Bandit Cross - Wrentham, MA

A handful of the New England cyclocross community, including Adam Meyerson, Jerome Townsend, Colin Reuter PLUS two Rutgers team riders who drove up from New Jersey took the snowy challenge at the Wrentham Development Center yesterday.

After carving a course into the snow and ice, a practice lap or two, Geoff Williams of cyclocrossracing.com, after a week of online exhortations, functioned as "race official" and started the assembled riders in two 20 minute heats. Surprisingly, I don't think there were any crashes during either heat, though there is one great endo recovery at 1:47 in the video.

The terrific song, "Winter" is by Dumptruck, lengendary Boston area band from the late 80's. Here's a link to  the album "Positively Dumptruck".

Bandit Cross - Wrentham, MA 01.08.2011 from Russ Campbell on Vimeo.

Race Report: Minuteman Cross, Cat 4 35/45+ - Lancaster, MA

With not much of a warmup (sigh) because I was running around the course photographing the open Cat 4 race, I lined up 6th row, which was closer to the front than I thought I'd be with only one other cycocross race under my belt. Did my best on the first lap to just maintain position, passing some people on that first big climb then being passed later on in the turny bits of the course.

Somewhere in lap 2, Mark Van Lier passed by me (from starting in row 8) and I gave chase. Tried keeping him in sight the rest of the race. Played cat-and-mouse with Sweeney for a while too.

Full gallery of the Cyclocrossracing.com/Minuteman Road Club CX Race

Lap 3, as I exited the last barn turn and approached the copse of trees by the bleachers, I snagged my left brake handle in the tape, stretching out 6 ft or so diagonally across the track - dang stuff broke so easy in the wind but wouldn't when I got caught in it. It slowed some BikeBarn guy down a half-second while I cursed a blue streak and finally freed myself.

Had to do a half dozen foot-plants on turns but was glad I had the instinct to do so, woulda definitely bit it in a few cases if I didn't.

I can hardly remember going up and over the flyover, I guess it wasn't an issue for me.

Last lap, I tried to stick with Scott but couldn't, Van Liere was out of sight but I had some guy on my tail so he would have to do for me to have any last acts of heroism. As we left the corner field before the finishing straight, he was actually breathing louder than I was, so I began to hit the gas. He matched my every move, likely tucked in behind me tight to stay out of the wind.

I kept shifting up and going faster and still I could hear his huffing and puffing behind me and as I hit the line, I practiced throwing my bars "just in case" but I don't think he was coming around.

Result: 34th of 76 overall and 17th of 40 in the 45+.

I'm very pleased with how I did. My ankle/foot did not pose a problem (but did need a bag of ice when I got home) and each lap was faster than the one before (9:19, 9:09, 9:08 and 9:06). My only self-criticism was that even though my remounts went without a hitch, I did flop my ass down on the seat really hard every time - I'm lucky that the barriers were in the forgiving wood chips.

Later, when the results were up, I did not find myself on the print-out so I pestered JD between races and he reviewed the tape, found me and even complemented me on the throw.

The rest of the day, I spent taking shots of the rest of the action. I took so many shots, it required quite a few man-hours of editing to create the gallery I posted online.

Providence Cyclocross Festival - Day 1 - October 9, 2010

A beautiful Saturday morning greeted New England 'crossers as they competed on Day 1 of the Providence Cyclocross Festival. I was signed up to race but I was still feeling cautious about my ankle which left me free to photograph the goings on.

Fellow Minuteman Road Club member, John Smith bought himself an upgrade to Cat 3 over the weekend by winning the Cat 4 35/45+ on both days. Chris Pare took 3rd on day 2 in that category.

Doug Kennedy also had a great weekend, placing 4th and 7th on each day. He bumped up to Cat 2 as a result.

I covered the Cat 4, Cat 4 35/45+, Cat 3/4 Women and the U15 Juniors (1-4). Full gallery here.

Competitors make their way past the Temple of Music in Roger Williams Park.

Michael Weiler descends in Roger Williams Park.

Todd Savage leads fellow Minuteman team member John Smith up at the start of the 35/45+ heat on Saturday.

A victorious John Smith (Minuteman) as he wins the Cat 4 35+.

Ankle Update

So it's six days since I sprained my ankle/foot. Two days to go before The Night Weasels Cometh.I had a string of assignments through the weekend so I couldn't stay off my feet at all, but the ankle brace I picked up at CVS did a good job of helping me to function.

Every day, it's been getting a little better.

This morning, I taped it up and got on the trainer for some intervals and it held up really well but the bad news is that when I got off, laced up my running shoes and tried to simply JOG around the block, it was a no-go after 100 yards.

So, if you had to ask me right now, I'd say that I'll be photographing the race Wednesday night, not participating in it.

My Own Worst Enemy?

Short post only to report that I have been finding new ways to maim myself.

Two weeks ago, I unwisely jumped on a BMX bike for the first time at the track in Billerica (I was quite the sight in my roadie bike shorts and jersey), went off course and my right thigh lost a fight with a rather sharp rock as I fell, leaving me with a 5-inch gash that provided me with a nice view of what things look like underneath my skin. (Sorry, no photos)

My wife is becoming an expert at rolling her eyes at me when I come limping back into the house.

Fast forward to this past Tuesday, I'm scheduled to have the stitches removed at 1:30pm but in the morning, I decide to do a little 'cross workout, concentrating on nailing down my remounts. Somehow, I manage to completely miss the saddle and sort of sit down on the rolling rear tire while simultaneously riding over my left foot with my ankle bent to the right at a rather unnatural angle.

Boof! Down I go and instantly I know that the workout is over.

Coupla hours later it's my PCP who's rolling his eyes at me when I ask him if he would check out my ankle after he is done taking out the stitches.

So, I've been hobbling around with a brace on the ankle. It's improved a lot in two and a half days. I'm thinking I might just be alright for the Night Weasels Cometh this coming Wednesday...

Cyclo-cross: It's Impact on the Land... and the Public

A cyclocross event to be held in West Seattle had it's permit by the Parks Department shortly before race day has put a spotlight on not only the environmental impact of the racing itself, but how communication between cycling advocates and the larger community needs to improve.

Read the comments below this post to get a glimpse of not only how members of the same community can have different ideas about how public property should be used, but the varying ways in which both sides get their points across. I'm sure you've seen a similar dynamic elsewhere.

Meanwhile, it would be prudent for race organizers to plan ahead for such trouble by taking the time to produce documents like this one (PDF) that they can present to permitting agencies and the public to show how limited the damage from hosting a CX race would be as well as having in place a post-race restoration plan which might include donations to maintenance funds and having volunteers actively participate in restoration.

As cycling's presence on the public scene continues to increase, we have to be sure that the public at large gets the right impression of who we are and what we do.

Northampton Cyclocross 2009 - Day 1

Excerpts from Saturday morning's heats of the 19th Annual Cycle-Smart International/Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross:

I've uploaded all the of the shots that made the cut to this web gallery.

I got fixated with photographing the participants traversing barriers, ignoring good action elsewhere on the course. It didn't help that I had my 9 year-old in tow - my attention was half on keeping her entertained, informed of what was going on and making sure she was warm enough.

Looking forward to seeing what More Bacon at Double Hop produces from tomorrow's races.

POLL: Do you prefer the Picasa slide show (above) or Flickr embedded slide show (below)?

Sunday Random Bike Pic

4B's, originally uploaded by Luke.
From the creative dismount department