Grumpy McTrumpy

European style cross is different.

pinky

this pissing contest has been had before (and don't you worry, I ride my bike lots too). you're obviously a skilled bike driver but that doesn't mean you're right. drops let you load the front end of a bike more, which is of importance when you're trying to get around a turn at max stupid speed. yeah they probably aren't the best for twitch steering but that ain't the real focus of cross racing.

ZeCanon

uh huh.. the day a skilled rider can go around a corner better in drops than with a flat bar I'll eat my undies.

waterrockets 

I've never raced cross or a cross bike, but I know that for MTB racing, Tomac didn't change from drops until his sponsor made him. He was a jedi bike handler.

ZeCanon

he also raced with 40mm of front travel and was known to rock a disc wheel. We've come a long way.

Grumpy McTrumpy

cross =/= MTB (american cross races seem to be part MTB style though)

waterrockets 

Yeah, that Tioga was a weird wheel. I was warming up for Iron Horse one year and he came by me on some single track with that thing roaring through the forest. Yeesh.

Anyway, I think he'd be a candidate for someone who at one time could get through a dirt corner faster in drops than flats. In the image above, he had a rigid fork (1989), so it's closer to a CX setup.

Cool story bro: I watched him race in Moab in 1992, and was at the top of a steep ridge. The course went along the ridge, then turned 90 degrees and went straight down it. I watched Tinker, Weins, Rishi, and a couple other top pros of the day come along that ridge, brake hard, skid into their line and coast down it. Off the front was Tomac, and he was pedaling through that turn and down the hill. It was an amazing difference compared to the others.

fordfasterr

Final race of the Rosewood series, cat 4/5
I finished 3rd in the race, and 2nd overall for the final series.


=)

waterrockets 

Nice work. It's good to place in a series

fordfasterr

Thanks, check out my final throw !

mattm

Nice job on the placing!

I'm jealous, I'm not racing until March.. seems so far away too.

waterrockets 

Good throw. That's a good finish shot. The guy behind you is clearly impressed as well.

fordfasterr

True, and he was pissed too... my win knocked him down to 3rd for the overall....

robncircus

Raced CAT5 in the Dominguez Hills off season crit today. Field was 55 strong. I started slowly since I was off the bike for the last 2 weeks. Legs weren't feeling to good so I just hung in the back for the majority of the race. There was a LOT of braking through the corners today which is odd since the corners are huge and there is really no need to brake. Field wasn't too sketchy but as expected there were a few wildcards out there. No crashes so that's good. I ended up 37/55 which is meh but my goal is just to get through the 10 races needed to upgrade anyway. I did stay and take pics of the Masters 1,2,3 race and will post in a different thread.

Cheers

Rob

Flatballer

You guys are still racing road? Jeez. Don't you have an off season?

robncircus

It's called the off-season crit duh

Hida Yanra

raced cross for the first time

it rocked

allow me to repeat that...

IT ROCKED

esammuli

Santiago Canyon TT- 1st place overall (25:59), 20 seconds ahead of 2nd. My second win in a row puts me 2 points behind the series leader. Too bad a big chunk of the events conflict with the road racing schedule, otherwise I'd consider going for the series title.

ljrichar

I've been saying this for weeks.

Hida Yanra

and I've been wanting to race cross for weeks... but this year didn't work out for me. :-(

I'll make it a priority next year, but this season is pretty much over (and I'd have to keep borrowing a team demo bike)

Meymoon

Hi all! I am a kiwi living in Taipei and I did a bike race in the area over the weekend!

I have made a report on my blog with photos:

https://tinyurl.com/yzpjvth

Check it out.

gnome

100 mile point to point road race.

short report. I came, I saw, I got shelled.

long report.
I had not done enough training, especially hill climbing and was just getting over a cold. The forecast was for a headwind the entire way with rain due later. The rain thankfully held off. The wind didn't.

I made the mistake of starting at the back with the other Freds, as opposed to the middle. I dropped the group I started with in under 3 km and then spent the next 20 minutes catching up to the group ahead. I managed to hang with them for a while, but started struggling on the uphills.

Just before halfway I was dropped into no-mans land. This set the pattern for the remainder of the race. Faster teams/individuals would pass me. I'd hitch onto the back of the bunch and proceed to get dropped when the road went uphill.

I finished in the bottom 20% after spending about 75% of the time on my own battling into the headwind.

Lesson learnt. Do more training and stick with a bunch.

Cleave

Hi,

Great, I was only about 5-1/2 minutes slower than you in an 11 mile TT.

Obviously wasn't a good day for me as I was targeting a 29:30. Front derailleur wouldn't shift out of the big chainring so I got to go up the hill in a 53 X 21. Not a good gear for an old guy and I blew up about 1/2 mile from the top. Ended up 7th out of 12 in the 50+ category.

Cleave

Hi Rob,

Good for you staying in the pack and getting another race under your belt.

Yeah, braking for those corners is definitely not necessary. However, if you are at the back the accordion effect will cause you to brake and then accelerate harder out of the corners.

BTW, some of those guys in your photos look way too serious for this time of year.

ijunes

We had 3 5s in the field with you guys. Did the 4s race. Teammates got 2nd and 4th. I ended up 17th after gaining a couple position and blocking for the sprinters from the wind. Was really looking forward to going counter clockwise. the downhill sprint usually let's me gain 5-10 spots coming out of that corner. i hope december is counter clockwise. ok enough with the race teaser back to the small ring.