Road Racing

Boulder Racing #2 - Interlocken - Race Report, Photos and more

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Other Media mentions

Race Report Hardcastle Photography
Yesterday's Boulder Racing Cyclocross #2 of the series was a biggie. Big course - big fields - big crowds! Picture a 120 person field coming into the sand and barriers - unbelievable. To say the sport of cyclocross is growing quickly would be, well, obvious. The very full fields of men, women and juniors raced through the campus of Interlocken in Broomfield, Colorado on a near perfect, breezy fall day. Complete with a sand section that doubled back between steep hill runs (or rides for some), a chance for rest on a couple short sidewalk sections, long stretches of wet and dry grass, a bridge over a creek (how Belgian), and a well-placed barrier section nearing the finish made this course spectator and racer friendly.

The women's field consisted of 33 starters and was contested by a few familiar faces. Lisa Strong (Hudz-Subaru) took the win to follow up strongly on a pair of 2nd places in Frisco last weekend and another 2nd at the first Boulder CX race. She was chased by Sara Tarkington (Unattached, 2nd) and Ann Trombley (Tokyo Joe's, 3rd). Lisa leads the Boulder CX series with a close second between Ann Trombley (two third place finishes) and Nicole Duke (1st place Boulder CX #1, no result for BCX #2).

Never a dull moment, the men's open race saw 62 starters fly down the wide grass start to take a left bend underneath the non-UCI legal inflatable start/finish arch (which was awesome, nice touch Boulder Racing!). From there a group of 5 leaders shook out from the field towards the middle of the first lap, consisting of Pete Webber (Boulder Cycle Sport), Matt Pacocha (Hudz/Subaru), Allen Krughoff (Boulder Cycle Sport), Brandon Dwight (Boulder Cycle Sport) and Yannick Eckman (Hot Tubes). A tricky right hand turn on sidewalk in the backside of the course claimed some skin as riders pushed the envelope of traction on knobby tires. The group of leaders continued to ride consistently together for the majority of the race as they pulled away from the field.

Nearing 4 laps to go, the action picked up a bit. Krughoff put in a short-lived attack to test the group on the grass stretch after the canal bridge and drew Eckman out of the group, which killed the impetus to continue. Dwight was charging up for a counter attack but his line was pinched against the chain-link fence on the south of the course, allowing an opening on the right for Pacocha to attack. Pacocha got a small gap on the group of about 3-4 seconds and was caught by Eckman first, but was eventually reeled in before the start finish by the Boulder Cycle Sport trio. Webber went to the front underneath the inflatable arch with 2 laps to go until he lost his purchase on the slick left turn onto grass coming into the first barrier and runup section. This put him slightly behind the other 4 as the pace quickened. Eckman put in an attack towards the end of 2 laps to go and was followed by Dwight. Pacocha led the chase to the front two, with Krughoff in tow.

Coming through the to hear the bell lap, Eckman had an approximate 5 second lead on Dwight, with another 5 seconds to the duo of Pacocha and Krughoff. As Pacocha and Krughoff came out of the sand into the steep, mud/grass hill that the leaders had been riding most of the race, lapped traffic tried to move left out of the way which unfortunately happened to be the now only ride-able line up on fresh grass. Pacocha and Krughoff were stopped up against the caution tape and had to dismount with Krughoff sprinting out of the jam and onto his bike. This setup a gap which grew as the lap progressed.

Dwight chasing Eckman throughout the final lap and closing down Eckman's lead by the second, the two came together slightly before the barriers leading into the grass loops before the finish. Eckman bunny hopped the barriers as Dwight ran and used the opportunity to sprint out in front of Dwight. With roughly 1/2 a kilometer of grass remaining to the finish, Eckman held off the hard charging Dwight to take the victory. Dwight was followed by Krughoff at 5 seconds with Pacocha and Webber coming bringing in the end of the lead group in that order.

