Photo by Anthony Skorochod / cyclingcaptured.com

Follow NYC Velo Cyclocross (CX) Team Rider Evan Murphy as he tackles a the 2011-12 CX season, his first as a RISD degree-holding adult:

Last weekend, I headed down to Wilmington, Delaware, for my first attempt at this legendary Granogue MAC (Mid-Atlantic Cyclocross) series event. In excited anticipation of the weekend, I set my sights on a solid finish.

Prior to the starting gun, I tried to do everything right, like pre riding multiple laps, re-riding tricky spots, asking every fast guy I knew what tire pressure to run, but it seemed as though my luck was still down. I spent the first three laps of the Elite race on Saturday caught behind multiple crashes, even getting taken off my bike coming around a flat turn, while working my way through the field. After a last row start I was pretty stoked to have picked off five or so guys, and was heading up the steep back section run-up when I decided to ride it (instead of running/hiking). This is when my chain broke and fell off my bike.

After the mishap, I was encouraged to run to the pits, a friend from Pittsburgh yelled, “gimme your chain, I’ll meet you there!” I know that choosing to stay in the race made no sense as lapped riders are pulled (politely reminded that they are no longer allowed to race with the rest on account of their lack of speed in competition), but I was deep in the (pain) cave and no thinking clearly. I ran ten minutes to the pit only to end up riding a SRAM-supplied neutral bike (complete with flat pedals and 60 psi clinchers) through to the end of the lap, where I was lapped and pulled from the race. I ended the day with one of my best Elite-class results, 39th of 55, mostly because so many others had failed to finish. The result doesn’t look so hot on paper, but I’ll take it!

Photo by Anthony Skorochod / cyclingcaptured.com

I decided to race the Category 2/3/4 event on Sunday mostly because I’ve been getting slaughtered in the Elite field and I needed a break (Is it really sandbagging if you’re predicted a last place in the Elite race and have a last row start in the 2/3/4 race??). I made my way up through 124 viciously competitive racers to find myself 10th behind a young, competent bike handler heading into the last lap. It turns out that my decision to follow his wheel was the wrong one as I took the rocky/rooted section far too fast and punctured my front tire. I rode around the course on a flat tire to the pit to grab another flat-pedal-equipped SRAM bike. I finished the last half of the race on a bike with the seat jacked up 4 cm beyond my comfort zone – OUCH – before flatting again! on the finishing straight and bleeding spots to finish 25th on the day.

Photo by Anthony Skorochod / cyclingcaptured.com

I suppose the lesson learned this weekend was to take bad luck with grace and finish hard even if you want to quit, because you never know how bad it really is. Thanks to the Dupont family for again lending their property to us bike racers for another excellent weekend. See you on the trails!

all photos by Anthony Skorochod cyclingcaptured.com

photo by Wil Matthews

NYC Velo is proud to feature professional cyclist Ryan Trebon in this installment of our 5ive Points interview series.

Ryan has worn the stars and stripes jersey as the US National Champion on 4 occasions, winning the cyclocross title in 2006 and 2008, the cross country mountain bike title in 2006, and the short track mountain bike title in 2007. Since becoming a professional bike racer in 2004, Trebon has dominated the US Grand Prix, the country’s most prestigious cyclocross race series, 4 times, as well as countless smaller local and regional races across the country.

Ryan spent most of his professional racing career as one of the big guns of the Kona Bike Racing Team, representing the bike brand (and racing its bikes) in many of the top cyclocross and mountain bike events worldwide. For the 2011/12 season, Ryan has developed a new team: L&T Sports/Felt. Ryan has been racing this season exclusively on Felt’s newest carbon fiber mountain and cyclocross bikes, and preforming quite well! He’s working hard towards the UCI World Championships, which will be held in the US in 2013 – can’t wait? Neither can we!

As a staple on the North American cyclocross scene (before he heads to Europe every year), Ryan has competed in many races in the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions, his quick wit as much on display as his powerful engine. We’ve been proud to ride with Ryan on a few occasions and to continue to tell his story through the bikes available in the shop from both Felt and Kona.

It’s certainly tough to limit an interview with Ryan to 5 questions, but rules are rules….

