June CX Bike O' Month

As we hit a lull in the mountain bike racing season, my thoughts have turned to cyclocross and specifically getting a new CX bike. Not that my Scott Cyclocross Team isn't a fine bike, just want to look around to see what's out there. This is always really difficult, even in NorCal since so few stores even no what a CX bike is. So, I thought I would highlight a few easy to buy rides while we wait for the season to start.

My attraction this month is a bike with a fine pedigree and a good price:

Bianchi Cross Concept
Your Price: $1,489
37% off $2,349.99 msrp
http://www.jensonusa.com/

I like the specs: scandium frame with carbon rear triangle, carbon fork, Shimano Ultegra mostly drive train and WTB tires. It's also one of the few CX rides that you can get over the Internet, in case your local dealer doesn't carry them.

Next month, I'll look at an American CX bike from Cannondale.

2007 CX Schedule Is Coming ...

The Northern California Nevada Cycling Association has published the preliminary 2007 NorCal Cyclocross (CX) race calendar.

It looks like they have tried hard to harmonize the schedule across all the different CX racing leagues. Most of the series have fewer dates, but none of them overlap. From a discussion over at the Sacto CX forum, it appears that a lot of work has gone into this:

So here is an unofficial skinny on changes to come. Things are still in flux so bear that in mind.

The number of races will be cut from 11 races to 6. This will minimize conflicts with other race series, but it will allow for an improved Nor Cal race calendar. Sacramento folks will have a chance to race in other locations without the worry of missing a local race. This also works in favor of racers from out of town that want to race in the capitol city.

The season will also be longer too since there are only 6 races. The season will begin in mid September as usual, but it will extend into January. Right when the pros are getting ready for worlds, we will still be racing.

There will also be modular teams that handle specific tasks at each and every race. These modular teams will be the same faces every time. They will know all of the details with respect to their assigned task. There will be a registration team, a course setup and take down team, website team, and any others that are needed. Sponsoring clubs will be providing the man power to assist these teams.

All good stuff, but I am not sure that I completely agree with the no overlap between the Sacto and Bay Area racers. Sure this helps out the Elite level racers a lot, but most lower level riders probably won't drive a few hours to these. It just means less race dates to them. I'll keep an open mind and see how it shakes out.

Sac CX #10 MOVED !

Crap. It looks like they have to move the Sac CX series finale back a week due to some site problems. Now the finale will be December 9th, 2006 (not December 2nd) at Sutter's Landing Park in Sacto. Of course, this completely screws me, since I need to go back to Australia on December 2nd (and I had actually moved back my flight so that I could race . . .). Oh well, good luck to everyone and I'll see you next season.

Sac CX #7: Granite Bay

Another home race for the Folsom people, but the C league didn't have a big turnout for Sac CX #7 at Granite Bay Beach. I think we had only about 15 people show for the early morning race. Not sure what the cause of this was -- organization, course and weather were all top-notch. Oh well, their loss.
The morning started off cold again, but the light rain were had received the past two days was gone and a perfectly tacky course was left. I forgot my GPS unit again this week, but the course seemed longer (seemed like 9 minute laps or so) but faster than last week. I would have called it 55% singletrack, 20% sand and 25% pavement. We had no real climbs, but two "bumps" (see picture), one set of barriers and three sand pits. For those of you who raced the MTB Challenge races, this course was the first 1/2 or 1/3 of that race.
The course basically went: pavement start, hard right on path, hard left onto the singletrack, up and over the "bump", around the corner and over another "bump", then the barriers. Clearing those, it was pavement straighaway to the singletrack. The singletrack winded for a while until it hit a small sand pit. Beyond that was a short pavement uphill to a U-turn and more singletrack. This brought you to the first sandpit, short uphill and downhill into the second huuuuge sandpit then to the finish line. Brilliant course, great conditions, loved it.
I rode a mediocre race. Due to work pressures, I didn't get much training in during the week which made the first lap or two a living hell. Although I picked up the pace for the final two laps (catching one person), I really never challenged for a top 10 finish. I finished at around 35 minutes (winner came through in 29'). No major mishaps (due to my new tire kit -- see below) but the sand was a bear. I could go through the first and second sand pits alright, but the third one would just slow me down to a crawl. I felt like I lost a ton of time through it.
For this race, I finally changed my setup. Fearing mud after the rain on Thursday and Friday, I bought some Maxxis Mimo CX tires (700x35) and swapped them on for my Ritchey Speedmax. As you can see from the picture below (Speedmax on the left, Mimo on the right), the Mimo has a much better mud/moist tire with a little bit of a penalty on rolling resistance. As expected, it was excellent on the singletrack, worked pretty damn well in the sand and cornered on rails. I probably lot a bit on the pavement, but it was a tradeoff I would make again. I think I will keep these on for a while.