Racing Results

Top five for the Men's and Women's Open categories:

Men's
1) Yannick Eckmann - Hot Tubes Dev. Cycling Team
2) Brandon Dwight - Boulder Cycle Sport
3) Allen Krughoff - Boulder Cycle Sport
4) Matthew Pacocha - Hudz-Subaru Cycling Team
5) Peter Webber - Boulder Cycle Sport

Women's
1) Lisa Strong - Hudz-Subaru Cycling Team
2) Sara Tarkington
3) Ann Trombley - Tokyo Joe's
4) Judy Freeman
5) Jane Finsterwald - ColoBikeLaw.com

Boulder's Higgins Finishes US Track Cycling National Championship with Four National Titles

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Permission to use photographs by Pat Benson, photographer

Boulder's Higgins Finishes US Track Cycling National Championship with Four National Titles

October 3, 2010

Carson, CA-Boulder's Cari Higgins (Peanut Butter & Co/2012 Professional Cycling Team) completed her competition at the 2010 US Elite Track Cycling National Championships on Sunday with the addition of two more national titles. With teammate and former World Champion Jennie Reed (Kirkland, WA), Higgins won the first ever US National Championship in the Women's Madison. Her final Stars and Stripes jersey came in the Women's Team Sprint with teammate Liz Reap (Jim Thorpe, PA). Earlier in the week, Higgins also won National titles in the Women's Team Pursuit and Points Race. She has eleven career National Championships and four Pan American Cycling Championship medals.

Higgins commented "I am really inspired by starting my track cycling season off with a strong Nationals. I am looking forward to a great winter of racing internationally with the US National Team as we work towards our goal, the London 2012 Olympics".

2010 Frisco Cyclocross - Report

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Frisco Cyclocross Results

- Results Saturday
- Results Sunday

Saturday Race Report
Rod Yoder sent us these videos of yesterday cyclocross race in Frisco.

Sunday's Race Report From Allen Krugoff, Hardcastle Photography

Sunday's course might have been cooler in temperature, but the heat was on with an unrelenting course design. No rest on this long loop with a 1 minute (or of course longer) climb, cross-hill on thick bark chips and a fast, windy descent into a twisty gravel stretch. From there, riders flew across more bark chipped singletrack, as this area had been previously logged for beetle kill and bark chips are now in peak supply. Back towards the announcer and start area with lincoln-log barriers and a deep gravel stretch which lead into more bark chip singletrack (noticing a trend?) and into a grass infield area to complete the lap.

Interview with Gene Palumbo -- World Champion

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Taylor Phinney just won the U23 World Championships in the TT discipline which makes Colorado's total Worlds TT champions for 2010 two! The other World champion in 2010 is Gene Palumbo who won his title a month or so ago in Austria. I've had the luck of racing on Gene's team a few years ago and now the honor of interviewing him.

[303Cycling] Competing in the World Championships isn't something you decide a few weeks prior to the event, how long has this quest been in the plans?

[Gene]
I began thinking about competing at Worlds about 3 years ago after competing at Nationals. I met a guy at Nationals named Thurlow Rodgers who is a World Champion and was intrigued by his success and the fact that he had rainbow stripes on his kit. I thought, Wow, what an accomplishment and how cool to focus and achieve that level of success. I decided then that I would figure out what it took to go to World’s and what it would take to focus in training for the Time Trial event and if I would even have a chance at getting on the podium if I committed to doing so. I heard the event in Austria was very professional, dynamic and a really cool experience.

[303Cycling] What was you life/training like to prepare for Worlds?  (I don't need training plan details but how intense was your training?  Would have this been something like out of the movie Rocky?)