NYC Velo: What bike do you ride?
Ryan Trebon: Felt’s new 2012 F1X super light, stiff, and handles awesome

NYCV: What’s your favorite ride?
RT: I don’t have a favorite ride; any time riding is enjoyable and the legs feel good and the company is friendly- that’s my favorite ride.

NYCV: What’s your favorite post-ride food?
RT: Chips, specifically tortilla chips and coconut water.

NYCV: What is one thing you always carry on a ride?
RT: Everything to make me self sufficent (tubes, tools, skills) I dont take a phone with me and hate having to have people come pick me up.

NYCV: What’s next?
RT: World Domination, well after I take a quick nap.

Follow NYC Velo Cyclocross (CX) Team Rider Evan Murphy as he tackles a the 2011-12 CX season, his first as a RISD degree-holding adult:

I can already tell my 2011/12 season will be defined for by injuries. After healing my hand (from my last mid-race mishap) and hitting the trainer for the past two weeks, I made the mistake of heading to the Providence Cyclocross Festival at Roger Williams Park in Providence, RI with little to no off-road training. This proved to be a fatal mistake.

Day 1 (Saturday) was the ‘technical’ course and I found myself sitting around 40th by the second lap. This being my first UCI Elite race, I might have been a little too eager as I fumbled the tricky barrier remount and slashed my leg on my chainring. After losing a ten places or so trying to get my chain back on the ring, I spent the rest of the race pushing to make the 80% cutoff (or risk being pulled from the race early). Unfortunately, I was the last racer pulled before the leaders finished up. Wow, 60 minutes is a long time, people! Highlights of the course include the insane barriers and awesome descent back behind the monument.

Any chance of an overnight recovery would not be in the cards for me as Providence is old turf; my RISD and Brown U buddies invited me out for drinks and we grabbed gyros at East Side Pocket. Sometimes, the dream of a decent UCI Elite race result goes by the wayside in favor of good company and, well, good beer.

Anyway, Day 2 was much better for me, however, it turns out that I’m actually that guy, the one who caught his foot on the barriers in the Elite race. Yep, on the first lap at that. I was sitting pretty in mid-pack when I came in waaay too hot, clipped my foot on the barrier, and slammed face-first into the grass. I got up and, woo! Last place! As it turned out though, I was able to focus on the race and put my strength to good use, finishing on the lead lap at 50th place. Out of almost 70 starters, I’m pretty stoked with my result. Also, I had a bit of extra fun after my dramatic crash by pulling some sweet airs at the beer tent each lap, which counts for a few extra points, right? In the end, Sunday’s course was fast, long and hot, almost 80 degrees!

I head to Granogue this coming weekend, racing UCI Elite event on Saturday, and the 2/3/4 category on Sunday. I’m basically hoping to not crash. Which is also last weekend’s Elite CX lesson: do not crash. Thanks for reading!

Without a doubt, the most pervasive excuse we hear from people who want to try cyclocross is, “I don’t have a cyclocross bike.”

Well, we’re here to make things easy for you. We have dedicated a fleet of brand-new Kona Jake the Snake CX Bikes just to cover that “convenient” excuse of not having a CX bike to use. Here are the awesome details:

Price: $65 per day/race $100 per weekend

Other Info: customers provide their own MTB pedals and shoes. The $65 covers cleaning and tuning of bikes, but customers are responsible for damage (you break, you buy).

Here’s a nice touch: 50% of the rental charge on a CX bike can be applied towards the purchase of a new Cyclocross bike at NYC Velo!

And because we’re a sponsor and love the race, rental fees will be waived for Staten CX.

If you’re wondering about the quality of the Kona Jake the Snakes, let’s just say they’re awesome looking, durable, feature-rich, and at a great price point. With a 105/ultegra mix, BB30 bottom bracket, tapered headtube and a carbon fork, you’ll be hard pressed to find anything similar at this price.

So give us a call and reserve a bike for whatever race strikes your fancy- there are some good ones coming up.

See you at the races.

Bringing the performance and durability of PARLEE’s road bikes to the dirt, the CX is the perfect cyclocross machine (handmade in Beverly Mass with a lifetime warranty). The CX is feathery light, sucks up the terrain and dives into tight corners with the flick of a wrist.

