A weekend of racing coming, come on everyone.. Plug in the metallica and get fired up!

Crossniacs Rule!

We are the Sons of Batman*
We are the Crew
We are the Hockey team, the Rugby team
We are the Heavy Metal of bike racing.

So, if youre racing a 1/2 hour, or an hour. Get fired up!!

Lets go! Lets Go! LETS GO!

Here we go again! Across the nation. Takin’ names.

FPA

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_The_Dark_Knight_Returns
Sons Of Batman (S.O.B.), a group of teenagers (many of them ex-Mutants who left after the defeat of their leader). They have become followers of Batman, although they are too unruly and corrupt, taking severe measures to control the streets and even Batman. They end up following Batman for good intentions instead of bad.

Never thought the “cross crusade” would come to town, but it did and it went off well.  Even though the P-town crowd had to drive a bit farther we still had 800 riders on Sunday.  The course was nicely laid out by race organizers  and  had a long hill , singletrack on some nasty mud, a long fast downhill., a muddy run-up, and a sand pit. Guy and myself ride around Rainier H.S. alot in the off-season,  being our home turf , so it was extra sweet!  On a whim i raced in a different category-the clydesdale class, which is much smaller than the one I usually do and finished about mid-pack.  But with the wife and daughter and friends all there it was a good day regardless.  Hell, I even got my picture in the local paper. Hoping to hold onto this venue for next year and beyond. Later. jesse

Check out this video of the B race at Powderhorn this past weekend. I need to get out to MN one of these days and race with the rest of you guys!

via Lunatic Biker and T3

Nick

Crossniacs were present in every race!! 

A-Race
CJ - 7th in A2, 23rd OA
(Field - 49)
 
B-Race
Guy A. - 1st in B1, 1st OA
Andy - 4th in B1, 6th OA
Nate - 24th in B1, 40th OA
Eric - 12th in B2, 60th OA
(Field - 89)
 
C-Race
FPA - 17th in C1, 18th OA
(Field - 88)
 
Other Riders:
 
Mikey P. - 10th in A3, 34th OA - Rockin’ a new frame with the help of the Crossniacs!! (Not sure of the details on that) 

Hope I didn’t miss anybody.

 Eric

This one’s for the Papa John’s Derby City Cup in Louisville, KY, which is USGP #1. Lucky bastards!

Check out the whole article at Cyclocross World.

Nick

Looks and rides like a Norsk God.

I did the double this weekend along with Andy, Eric, N8 and CJ.  Great weekend of racing.  Won’t go into the course description as the others have covered.  Saturday was an odd day for me.  I was able to get into the lead, but I felt like I was way overworking as I was hoping to save some legs for Sunday’s race.  I just couldn’t find the groove all day.  I was third after the first corner heading to the big run / ride up.  I opted to run as I figured it might save my legs for later.  Sure enough, the second time around I passed the first place guy about 3/4’s of the way up as he was riding.  I was able to build on my lead for the next lap or so.  I saw Andy setting in 2nd…thank goodness for teammates as I really hoping that no one would chase me.  Thanks go out to Andy, he blocked, then rode everyone off his wheel for second.  It was my first win of the season.  Didn’t feel stellar, but a win is a win.

