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September 26, 2010 |
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Al Quaal |
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Ishpeming |
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October 3, 2010 |
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Iron Cross, Neganuee |
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Negaunee |
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October 10, 2010 |
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River Park BMX Track |
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Marquette
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October 23, 2010 |
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Keweenaw Cup: Day 1 |
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Top of the World Smackdown
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Keweenaw Mountain Lodge,
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Copper Harbor
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October 24, 2010 |
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Keweenaw Cup: Day 2 |
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Downtown Hoedown
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Copper Harbor
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Oct. 30, 2010 |
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Choco-X
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Harvey / Marquette
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November 13, 2010 |
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U.P. Cyclocross Championships |
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Tourist Park, Marquette
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Race start times* |
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Women B, Men C: 1 p.m.
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Women A, Men B: 1:45 p.m.
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Men A: 2:30 p.m.
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* The first race of day 2 of the Keweenaw Cup (Oct. 24) will start at 11 a.m.; subsequent times to be adjusted accordingly.
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| 2010 Cyclocross Season Kicks off in Traverse City August 27 |
| August 20, 2010 |
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Twin Bays Racing is
putting on the Right Brain Barrel Buster at the Microbrew & Music
Festival at the Grand Traverse Commons in Traverse City on August 27th.
The race will take place on the historic grounds of the old State
Hospital and go through the beer tent of the beer festival. This race is
part of the Third Coast Bicycle festival.
http://www.twinbaysracing.com/events.php
http://www.tcbikefest.org/
With the Cherry Roubaix races (oh yeah, and beer festival) going on the same weekend, it looks like a great time to be in Traverse City.
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Heading to T.C. for the Cherry Roubaix? Don't forget your cross bike! |
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| Keweenaw Cup Proceeds to Benefit Copper Harbor Trails Club |
| January 11, 2010 |
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Proceeds from the second annual Keweenaw Cup, organized by the Red Jacket - Blue Sky Health Cycling Team were presented to the Copper Harbor Trails Club (CHTC) January 10. The $1000 check was made possible by the 50 racers who ventured to Copper Harbor this past October under true cyclocross conditions for two-days of down-and-dirty cyclocross racing. The donation would also not have been possible without the generous support of the race sponsors: BlueSky Health, The Bike Shop, Downwind Sports, Keweenaw Mountain Lodge, Keweenaw Trails Services, Computer Mechanix, John Ollila, Copper Island Printing, The Edge Tattoo, and Banjo Brothers Bags. The donation will be used to help construct and maintain the extensive and outstanding network of mountain bike trails constructed by the CHTC.
An established part of the UPCROSS cyclocross series, the Red Jackets plan to continue - and grow - the Keweenaw Cup in 2010.
Additional information available at the Daily Mining Gazette.
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Red Jacket - BlueSky Health members Chris Schmidt and John Gershenson present Copper Harbor Trails Association members Arron Rogers, Nelson Sommerfeldt and Tony Schwenn with a check for $1000. Photo: Daily Mining Gazette |
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| U.P. Well Represented at U.S. Nationals |
| Jesse Bell, December 19, 2009 |
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I flew into Bend, Oregon with cycling rival and team Chocolay Ace Hardware all-rounder, Dave Grant, for a cardiovascularly challenging week of cross country skiing and cyclocrossing. After 3 days of ski camp, I took a recovery day before the cyclocross nationals race. The weather was frigid all week; the below-zero snow temps made for extremely slow, challenging skiing. With daytime temps in the 20's and low 30's, we anticipated a very slippery cyclocross course.
On Friday afternoon I suited up for a pre-ride of the course. In warm weather, it would have been a fast track with many flat sections and limited climbing. However, the weather was ideal for creating ice and after 2 days of racing everything was packed down into a slick, rock-hard surface. Even the grassy sections that were not covered in snow were extremely treacherous. Bone crushing crashes through these off-camber ice rinks were clearly foreshadowed.
There were only two true dismounts on the course: a double set of barriers and a set of stairs with about 30 steps. Several tight turns, a few of them 180 degrees, would slow down the pace and require powerful accelerations to stay with a group. It seemed that such accelerations would not be possible due to the unusually low coefficient of static friction between rubber and ice. Felling lucky to have kept the bike upright for three laps, I terminated my pre-ride and rode for a short time on asphalt.
Dave and Tony Lackey (who joined us on day 2) raced at 9:30 am on Saturday. The conditions were almost exactly the same as what I had experienced during my pre-ride. The Ace boys got terrible call-ups behind more than 100 other Masters 40-44 racers. They both kept the rubber down as they avoided the start line pileup that broke at least one collarbone. I watched in awe as crash after crash after crash brought racers to the ground. The course was a veritable ice rink. Dave and Tony stayed mostly on their bikes and essentially held their starting positions. They finished about as well as you'd expect from a couple of Ace chumps, 110th and 136th place. The winner of their race completed 6 laps, Dave and Tony were pulled before they completed 5. Deprecation aside, they did well to escape the race without any major injuries (bruised ego excluded).
My race, Masters 30-34, was scheduled for 3:30 pm. By then the temps were in the low 40's and the sun had worked its magic on the ice rink, turning it into a wet, sloppy mess. I was called-up about 50th position behind all the Category 1 and 2 and many Category 3 racers. All of the 4's were behind me. The gun sounded and the fun began. I came to a complete stop at the first turn as the group slowed in front of me. At the next straight stretch, I accelerated as hard as I could and got off the beaten path to pass about 15 guys. From there I just dug in and tried to hold my position.