Like its road counterparts, the CX’s carbon fiber construction make it the perfect blend of forgiveness and rigidity, making it adept at racing or linking together miles of back country roads. The wishbone mono-stay eliminates seat stay flex under braking. Ample tire clearance makes it perfect in all conditions from the dry hardpack of September to the muddy slop of November. With its light weight and top mounted cable stays, shouldering is almost literally a breeze.

Press-Fit 30 bottom bracket now available as a no-charge option! Semi-Custom frame and fork = $5900 : Full Custom frame and fork = $6900 (all made to order.) The CX is available in 5 FLEX-FIT options as well as complete custom bikes.

Well kids,  this is it.  The big finale of the season.  You’re invited to join us bright and early on Sunday, January 30th at 8:00AM to watch the anaerobic chaos that is the cyclocross world championships.  Will you root for favorites like Stybar, Neils Albert, Sven Nys, or Bart Wellens?  Maybe you’re hoping for a (very unlikely and long overdue) American upset by Jonathan Page.  Regardless of the winner,  this is the event to watch if you have any sort of penchant for cyclocross.

We know its early, so we’ll be providing delicious coffee and baked goods to go along with your morning viewing.   We’re also going to give away a few rad prizes,  courtesy of our friends at Independent Fabrication.

To recap: coffee, ‘cross, and prizes.  Hup, hup, hup!

2010 has come and gone- to the relief of most people.  As the new year is in its infancy, it affords us the chance for some cathartic clean up.  Out with the old and in with the new, right?

What better way to do that then to put up our awesome fleet of 2011 Kona Jake the Snake CX bikes for sale?   These bad boys were around all season, allowing newbies to try out and fall in love with our favorite mud, beer, and cowbell-inundated sport.   Now you can get your very own for a steal: $1120.00. Highlights include BB30, Shimano 105 shifters, and Kore brakes.

All of the bikes were lightly used and barely 3 months old.  They’ve been cleaned and fully tuned up.  On top of that, they still come with Kona’s standard warranty.  This is a great opportunity for you to to be CX-race-ready for half the price of a pair of Zipps.

The Jake the Snake is also an ideal winter training bike.  Keep that carbon racing rig nice and clean and get this one dirty-  we promise that it won’t mind.

As the year draws to an end, we thought it would be fitting to feature a bike that is the apple of our eyes. What we have here is our very own Sachs team cx bike. While we won’t tell you how exactly we managed to get our hands on a bike that’s only weilded by Sachs teammates, you can be sure that its a precious combination of metal and rubber.

The Sachs team bikes have a hardcore race pedigree, born from a man who pours his soul into the bikes and the sport he loves.  It’s a shining example of fantastic yankee frame building.

That being said, good luck getting your hands on one.  Come by the shop and check ours out.  It’s on constant display (and rightly so).

Are you a fan of Cyclocross?  So are we.

Did  you want to go out to Bend, OR this year to go see it happen, only to realize that it’s a royal pain to get out to Bend, OR?  Same here.

If you love CX and can’t make it out to the west coast, then do the next best thing and join us as we watch CX Nationals at the shop.  Cyclingdirt.com will be showing the races starting at 2:30 on Sunday, Dec 12, and we will be showing them till the shop closes at 6PM.   We’ll have awesome coffee on hand (as per usual), as well as some edibles to much on.

In addition to racing and coffee, We are going to give away a few totally rad prizes during the viewing party.  We’ve got some some brand-new-ultra-secret-not-even-out-yet messenger bags to give away courtesy of our friends at Chrome.  These new bags are designed with the bike racer in mind, so you’d better be excited.   We’ll also be giving away a few of CJ’s highly sought-after “NYCX” Beanies.  If you’ve been to any CX race in the tri-state area  this year then you know how rad and rare they are.

Photo By Marco Quezada

We are firmly in the wake of what we consider to be the best non-UCI CX race in the Northeast:  Staten CX.   Run by our very own CJ,  we were proud be a major sponsor of the event.  In our eyes is was the best representation of everything we love about cyclocross all rolled into one.  People enjoyed themselves to the max, regardless of whether they were competing, watching, eating waffles, or all of the above.  We had the fortune of working with our friends at Kona,  who not only decided to step up as the bike sponsor, but even flew out the “Cave man” himself, Erik Tonkin.  Below is a recap of Erik’s experience at our race (Stolen from the Kona Cog Blog).  We were stoked that he came all the way over here to experience our scene, and we hope he comes back for more next year!

