Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Fayetteville weekend forecast

Current forecast for Fayetteville this weekend calls for highs in the mid-60s under partly cloudy skies.

Joe Jacobs will be disappointed with the lack of mud. ;)

Monday, October 29, 2012

BYOP

Bring your own PLATE. If you raced in Little Rock on opening weekend, don't forget to bring your number plate to the Fayetteville races this weekend. There is a $10 replacement fee, so it pays to bring it!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Back East

November 3, 4, and 11 are the next three ASP races, in Fayetteville and Russellville. If you live farther east and prefer a race closer to home, check out the non-series events in Memphis and Wynne. The Outdoors Inc race, in particular, has a long history and tradition.

For details, see the links to the right under "Other dates of interest".

Get you some!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

De Pijp Smoke-n-Suds CX Weekend

The details on November 3 & 4 are HERE. Please carefully note the start times.

The I is long and the J is silent. This will be a great weekend!

[P.S. Go for the cyclocross, stay for The Flaming Lips.]


Sunday, October 21, 2012

Roster and points tallies

For the past week, one-hundred cross monkeys have been busily typing away, and we think they've finally got it right.

Please find series roster and points tallies after two races, off to the right. Note that in Race 1 (ASP Night Race), anyone in Masters, Fours, or Juniors who wasn't in the top three automatically was awarded 11 points.

If you find any discrepancies please contact steve at arkansascyclocross dott com.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Great photoset

Photo courtesy Charles Alton Roberts
Charlie Roberts put up a great photoset from Sunday on Facebook.  Click HERE.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Growing Pains

In the ASP opening weekend, we witnessed a 50% increase in ridership from last year.  The turnout has been exciting and gratifying.

On Saturday night, you might recall that the city never did get those softball lights turned on.  (There's some bureaucratic/technologic soap opera behind it, details of which I'm not even aware.)  People were great sports about it, and it certainly was a fantastic evening of high spirits and fast racing, but it made scoring the races incredibly difficult.  In the Masters, Fours, and Juniors classes, it was impossible to place racers with any degree of certainty beyond the top three places.  The USAC official, the race director, and the ASP secretary have all agreed that the most equitable solution is to award 11 ASP points (what you normally get for 4th place) to all remaining racers in those classes.  If you actually earned those 11 points, please accept our apologies.

No problem with the lights on Sunday, but we did see a lot of flats.  It's tempting to say, "Well, that's just cross," but it bummed me out and surprised me, since we had similar conditions but nowhere near as many flats last year.  My take is that (1) the overnight rainfall was truly exceptional and (2) greasy mud on top of sharp rock = high risk of flatting.  As far as the merits of tubular vs tubeless vs tubes vs mud tread vs file tread vs low pressure vs high pressure blah blah blah, you can discuss amongst yourselves.  Those of us who put on the race have agreed, we will reroute certain sections of the course if faced with similar conditions in the future.

After all that excitement and drama, the series takes a couple weekends off.  The avid among you might be travelling to Tulsa, Memphis, or OKC during that time.  But absolutely make sure to be at the double weekend of racing in Fayetteville, November 3 and 4, presented by De Pijp.

Results for the ASP Night Race are linkable to the right.  Reservoir results and series points totals coming more toward the weekend.

More AO coverage

Joe Jacobs has another great write-up and photoset, this time on the Reservoir race. Check it out!

3rd Annual Ruts n Guts

It's happening this weekend in Broken Arrow, just outside Tulsa. Highly recommended. Three days, three races: go for one, two, or all three.

There's a huge cash purse, which attracts a lot of elite talent, and also makes the amateur divisions very hotly contested.
http://www.rutsandguts.com/


Monday, October 15, 2012

Different Kind of Obstacle

If you don't have Arkansas Outside bookmarked, friended, or followed, you should. Especially during cross season. Great write-up of the Night Race, with coverage of Reservoir soon to come.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

What a weekend!

My body is sore all over, including my brain. Trevor and I will try to get results up reasonably soon, but please be patient as there are a lot of new people racing (!) and some extenuating circumstances presented themselves over the weekend. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy to see people going eyeballs out on the cross tracks.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Rain or shine

As I type, the forecast shows a 50% chance of thunderstorms on Sunday morning.

You can see over half the Reservoir course from the big covered pavilion at the top of the hill, which is also where registration and refreshments are located, right next to the start/finish stretch.

There will also be a bike-wash station.

It wouldn't hurt to bring your rain boots and umbrella.  Be prepared and have fun.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Opening weekend

OK real quick.  Make your arrangements now so you're ready to rock the opening weekend.


Saturday
ASP Night Race presented by CARVE
Kanis Park, Little Rock
4:30pm Registration opens, course open for practice
6:30pm Kid's race
7:00pm Women, Masters (40+), Juniors (18-), Fours
8:10pm Open
Two Light and Motion lights to be raffled away!


Sunday
Reservoir Cross presented by The Community Bicyclist
Reservoir Park, Little Rock
9:30am Registration opens, course open for practice
11:00am Women, Masters (40+), Juniors (18-), Fours
12:30pm Open

Monday, October 8, 2012

Last chance skills clinic

Cliff Li will be hosting what he is calling a "crash course" in basic cyclocross skills (dismounts, remounts, portages) tomorrow (Tue, Oct 9) at Allsopp at 6:00pm.

Last chance before opening weekend!

Friday, October 5, 2012

ASP number plates

The cross monkeys are trying something new this year.  At your first Arkansas Super-Prestige race (whether it's the Night Race or something else) you will be assigned a season-long number plate.  There is no fee for the plate...unless you lose it, so keep it in a safe place.  If you're fortunate enough to have a pit bike, you gotta plate that one, too; there will be supplies at registration for that.  But the official, lamaminated, fancy-dancy one is the one you have to roll to the start line.

Season-opener is in just over a week.  This will be fun.