Sunday’s race was at Powderhorn Park.  This was the toughest race for me last year, so I was a little concerned about how I would perform on tired legs from the day before.  I have really been trying to focus on getting better starts so I was one of those “early birds” Andy was talking about trying to get a good position.  I think it payed off.  I was setting in 5 or 6th after the first set of barriers.  I tried to get into a rhythm quickly as I didn’t know how my legs were going to respond.  About 1/4 way through the first lap Andy blows by me.  I figured I would tuck in and hope that I would loosen up.  After a lap or two the front group was thinned down to about 4 or 5.  The pressure was pretty constant and slowly three of us seperated from the rest.  I was able to match the surges, but I was never quite able to make my own attacks.  I decided I was going to sit in and force them to drop me and hope that they would wear themselves out.  It worked up until the last lap when one of the guys made an attack.  I was setting third wheel and Ezra, the guy in second, did not respond.  I finally made a move to bridge accross when the gap was about 30 meters.  Luck must have been on my side.  The guy on the attack went down on the set of sweeping corners heading down towards the lake.  Ezra and I got around him and I saw that he had dropped his chain.  It was the break I needed.  I stayed at the front and kept the pace as high as I could leading to the big run-up.  I surged a little on the run and got just a little gap as we remounted.  I was able to come off the final corner and drop it down a few gears for the final sprint.  I JUST held him off at the line.  I would have felt bad if I didn’t win….Ezra was killing me on his single speed!  Andy, single speeds were there own category, so you should at least move up one place.  I was stoked with my second win of the season.  Sunday’s race was better than Saturday’s for me.  I felt good after I got through the first couple of laps, and to win against a bigger and better field made it all the more sweet.

All the Crossniacs rocked the weekend.  It was great to see everyone out cheering for each other.  CJ, you rocked it this weekend….you can suffer with the best of them.

Other Guy

The Twine Ball cross race was not a good course for me, but it was an awesome addition to the line-up. You went up or down on soft, muddy, and often times off camber trails. The field had some fast guys that made the steep run/ride up look like a walk in the park. I was late to the line and started at the rear of the field so for the whole 1st lap I was just hanging on for dear life. It didn’t get much better as the race went on, most of my positions were gained because people started blowing up and quitting because of the heat I think. I thought the course was really tough, but a course that must be back next year. For the first time ever I started to quit somewhere in the middle of the race. I decide to keep going and on the last 2 laps noticed that people were starting to come back to me. I ended up 16th overall and 5th in the A-2’s.

Sunday was a course that was much more to my liking and the weather was alot better for cross. One thing about Powderhorn is the fields are huge compared to other races. Once again I was lined up towards the rear of the field, but on the upside I was right next to Mikey P. who was rockin a sweet new ride. The field was once again stacked with some just plain awesome cross racers. Bjorn, Bergman, Aric H., and others were ready to rip it up for the crowd. My start was poor at best and the field strung out fast. I spent the whole race racing with the same guys who were with me on the 1st lap. We were catching people and riding away, but not at the pace we needed to. I think I was 23rd overall and 7th in the A-2’s.

I’ve noticed one thing that is a huge difference since moving up. There is no recovering from a bad start. You gotta be ready to go, and I mean go hard, before you can start to settle in and find your groove thang. I love cross, even though I’m sorer than hell today.

cj

No matter where you go, there’s always someone faster - the ringer. I found out that the guy who won the 35+ race was Charlie Storm. National champ, Worlds mountain bike team, Won over 110 Road, Mountain and Cyclocross races - 1997-2004

How does a hack like me compete?

I was surprised by the turnout. they combine 35/45/55s all together in a field of about 100 guys. i opted for a short warmup and and a good start position. the gun went off and it was a drag race uphill grass into the many spirals of pain. i rocked the hole-shot for 50 yards and then faded about 20 deep. the lack of a good warmup hurt me a little, but i knew the legs would open up. the climbs were key..i attacked everyone and started realing in guys lap after lap and ended up around 10th or so and in no mans land. but kept the gas on and slowly realed guys and caught up with a guy who i could work with. we traded pulls for 4 laps and i could see what i thought was the lead group…we got in range and i took a monster pull and dropped him and caught the group. my goal was to catch these guys and sit and recover, but once i caught them we hit a climb and i threw in an attack and shattered them. 1 guy came with, but on the next climb i popped him. 2 laps to go and i have never ridden tha hard all year to keep them off…..1 la to go and i had a good gap…as i rolled in, 1 guy was off the front..apparently some hotshot that wins all the 35+ races and double dips in the open race…i was stoked on the 2nd place

I found out that 1st place was Charlie Storm… a legend..Some National Champion guy