Cross in Shaolin!

I didn’t know quite what to expect of the Staten Island Cyclocross. It turns out the least understood burough wasn’t exactly the rest of the city’s dumping zone, and Wu Tang Clan was nowhere to be seen in the place called Shaolin. In fact, the race venue was gorgeous—Wolfes Pond Park is right on the water, a smaller, more suburban version of Gloucester’s iconic cyclocross stronghold Stage Fort Park. And like Stage Fort, war history is celebrated at Wolfes Pond: the park is home to a memorial for men lost in The Battle of the Bulge. Without that American victory, there would probably be no modern Belgium. And without modern Belgium, there would be no ‘cross.

I was most excited to be racing in a new setting with a strong scene. The course was dry, the sun was warm, and we raced at 1pm instead of, say, 4pm, so I knew there’s be some post-race waffles and coffee leftover…for once. On the other hand, the red-eye flight from the day before followed by my personal one-day record for beer and meat consumption was not totally in harmony with the goal of victory. Of course, my habit is to be ready to race, no matter what, where, or when and without excuses—it’s what qualifies me as a professional, I guess.

And I needed to be a bit pro because there was competition. The Swiss kid Valentin Scherz might’ve been at the USGPs in Fort Collins, but he instead chose to defend his Wu Tang title. After an acceptable start I moved to 4th wheel in the course’s fast grass chicanes and, by the end of the beach run, stayed there to the course’s next feature, a truly tricky downhill dismount followed by a short run-up. At the top of the run-up, there was a choice to be made: remount and attempt to ride the technical, off-camber traverse followed by a very steep and lose on-the-bike climb, or run like an idiot. Scherz and another had gapped 3rd wheel, and then that rider made a mistake, trying to remount and ride at the top of the run-up. The choice was made for me: I ran like an idiot through the entire section and quickly got across to the leaders. Stupider like a fox, I guess. Now there were three.

On lap two I hit the sand as 3rd wheel, but I attacked hard, running inside all the way to the short staircase that took us up and off the beach. Only Scherz matched it, so it was down to two as we remounted and clipped in. He was quicker, and he countered with a surge that resulted in a 3-5 second gap on me for the next five laps. The loop was short and fast at about 5 minutes, so when I finally reeled him in there were still four to go. I followed for a lap—we seemed to take a break, and I was fine with that. Plus, it gave me a chance to finally come around him. I didn’t waste time: I led into the technical section, and instead of remounting and riding at the top of the short down-and-up, I put my head down and ran like I had early on.

I knew he was more fit, and he seemed fundamentally ‘cross strong. I figured my only chance was to put him on defense and then hope for a panic-induced mistake. Basically, I was trying to do to him what I always try to do to Kona’s new riders Sean Babcock and Spencer Paxson. They say I ride around at a “slug’s pace” and then pull them back with a sort of tractor beam that unwittingly slows them down. They claim I then manage to somehow mind-screw them and proceed to ride away very slowly, thus stealing the victory. (I take it as a compliment, even though it doesn’t sound like one.)

At this point I was pretty confident in what I could do to the end: I mean, I knew I could do my old man ride. The hard running sharply gapped him, but much to his credit he stayed calm. On a course like Wolfes Pond, a 10 second gap can be as good as a mile. However, he never let it open up, and he was good enough to not make a basic mistake.

Scherz told me afterward that he’d been a bit worried: the longer I stayed with him, the more chance there’d be of him blowing up. But he shouldn’t have doubted: he got back to me quickly, and right at two to go he attacked and held a 5 second gap into the sand. It was 10 when I finally remounted. So it was over, and I started looking for the dollar bill and beer hand-ups. I was happy to have made a race out of it with this Swiss kid. Valentin is actually quite good, and he should go well at Espoir worlds this winter.

There was then the podium ceremony and, with it, prizes and photos. I was able to use my sweet cash winnings to pay for waffles, coffee and chocolate-covered bacon for some fellow ‘cross racers and fans…and for myself. Best, I did walk away with the Pyrrhic victory of the day: one guy called me the least smug Portlander he’d ever met. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s one for the Caveman and Kona.

Photo by Eloy Anzola