Cyclocross | UltraRob's Adventures

Local Cyclist in 2008 World Cyclocross Championships

January 25th, 2008

Local cyclist Katie Compton is scheduled to compete in the 2008 World Cyclocross Championships this Sunday in Treviso, Italy. Until a couple weeks ago she was favored to win it.

Last year she won the silver medal as a relatively unknown rider. Althouugh she has been winning the National Championships since 2004, she wasn’t doing any UCI races. She had been piloting a tandem for a blind rider for the Paralympics. Racing UCI races would make her ineligible to compete in the Paralympics.

Last winter she made the decision to move on from the Paralympics and do Cyclocross Worlds. Since she didn’t have UCI points she had to start near the back and it took most of the race for her to work her way to the front. This year she became the 2nd US woman to win a World Cup cyclocross race and went of the win a 2nd one. The other woman to win a World Cup cyclocross race is another local cyclist, Alison Dunlap.

Unfortunately the last couple weeks haven’t gone well for Katie. I haven’t been able to find much information but there was a bit on Cycling News earlier this week. She didn’t race last weekend and said she having some musle problems. She’s struggled with leg cramps in longer races but hasn’t seemed to be a problem in the shorter cyclocross races.

Katie is still on the start list that was updated today. I’m hoping that she has a great day on Sunday and pulls off the win.

Our local paper did a good article on her last week if you want to read more about her.

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Tags: cycling, cyclocross, Katie Compton
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Pikes Peak Velo Cyclocross #2

November 18th, 2007

Update: 2008 Pikes Peak Velo cyclocross race info

Today was our 2nd cyclocross race this fall at Bear Creek Park. I showed up at 7 AM to help with the course set up. It was a bit chilly but not bad for this time of year. Another warm day was forecast and it didn’t take long to warm up. In fact it got up to 68 degrees.

Since yesterday’s Red Rocks cyclocross race in Denver was canceled, I think a lot of racers came that probably weren’t planning on it. I don’t know the final number of racers but one of the guys doing registration said he thought it was the biggest turnout for a cyclocross race in Colorado Springs. I’m not sure that there’s been any cross races in the last 15 years that I haven’t raced, volunteered or both and the fields certainly were the biggest I remember.

I roamed around the course quite a bit to make sure everything was Ok. Once there was more traffic, I spent time helping direct traffic since we had the road to the parking areas down to 1 lane. We were using the other lane for part of the course.

I was able to get several pictures when I was roaming around in the morning. I was gone for a couple hours during the early afternoon. My kids wanted to go watch the race and play in the creek so I also got some pictures of the Women’s and Pro Men’s races.

Both Velo Soiree and Two Wheeled World bloggers were there racing. Unfortunately I wasn’t around when Matt was racing. Although he’s been mountain bike racing for years, this was his first cross race. Velo Soiree posted several great pictures a couple weeks ago of the Boulder Cup race that you should check out it if you haven’t already seen them.

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Technorati Tags: Colorado Springs | cycling | cyclocross

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Cyclocross this Sunday at Bear Creek Park

November 14th, 2007

Update: 2008 Pikes Peak Velo Cyclocross Race Info

The 2nd cyclocross race this fall at Bear Creek Park is this Sunday, November 18th. Although I’ve been riding a little more lately, I’m still in no shape to race but I’ll be there in the morning helping out. My teammate, Matt, from the old Schwinn grassroots team says he’ll be there for his first try at cyclocross. He may take a beating on the barriers but I still expect him to be fast.

I took several pictures of the September cyclocross race.

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Tags: Colorado Springs, cycling, cyclocross
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Local Paper has Cyclocross Article

October 26th, 2007

Thanks to a link from Mad Dog, I found that The Gazette, out local paper known for not covering cycling, has an article in today’s paper about cyclocross. Although the article is about cross in California, it does mention our upcoming race on November 18th. You can also look at my pictures from our September cyclocross race.

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Technorati Tags: Colorado Springs | cycling | cyclocross | Pikes Peak
Velo

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Results for PPV SuperCross Race #1

September 24th, 2007

The results for Saturday’s Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross race (no longer online) have been posted on the ACA site. The next race will be on November 18th.

