille (fulcrumcoaching.com) and Chris Mayhew (JBVcoaching.com). If you like the work these guys have done on the previews, let them know this weekend. Maybe even buy them a slice of pie. Mmmm pie. Chris will be a sporting a blue JBV Coaching kit and rocking the mic on Saturday at Schooley Mill. Dan will be decked out in the black and orange of Fulcrum Coaching and piloting the XXXL Guru cyclocross machine.

Thanks for watching.

Rockburn Cross

Mayhew wants you to wash your bike.

Many parts of the country not located in the Pacific Northwest have spent the season racing cyclocross in dry, temperate conditions. Not having to deal with the mud and the grime on a weekly basis can lull you into a state of complacency when it comes to keeping your race bike, or any bike for that matter, clean and well maintained.

A proper bike washing not only makes your bike faster and shinier, it also gives you the opportunity to inspect your frame, fork, drivetrain and brakes. Better to find that hairline crack in your carbon fork while washing it than to find out about it on a highspeed off-camber descent.

Although cleaning your bike is a fairly straightforward affair, there is a process you should follow. Chris Mayhew, associate coach with JBV Coaching and frequent CXHairs contributor, is back to take you through his bike wash routine. The video is about twelve minutes long and that is about how long it should take you to complete a bike cleaning.

Thanks for washing. And for watching.

DCCX takes place Sunday at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C. With over 600 racers already registered, this event is going to be huge.

Despite the ever growing popularity of DCCX, the organizers are never satisfied with last year and are always looking to give participants and spectators the best experience possible.

DCMTB, the club responsible for bringing us DCCX, is not one to blindly follow conventional wisdom. They like to mix it up a bit on course design, venue layout and fun extra activities like tandem races, a Saturday women-only CX clinic and a rookie class.

Women interested in the Saturday clinic, led by 2009 DCCX champ Arley Kemmerer (C3-Athletes Serving Athletes), need to do nothing more than show up at the AFRH on October 23rd at 2 p.m. Let the guard at the Upshur St. NW and Rock Creek Church Rd. gate know why you are there and he will point you in the right direction.

We met up with DCCX promoters Marc Gwadz and Matt Donahue to run through the course and get an idea of the new twists and turns. Many will be happy to learn that the long, exposed out and back on the far side of the course is gone. However, a new uphill barrier will join the existing uphill obstacle (steps replace last year’s barrier) to make the course no less painful.

For this course preview everything was done on location, which is a CXHairs first. We rode and filmed the course and immediately downloaded the file. The mobile crosshairs studio was set up on a hay bale leaning against a telephone pole around where the frites will be served on Sunday. Matt and Marc got on the mics and recorded the commentary in the field, which means you get some authentic DC background noise, like the medevac helicopters landing at Washington Hospital Center, mixed in with the commentary.

For more information and updates on DCCX, check out the DCMTB blog.

Thanks for watching and we will see you Sunday.

The Winchester Apple Harvest Cross, which took place October 3, offered riders a true gem in the BikeReg.com MABRAcross series. With rolling terrain, an epic “Belgian Wall,” dirt trails, and plenty of twisty turns to keep you honest, the organizers pretty much hit it out of the park.

The video is from the helmet-cam only and takes us through a full lap of the Winchester course. I should have both cameras running this Sunday at Hyattsville, so all your waving and gesticulations won’t be in vain.

The music accompanying the suffering comes courtesy of Haymarket-SEAVS’ John Cutler. The first track is Cutler’s former band Going Gone, the second is John on his own. Good tunes, indeed.

Thanks for watching and we will see you back here soon.

The Cincinnati UCI3 International Cyclocross Festival kicks off this weekend with three days of top notch racing. The capper on the weekend is the UCI1 race at Harbin Park presented by Biowheels and United Dairy Farmers. If you ask seasoned racers that have competed across the country to list their favorite races, Harbin Park is without exception at the top of the list.

To give you a look of what to expect and how to approach the Harbin Park course, we asked JBV Coaching associate coach Chris Mayhew and Dan Tille from Fulcrum Coaching to walk us through all the twists and turns. A big thank you to Mitch Graham of Biowheels and Masher’s Media for providing the helmet-cam footage shot by elite racer Phil Noble.

Thanks for watching.

Winchester Apple Harvest ‘Cross takes place October 3 in Winchester, Virginia. In its second year, and first in the MABRAcross series, the Apple Harvest ‘Cross offers a nice hilly course in a scenic locale.

Here is a rough outline of the course set up:

Winchester Apple Harvest Cyclocross

We enlisted Kenny Morris of race organizer the Winchester Wheelmen to run us through the course. And joining us again to provide commentary is Ken Woodrow (Squadra Coppi), who is the MABRAcross technical advisor for Winchester Apple Harvest Cross.

UPDATE: We had a question in the comments about barriers. They will be located behind the registration/podium area. On the video, this is at 10:11. The right hand turn behind the shelter.

Thanks for watching.

This is the part of 'cross that Masters 3/4 racers do better than most.

Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross took place September 26 at The Lilypons Water Gardens in Adamstown, Md. In recent years the course has been slow and muddy. This year it was dry and fast. What we have for your viewing pleasure is a lap and a half of the Masters 3/4 race. The footage starts off quickly and then ends prematurely and abruptly. A pattern we here at CXHairs.com hope not to continue repeating.

I’m still struggling on the tunes front. We will get that sorted out in the coming weeks. In a pinch, though, you can’t go wrong with Soul Coughing bootlegs from 1997. If you have a band and want to be featured in a CXHairs video. Please, drop us a line.

Thanks for watching.