Post race beer: None :< . Although I was able to sneak this race in, I had to catch a flight to Australia later that day.

Sac CX #6: Men's A Video

Sorry this took so long, but here is part 1 of my video masterpiece from last weekend's cyclocross race:

This is the Men's A race. Sorry for the poor quality, but I took this with my cameras video option.

Look for the Women's video tomorrow. This should be better as I filmed it with an actual DV camera.

Sac CX #6: Negro Bar

After several weeks on the road, I finally got a home game as the Sacramento Cyclocross series came back to Folsom this weekend. Sac CX #5 was held in Negro Bar (just north of the rainbow bridge) on the American River. With it being pretty close to home, I got there in time to do a quick pre-ride lap.
Although the morning started off cold, the weather was pretty close to perfect again this week. And the course was much more to my liking: a few climbs, sweeping turns and longer laps. I forgot my GPS unit this week, so I won't have distance or maps unless I ride the course again tomorrow. However, I think the course had about 8 minute / 1.5 mile laps. Being Folsom, the course consisted about 87% of loose gravel over hardpack, 5% sandy, 5% pavement and a little bit of grass. We had three short but steep climbs, one stair run-up and a barrier grouping of about five logs. The course was in great condition - clearly marked, lots of race marshals keeping people off the route and well designed.


The course basically went: pavement start, hard right on sketchy gravel, hard left going down deep gravel section to sand 180 degree turn. Steep hill with hard left at top. Down and off camber left turn onto grassy section. 180 degree turn then up short rise to stair run-up. Pavement section to steep singletrack climb. Singletrack back through woods then floating right back down onto pavement. Another 180 turn to grass section, then hard left to five log dismount. Up and down to 90 degree turn on deep gravel into the horse corral, flat section to 180 degree turn again. Flat section to hard left, then pavement to finish line. Repeat until bell lap.


I felt I rode a good race. Although I finished midpack at best, I rode strong towards the end of the race (passing a few people toward the finish) and had no major mishaps. Unfortunately, I kinda struggled on the first and second lap before getting my rhythm, which meant the I was well back of the leaders most of the race. I also had a lot of trouble in the deep gravel and sand, often having to dab to keep the rubber underneath me. While this hurt me on the first half of the course, after the run-up I made up a lot of ground. The hillclimb and singletrack helped me greatly and I caught more than one person on the corral flats. I think I did five or six laps. Not my best performance, but still pretty strong for me.


I ran my usual setup (Scott Team with Ritchey Speedmax at 55ish PSI). I should gone down even more on tire pressure -- I think it would have helped in the deep stuff. This was another race that hurt people on mountain bikes. They just couldn't keep up on the flat sections in the corral.


Post race beer: Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale. Hoppy, spicy, oaky. Different and quite good. And they sponsor a MTB race. 4/5 stars.


I'll be posting more photos Sunday night along with the video that I took.

Sac CX #5: Rancho Seco

Okay, after the two week break (My dog was sick last week and the Bay Area Super Prestige was two weeks ago), I got my lazy ass out of bed and drove south to Herald, CA for Sacramento Cyclocross #5 at Rancho Seco Park. And for once, I actually arrived on time and got to do some pre-riding of the course.


Beer league was up first on the schedule and the weather was perfect. The course was very different from the other races: very short, very grassy (more on that later) and very technical (16 turns?). The laps measured just 0.65 miles with almost no climbing (30'/lap). It was basically 85% grass, a little pavement (10%) and one stretch of sand (which was actually pretty easy). We had two (or maybe three) barriers, a little higher than normal, along with a step up out of the sand. What was really difficult was the sharp turns on the wet grass. The course started out is good condition, but started to get muddy after the first lap. I didn't see the Men's "A" race but I imagine that the course might have gotten sketchy.


I had a pretty mediocre race. After the initial jumble of riders (which lasted several turns due to the many sharp corners), I ended up in the middle of the trailing pack. I made pretty steady progress throughout the race and by the end of the 7th lap, I was within striking distance of the lead guy in our trailing pack. Unfortunately, I almost missed a turn and lost a few seconds which let him get clean away. I finished on the lead lap (9 laps total) but somewhere around 12th place (out of probably 20ish). Considering the course didn't really cater to my skills (in fact, the technical nature, flatness and short length really hurt me), I think my race went well.

I ran my usual setup (CX bike with Ritchey Speedmax at 60ish PSI). I could definately have used better mud tires -- people on mountain bikes really had a good advantage on this course.


Post race beer: Farmhouse Hayloft Pils. Got it on sale at BevMo. Not a bad beer, a little light for my tastes. Brewed in Gilroy, CA. 3/5 Stars.