The fun, passionate and eccentric nature of cycling is encapsulated in a forty-minute circuit of pain, glory and cowbells. That's why we love Cross and here you'll find all of our Cross posts.
Bikes come and go at Hugga HQ – in for review, or special projects, and very few of them get my attention like the Parlee. I was attached. Mostly because I’d raced a Cross season with it, suffering in the Elite categories. I left my fitness somewhere on a plane in 2011 and just when I starting going good, finishing on the lead lap, I got sick. Then pulled the plug on racing to regroup over the holidays.
The Parlee never let me down in those races or in the snow. I pushed the bike to the limits when I could for a few hurtful moments at a time. While my legs didn’t show up until the season was nearly over, the heart, soul, and effort were there. So was the Parlee.
I have another Cross bike this next Season, a few months from now in the late Summer and Fall. Maybe it’ll perform as well as the Parlee CX-H did.
File treads for the first race of 2012 – the Tufos are glued onto a set of ENVE 25s with DT Swiss hubs. Light, fast wheels, with tires for various terrain conditions. The Andy Salmon Kermesse next month features 2 miles of pavement and 2 miles of road near Mt. Rainer. Last season, I raced a previous incarnation of this Kermesse
After 2 to 4 laps on rolling pavement, you hit the rocky, compact dirt and into a climb with enough rise to burn; especially after ten times.
Last time I saw so many flats, a desert hillbilly threw tacks out on a race course in the Horse Heaven Hills. The promoter Prudog will tell you to just run 25s or 28s and you can do that sure, then you’ll flat like everyone else will. File treads are highly recommended.
Lonely as it is hard
Kermesse is Flemish for a type of bike race that occurs on a circuit, usually around a farmhouse, church, or center of a small town. A Kermesse usually takes place during a related festival. The Feb Kermesses are to promote the Ohop Valley and town of Eatonville, where they ride bikes too.
Walked down these steps, mounted, and into the park
Rode the same route today in Schmitz Park, along Alki Beach, and around West Seattle. There was more slush and snow today. The Challenge Limus continue to work well and I tool more photos with the Cipher gloves on. Mark’s setup is not working well.
Natural barrier
Did dab a few times to get around stalled cars and rode the Parlee like a velocipede on a descent, unclipped, and on the top tube for stability. Also met these two workers out getting the job done. Cause the show must go on, in shorts.
For a few moments thought, “discs would be nice in this situation”
Rode the Parlee CX-H in the snow and tried Biologic’s new Cypher Gloves to take the photos and video. The Hevic wheels with Limus tires worked well on the low packed snow and slush, but those aren’t for the deep stuff or ice.
Cyphers worked well touching the iPhone screen, not for very cold conditions though
Just around the corner from Hugga HQ is a nature preserve
Mark V built up a set of Hevics (Mavic hubs and Hed rims) with Challenge Limus for the 11 Cross season, but I didn’t ride them much until now, in the snow.
Fast, smooth, and grippy.
It was also muddy and they handled the goo superbly as well. They’re not my favs, like the FMBs, but got the job done on our Lesser Seattle Cross workout loop from Schmitz to Lincoln Park. The Hevics with Limus were on the Parlee CX-H, a bike I hadn’t ridden in a month. Down a short hill and into a field of fresh snow, I was reminded of how hot that bike is, like an High School sweetheart I never got over.
While admiring yourself in a warm, freshly-printed shirt, drink some free beer, eat apps, and check the Biologic gear we’re bringing in for the trunk sale.
From an old Panasonic bike ad that predicted the future
Cyber Monday sounds like the day when Skynet becomes self-aware, when the Sarah Connors of the world get real nervous, or robots commute to work on bikes with their babelicious coworkers. But it’s another retail holiday and we’ve got a retail business to run too – you’ll never find us at the mall. So here are some Cyber Monday deals for cyclists, including our own Kickstand that sold very well over the weekend.
For those of you not as familiar with the rules of bike racing, putting someone “into the barriers” in a sprint is like a face mask in American football or kicking a player in soccer. As with other European sports, much tradition applies in bike racing. Even though it’s a working man’s, blue-collar, dirty, and hard sport, fans get very upset when they think the racing isn’t fair.
Champions like Sven Nys are expected to behave well and not put their rivals into the barriers and thus impede their sprint. If you follow the Tour de France, the current sprinter star Cavendish, has been relegated (scored at the back of the pack, instead of the win) for similar, dangerous behavior.
Across the road and into the barriers
In this screen capture from Koksijde yesterday, Nys is seen ahead of his rival Pauwels, inches from the barrier. Pauwels later protested and lost. The high-rez photo from CyclePhotos UK shows the start of the sprint on the other side of the road, with the two likely touching each other along the way to the line.
This type of bike racing is called Cross and it’s for specially-equipped road bikes ridden on courses that combine road and off-road sections with obstacles and steeplechase-like barriers, including sand pits. If you’ve ridden your bike onto a beach, you know how fast you come to a stop. At this level, the Pros race, run, and descend through sand pits. At Koksijde, Belgium, it’s dunes. Sand pits are hard. Dunes even harder. On TV, the Pros usually make it look easy. Not in this race. Their faces look like climbers in a Tour mountain finish. Suffering.
Not just sand pits, but dunes Photo: CyclePhotos UK
In all the Cross races I’ve raced and watched, this was the most brutal I’ve seen and Nys arrived at the finale spent. His tactical move here is still being discussed and debated by fans. I’d expect all night long too in Belgium’s Pubs.
The sprint started in the barriers Photo: CyclePhotos UK
Opinions range from Nys road dirty to
Nys used his experience and Pauwels made the wrong choice. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a long finish straight and Pauwels did not get alongside Nys. It shows that although Pauwels may be the strongest rider at this moment in the season he is still on the learning curve.
The second riders position is the source of the problem rather than the action of the leader. It was a bad tactical decision by the “fouled” rider.
Watching the video again, I agree with the opinion that Nys, the seasoned veteran used his instinct and experience to ride it into the win. If Pauwels had the strength to come around him, on the other side, he’d have probably won. They were both spent and Pauwels followed him from one side of the road to another. The sprint starts at 2:41.
Pauwels is replaying that loss his head over and over again, just like CX fans are watching it on YouTube. He picked the wrong line.
Sadly, without the all-determining helicopter camera shot, there’s no way to determine exactly how the barrier-to-barrier dance between Nys and Pauwels went down. Pauwels’ body English certainly suggests contact, but there isn’t anything definitive in the photos and videos I’ve seen. If nothing else, the last few seconds of the race are a great example of how, in cyclocross, leading out a sprint early can actually play to your advantage.
Also, “closing the door” is much different than “into the barriers.”
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