The week of the Boulder 2014 Cyclocross National Championships was amped. Juniors grinned ear to ear or scoped the course seriously with their headphones blocking distractions. Masters over 70 sharpened their elbows to contend for stars and stripes. I took it all in with pleasure and the pride of getting to show off something you love at its best.
The Boulder Cup is the biggest cyclocross race of the season in Boulder each year, and it's held at our Valmont Park venue that will host the cyclocross national championships in January. Lennard had a great ride and got third place behind winner Karl Kiester and runner-up Russell Thorstrom.
Elkhorn Stage race in Baker, OR was on June 18-20 and here is my experience of the race.
Frozen Flatlands:
The ride started in my hometown Clarkston, WA. I began the ride just before sunrise here's a picture of the Snake river from the Bryden Canyon bridge.
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I’ve been racing cyclocross since mid October, picking the sport up again after 29 years away from it. I’m not sure why I’ve caught the ’cross bug so much, but it had something to do with building magnesium ’cross bikes and being jazzed about how lightweight and comfortable to ride over rough surfaces they are. I also am passionate about cross-country ski racing (mostly skating, some classic), and my fitness tends to go in the toilet when the weather and short daylight hours make road or mountain bike riding less enjoyable and more of a hassle. When the snow finally hits, I have to build fitness all over again and don’t start doing well in ski races until February. ’Cross seemed like the perfect answer, so I made myself a matching (other than the color and that one has a single chainring and the other has a double along with ’cross-top brake levers) pair of Zinn Magster ’Cross bikes and have been having a blast on them.
[caption id="attachment_26" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Steve Stewart at the Boulder velodrome and his new magnesium track bike"]