[Gene]
Everything on a daily basis had to do with sticking with my training plan as well as diet, scheduling with my wife and making many sacrifices including family to focus on cycling. My wife and son are 100% supportive and we all schedule our days, weeks and events around my training calendar. How amazingly selfish and egocentric this has all been but without the support of my wife and son this never would have solidified.
In training for the World’s, I tried to leverage the foundation of training and racing established during the past several years. From 2006 through 2008 I was coached by the same USA Cycling certified coach and in 2009 I ended up coaching myself. I went to the World’s in St. Johann, Austria in 2009 and ended up 22nd in the Time Trial and was very disappointed as well as mad at myself for a bad performance. While in Austria I met a guy named Michael Carter and agreed to utilize his coaching services in 2010 with the goal of focusing on my time trialing abilities and trying to win Nationals and Worlds. A large part of the motivation to focus on time trialing was due to lower back problems that have been getting progressively worse. I have found that spending less time in the saddle for long durations and my position on a time trial bike essentially gave me a new life in racing as I had seriously considered quitting many times. The excruciating back pain and associated physical therapy, stretching, core work and time needed to do all these maintenance things, in addition to training, was becoming too much to handle for myself and my family from both a financial and emotional perspective. Coach Carter worked around my back issue by developing a training plan focused on shorter duration training rides with high power intensity. I was basically spending about 10-12 hours per week on my bike and another 3 hours per week focused on lower back maintenance including core and stretching work. Each month I would go to Coach Carter’s studio for Conconi testing to measure how training was progressing and adjusting the training schedule accordingly to accomplish the Nationals and World’s goals. I don’t know if this was something out of “Rocky” but like any athlete that wants to be successful, I was very focused and dedicated to my training schedule. I truly believed I could win if stuck to the training schedule like glue no matter if I was sick, it was snowing or whatever other excuses could have gotten in the way. I believed in Coach Carter’s reputation and planning but I also believed that if I utilized his training plan and kept the rest of my body in killer shape that I would be stronger than anyone else at Worlds. I did whatever I could to give myself a competitive advantage including projecting myself onto the podium for months while training. Part of my training included a mantra my 8 year old son made up for me: “Ride like a bullet train” During races on out on training rides during the past few years I must have repeated this mantra thousands of times!!! I was pretty much riding 6-7 days per week. Monday’s are usually my recovery or Off day and I typically would treat them as active recovery days.

2010 Frisco Cyclocross - Updated Information

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We received this information from the promoters of the Frisco Cyclocross races happening this weekend.

  • The course is great, some new paved sections have been added, and we'll use more of the infield area for spectators too.
  • Due to all the construction, the old Nordic center entrance off of Hwy 9 is no longer in use. This doesn't affect the venue, except for our car traffic.
  • Continue past the old entrance to the traffic light at the top of the hill, turn left into the "forest service" entrance. From there, we should have signage or instructions on where to park.
  • Racers and teams with tent set ups who plan on making a day of it (and you
    should) are encouraged to get there early so they can park down below by the ball fields and set up. Beer is available to racers for FREE.
  • Parking is limited down below so if you are able bodied, park up high, off of Crown Point road or east of the entrance road on the dirt to keep traffic hassle to a minimum.
  • Overflow parking is also available if you turn Right into the County Commons. Then you just need to cross the road to get to the venue. Look both ways. Please Carpool if at all possible to minimize the potential for parking and traffic hassles. Locals should ride your bikes!

Registration for the 2011 Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike

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I saw this press release come across my email today so I thought I would give it a quick read. Toward the end of the article there are two sentences that caught my eye about the 2011 registration. I know alot of people are wondering how this would work. The two sentences I have highlighted below will give you a little idea. So, there are definitely some changes with registration for 2011.

Dust Bowl of Xilinx - Photos, Results and more

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Story from Ben Welnak and Kris Thompson


Photo Credit: Ben Welnak
Armin Bantowsky - High Peaks Masters riding the humps

Photos

It's that time of the year - time to kick off the Boulder Cyclocross Series. Race #1 of the series, at Xilinx Park near Longmont, was a great start to the season.

The start of the 2010 cyclocross season has seen some dry, summer-like temperatures and today was more of the same, resulting in good turnouts and great racing throughout the categories. With blue skies, high temperatures around 80, and the trails were every thing from hard pack and fast to almost sand like but always dusty. Overall the dusty course really tested riders abilities to cruise through the corners gracefully with little to no brakes... that is if they were interested in the podium. The later fields of the day were graced with fields of sand like dust that rode more like snow than sand forcing you to float or sink. Given all these features the racers quickly spread out on this long open course.

The men's open field was broken open pretty quickly by the Boulder Cycle Sport crew. Allen Krughoff and Brandon Dwight rode out front with a good lead for most of the second half of the race. Allen ended up taking the win in a friendly sprint to the finish.

Full Boulder Racing Results

Top five for the Men's and Women's Open categories:

Men's

Allen Krughoff - Boulder Cycle Sport
Brandon Dwight - Boulder Cycle Sport
Peter Webber - Boulder Cycle Sport
Troy Heithecker - Ft. Collins Cyclery
Christian McCarthy - Natural Grocers

Women's

Nicole Duke - Hudz-Subaru
Lisa Strong - Hudz-Subaru
Ann Tromley - Tokyo Joes
Melanie Long - Tough Girl
Heather Szabo - Tokyo Joes

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