The course was very much unlike what I had ridden the previous day. My Michelin Mud tires hooked up perfectly and only rarely did I lose traction. The pace picked up as the riders stretched out over the course and traffic became less of an issue. Instead, braking was my biggest challenge. I did poor job of setting up my brakes after disassembling and reassembling the bike for the trip to Oregon. The slow-mo pre-ride didn't reveal the issue, so it wasn't until I was racing that I realized that I'd have to drag a toe Flinstones-style to make it through some fast downhill corners.
I occasionally heard people yelling out positions and could tell I was somewhere around 30th place. Finishing in the top 30 seemed like a reasonable goal, so I tried to pick off a few guys here and there and avoided getting passed. I was yo-yoing with a guy until the end of the last lap when he spun out in front of me while going up a mud hill. I was pretty sure that move guaranteed me a top 30, but wasn't sure until I saw the results that evening. 25th. Nice. I was muddy.
This marks the end of my 2009 cycling season. Its been quite an adventure and I'm looking forward to a minimum 30 day bike hiatus. Time to ski! Thanks to Matt Palomaki/SISU Cycles for all the support and to the team for a successful road season. Special thanks also to Lucian and Sarah Jones for providing an amazing room and board hook-up in Bend(and phenomenal photos, and a vehicle to drive, and anything else we could have needed). You guys were truly amazing! Thanks also to Henry for the exceptional cheering and motivation.
Check back in January/February to hear about how badly DG gets whooped in the Noque. Also, if for some reason you want to see pictures of Dave and Tony, or a shot of me with Miss Alaska teen, check out the photo album for the trip here. All of the good shots were taken by Lucian -- Dave, Tony and I took the rest.
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Photo by Lucian Jones |
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Photo by Lucian Jones |
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Photo by TonyLackey |
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Photo by Lucian Jones |
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Henry, a cheering monster
Photo by Lucian Jones |
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| Persteiner, Lash, Jenema Crowned U.P. and UPCROSS Champions |
| November 14, 2009 |
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The final installment of the 2009 UPCROSS Series, the U.P. State Cyclocross Championship, was contested this weekend at Tourist Park in Marquette. Set against the backdrop of the Dead River Basin, the pace was hot from the gun in each of the afternoon's four races as racers worked hard to protect their series placings or make an eleventh hour effort to move up in the standings. The course, which featured near-equal shares of pavement, grass and singletrack, ensured that only a well-rounded cyclocross rider would take top honors on the day.
In the kid's race, which saw only two competitors, Chase Juntti took the win, followed by Finn Whalen. In the UPCROSS standings, it was Finn Whalen on top, followed by Chase and Ella Whalen.
With illness and injury taking their toll on the women's field, series standings were shaken up a bit. Andrea Pernsteiner continued her winning streak--claiming her sixth win in a row. Nicole Alexander--2nd place finisher in every race leading up to the championships--sat this one out as she recovered from the flu. That left the door wide open for Christina Bennett, who'd been chasing Alexander and Pernsteiner all year. Bennett's second place finish in the championship race, which offered double points, was enough to propel her into second in the series standings. Tammi Lehto crossed the line third, which placed her even with Amy Michaels in the points standings. With Michaels sitting the race out with an injury sustained in the Iceman, the tie went in Lehto's favor, placing Lehto fourth in the UPCROSS standings and Michaels fifth.
Despite a mechanical midway through the race, Colby Lash took another UPCROSS victory and sealed his win in the overall standings in the B division. Steve Webber who moved into the lead briefly during the race, slipped back to second once Lash found his rhythm again. Nevin Brownell finished third, giving him second place in the series standings by just one point over Webber. Taking a three-up sprint for fourth was Mike Sauer, who nipped James Bialas and Jeremy Pletka at the line. Sauer and Bialas rounded out the top five in the overall standings.
In the A race, Tyler Jenema started the final race of the season with a slim, seven-point lead over last year's UPCROSS co-champion Jeff Juntti. Unless the pair finished anywhere out of the top three, top UPCROSS honors would go whoever crossed the line first. A trio of riders, Jenema, Juntti, and Jesse Bell, established a healthy lead early in the race. Towards the end of the race as the pace heated up, Juntti faded, leaving Jenema and Bell to battle out first. In the end, it was Jenema--giving him the points he needed to take home the UPCROSS bell for keeps. Fourth place on the day went to Joey Graci. Fueled by candy corn, Houghton rider Andrew Ignasiak rode his singlespeed to a strong fifth place finish. In the final UPCROSS standings, it was Jenema, Juntti, Bell, David Grant and Tyler Gauthier.
Racers celebrated the end of the season with a fine spread of food and good cheer at L'Attitude in Marquette. Custom awards by Tony Lackey, Hotplate Pottery of Marquette and a special version of the 2009 UPCROSS poster went to top finishers. Overall UPCROSS champions also took home the travelling UPCROSS bell.
Another UPCROSS season is in the books. Thanks to everyone for coming out and racing, organizing, and setting up and tearing down the courses. Keep an eye on the UPCROSS website over the winter for next year's schedule.
Full results on the Results page. For lap times, visit superiortiming.com.
Race photos:
Women, Men A & B - D. Loy
Women, Men B - C. Schmidt
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| The Crossbar: Parcours at a Glance |
| January 7, 2009 |
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Using (not-so) complex numerical modeling methods, the pain genome of each race course has been analytically reduced to a series of lines compressed into a single bar. The decryption key is as follows:
Green: grassy sections
Blue: water/mud hazards
Brown: singletrack / two-track
White: snow, ice, zamboni shavings
Red: blood (or likihood of shedding it on wooden barriers)
Black: pavement |
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