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Kona Loves Cyclocross from Kona Bikes on Vimeo.

4ème Manche de CDM cyclo-cross

4ème Manche de CDM cyclo-cross from Petitesreines on Vimeo.

USA Cycling license info

All Arkansas Super-Prestige races are sanctioned by USA Cycling (USAC), the national governing body for bicycle racing. There are a lot of advantages--some obvious, some not so obvious--that come from this arrangement, but we won't get into that here.

USAC-sanctioning means that all ASP racers must hold a USAC license, which you can either pay for annually ($60) or race-by-race ("one-day", $10 per event). I can see all of you reaching for your slide rules; an annual license pays for itself after six races.

When you purchase an annual license, you have to choose the blue pill (Road/Track/CX) or red pill (Mountain Bike/CX), or you can pay an extra $30 and get both pills (Road/Track/Mountain Bike/CX). No matter which you choose, you still get CX!

When you first purchase a license, whether annual or one-day, you are assigned to CX category 4. If you're the ambitious sort and want some day to upgrade to cat 3, you'll want an annual license because (1) your race results accumulate and are tracked by your license number and (2) you can't upgrade to cat 3 without an annual license. On the other hand, there are many people who happily do a few races per year on one-day licenses, and that's cool too.

Clear as mud? Awesome. Let's race.

[PS: Road cat 2 or MTB cat 1 racers can automatically request an upgrade to CX cat 3. http://www.usacycling.org/forms/USAC_rulebook-1.pdf]

September Skills-n-Drills

Have received word that Skills-n-Drills will be held Monday evenings in September at Allsopp Park. This will be a great opportunity for riders of all levels to learn, practice, and hone their CX-specific skills. It is not a hot-laps session. Details to come.

Microcross

"Microcross is a practice cyclocross session. It is free to anyone and allows riders to practice the skills needed to compete in cyclocross racing."

It's put on by Highroller Cyclery and runs Thursday evenings. Looks like the first one in on September 6, but check their Facebook page to make sure. A practice session like this is the best way to get prepared for cross season!

Get you some!

Tubeless experiment, part 2

Short little update to the tubeless experiment.

The dreaded burp has not been a problem (knock on wood). But I did manage to pinch-flat this morning, bottoming out on a stream crossing at 35psi. The sealant did its darndest, but no dice. The only time I've pinch-flatted a tubular was on a similar deal. (Now I get to test Hutchinson's tubeless repair kit.)

I really like the Mud 2 as an all-around tire. Great grip, rolls pretty nice on pavement. I haven't tested it in real slop yet.

Bottom line: There is no single fool-proof tire setup. And the Natural State is rough on tires.

P.S. We welcome Leborne Coaching as the final co-sponsor of the 2012 Arkansas Super-Prestige. They can help you get ready for cross season!
P.P.S. We're sorry that you get an error message if you don't type "www." before "arkansascyclocross.com". The cross monkeys are working on it.

Swapping drop bars for flat bars

Apparently the secret is using a really long stem.  Et voila.

http://surlybikes.com/blog/post/an_old_friend_revisited

[By the way, it is perfectly legal, according to USA Cycling rules, to race cyclocross on a mountain bike, on a cross bike with flat bars, on a vintage road bike with knobby tires, or basically anything with two wheels, two brakes, and nothing obviously dangerous on it.  The ultra-picky Union Cycliste Internationale rules only apply to internationally sanctioned elite races.]

Here's a video of Thomas Frishknecht sprinting to silver on flat bars in the 1997 world championships.