HTRWW Archive

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: HTRWWs from all three days of CX race weekend. The evening session of Jingle Cross Rock’s opening day didn’t feature the wind and weather of rest of the weekend, but it wasn’t without it’s charms. Tight, technical, dusty bends, a mercilessly steep run-up, and a challenging exploration of the anecdotal advice that if…

That old maxim about “if first you don’t succeed?” Well, there’s a reason people say it. On the third day of festivities out at Jingle Cross Rock—the race weekend’s sole UCI C1 event, it turns out—aggression came out even earlier, and made for a very different race. Would fortune favor the bold? You’ll just have…

Starting to get a little CX-y out there after long dry spell. Big climbs, hard descents, a little bit of mud—or at least slick-ness—I’m into it. Without the wind, things might have unfolded a little more actively, but plenty of riders still rolled the dice, both with attacks and innovative cornering techniques.

A certified World Championship™ course at the Derby City Cup, and man did it ever deliver on Sunday. Brutally technical sand and stair sections broken up by speedy, fluid flats with an almost rhythmic feel led to yo-yoing and a a few lovely displays of prowess. Still, the rubber band would eventually snap, and some…

Nice to be back in the more-or-less present, reporting on part of the Cincy3 (or Cincy-ish) cyclocross races this past weekend. Grass looked moist and healthy, though we’re still lacking a properly muddy race so far this season; with some notoriously greasy venues coming up, that may not be a problem for long.

Halloween Horror Story: you compete in this sport with lots of mud, sharp inclines, technical descents, and surfaces so unreliable you occasionally have to run them…but then you get asked to compete at it on a manicured grass soccer field, in the middle of the desert, on the other side of the world, half-a-year before…

Let’s stick around Colorado for a little bit—no need to rush the transition out of the high-and-dry. Instead, feast your eyes on the dusty, slick, and sandy saga of the Colorado Cross Classic, which proves rider reputations (for crashing in technical conditions, for dominating certain surfaces, etc) are no guarantee of future performance.

Kinda wanted to make fun of Boulder a little more, but they’ve had a tough couple weeks. Choose instead to highlight the massive contingent of riders for whom this was the hometown race. Can we call it “Rocky Mountain Worlds” yet? Anyway, cool to see the purpose-built course, but hoping for a little more snow/muck…

Some big names came out to play at the Providence Cyclocross (I don’t hyphenate) Festival last weekend. Double points going fifteen deep at this UCI C1, a tight and surprisingly hard-racing course that brought out the selections early—though not so early that the always-important start proved decisive. While I’m not sure the podium would have…