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Tags: Colorado Springs, cycling, cyclocross, Pikes Peak Velo
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Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross #1

September 23rd, 2007

Yesterday was the first of 2 cyclocross races that Pikes Peak Velo is putting on this fall. The next one is on November 18th. It seemed like we had good turn out although I haven’t seen the number of racers.

I got to Bear Creek Park at 7 AM to help get the course set up. We had the course set up in an hour which gave us an hour before the first race. The course had some different section than we’ve used in the past and it seemed like people liked it.

The morning started out cool and foggy but by afternoon it was sunny and hot. It was also dry so we had dust instead of mud like last year.

The plan was for me to roam around the course during the races but I spent most of my time doing traffic control. We had a section of road down to one lane since we were using it as part of the course. There are 2 pavilions along that section of road and the plan was for them to not be used during the race. Somehow 2 large groups got them reserved and so we had a lot more traffic than we expected. Although it made extra work for us, I think things ran pretty smoothly.

Velo Soiree did the race. He recognized me and introduced himself. I got a couple pictures of him in the pictures I took. I think this is the best one of him.

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Tags: Colorado Springs, cycling, cyclocross, Pikes Peak Velo
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Cyclocross Race This Saturday

September 19th, 2007

The Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross race is this Saturday. The race flyer is on the website and has start times for each category. The categories and times are the same for the race on November 18th.

Last year we had perfect conditions. There was rain the night before which gave us plenty of mud but we had sun during the race. Last year I wrote a post about the cyclocross race. I also took several pictures of the races.

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Cyclocross Season

September 6th, 2007

It’s hard to believe that cyclocross season is almost here. This year Pikes Peak Velo is putting on 2 cyclocross races in Colorado Springs. The first one is only a few weeks away on September 22nd. Dennis has been working on the course layout. The 2nd one is November 18th.

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Tags: Colorado Springs, cycling, cyclocross, Pikes Peak Velo
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More PPV Cyclocross pictures

September 27th, 2006

There are more pictures of the Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross race posted at cyclocrossELEMENTS (site no longer exists). It looks like they are mainly of the SM Cat 4 and women’s races. Ryan Amirault that runs cyclocrossELEMENTS also raced the SM Cat 3 race.

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Tags: Colorado Springs, cycling, cyclocross, Pikes Peak Velo
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Cyclocross Race

September 24th, 2006

Yesterday morning I got up early and rode the 35 minutes over to Bear Creek Park in the dark for the Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross race. Friday when I left work it was snowing but it was just slushy rain at my house. I was afraid I might be riding over in the rain or snow but when I got up it was clear and 35 degrees. I got over to the park just as it was getting light.

Once it really got light, it was beautiful with the fresh snow on the mountains. When I was driving on the course to set up barriers, I saw a coyote. We got everything set up in plenty of time. The course was pretty muddy for the first couple races but slowly dried out. Once the racing started, I rode around and made sure the runners and people walking stayed out of the way. I was able to take a bunch of pictures.

I had debated whether to race and if I did whether to do the 35+ Open of the Cat 3 race. Danielle, my 3 year old, wanted to see me race. Julie was busy in the morning which was when the 35+ Open race was so I did the Cat 3 race at 1:20. I thought there was a good chance I’d finish last and get lapped with as little as I’ve been riding. One or two hours a week of easy riding doesn’t qualify as training even for something as short as cyclocross. I was in last place for part of the race but I passed a couple guys as they started getting tired and I was beginning to get warmed up. My legs felt strong but I just didn’t have much aerobic fitness. My IT band and hip have continued to be tight since RAAM but I didn’t notice them during the race. I had an average HR of 186 and a max HR of 193. I may not have been fast but at least I was working.

In the SM 35+ 4’s, Pikes Peak Velo had 8 riders in the top 10. Katie Compton, the women’s national cross champion, lead the Cat 3 race most of the race but got passed near the end. The women’s race was next and she won that by a big margin.

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Tags: Colorado Springs, cycling, cyclocross, Pikes Peak Velo
Posted in Bike, Cyclocross | 2 Comments »