In The Crosshairs

JPow demonstrates proper remount technique or something ...

Yesterday’s Tour of California stage featured top-notch cyclocrossers in a long break that made it within 10 kilometers of the finish before being caught by the pack. Former Cyclocross World Champion Lars Boom (Rabobank) and Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly), the U.S. top-ranked CX racer, were joined by Canadian Rob Britton (Bissell), who has toed the line at many CX events. Midway through the stage, a three-man chase group featured Davide Frattini (Team Type 1), the winner of the 2009 Charm City Cyclocross.

Frattini Leading The Field At the 2009 Charm City Cyclocross

Before the stage started, Powers commented on his Twitter feed that Boom was putting everybody to shame in the cyclocross classification. Of course, having somebody with the palmarès of Boom near the top of the general classification made it easy to overlook another cyclocross phenom that was putting it to everybody including Boom. Namely, Peter Sagan, the Slovakian rider who is currently in fourth place and winning the Young Rider Classification. Sagan is the 2008 World Junior Cyclocross silver medalist. If you saw the Tour of California highlights from stage 3, you may remember Sagan showing off his smooth CX skills after going down on the climb and performing a flawless running remount to stay with the front group.

The involvement of the CX boys in the break produced a lot of chatter on the interwebs. We here at CXHairs even attempted a little live Twitter coverage (@CXHairs) of the ATOC CX Classification during yesterday’s stage. In that vein, we are proud to present the first CX Classification Jersey in a Road Stage Race Competition.

Before unveiling today’s ranking, there are a couple matters that need clarification. Namely, Horner and Armstrong. Both raced CX last year. Armstrong did Cross Vegas and Horner did a handful of races. Does this qualify them for the CX Jersey? Let us know what you think. For now, they will not appear on the list. Also, let us know if there are any ‘crossers racing in California that have been left off the list. The standings as of now are based on GC time. Also included is the Points race totals, but for the official tally it is probably best to stick with GC. 

CX Classification 

1. Peter Sagan  0:21

2. Lars Boom  3:54

3. Rob Britton  18:13

4. Davide Frattini 19:21

5. Jeremy Powers 31:49

6. Tejay Van Garderen 35:53

 Points: 

Boom 20

Sagan 19

Powers 3

Britton 1 

Check back tomorrow for updates.

Before we get knee deep into the season, let’s take a look back at the August 21 cyclocross clinic with Jeremy Powers hosted by JBV Coaching and Fulcrum Coaching.

Chris Mayhew Addressing The 'Campers'

I had the opportunity to track down the coaches and a handful of the attendees from the clinic to get their thoughts on what they expected to get from the day and how it panned out. If you are new to cyclocross or even if you have been racing for a year or two, take a look at the responses and consider making a clinic part of your preseason routine. Here’s what the ‘campers’ had to say about their day:  Continue reading »

Dan Tille of Fulcrum Coaching and Chris Mayhew of JBV Coaching organized an outstanding cyclocross clinic this past weekend featuring Cannondale/Cyclocrossworld.com rider Jeremy Powers. It was an incredible way to get focused and motivated for the upcoming season. I will be posting some interviews and lessons learned from the event in the next day or so. In the meantime, check out this article at GamJams.net. You can also take a gander at all the knowledge being passed along on our photo page. Thanks for reading.

New carbon frame, deep-dish tubular wheelset, maybe a top-secret embrocation from a Belgian alchemist. There is no guarantee that any of these “upgrades” will make you faster, although they definitely will make your wallet a whole lot lighter. But what if I told you that for $125 you could shave up to 30 seconds  off your finishing time, and you wouldn’t have to swap out anything on your race rig? You would do that in a heartbeat, right? Of course you would. And to get this advantage you don’t need to take some sketchy new supplement or apply space-age polymers to your skinsuit. What you do need to do is make a commitment. More specifically, a two-part commitment. Continue reading »