'08 Harbin Park DVD Available

Make your winter indoor training that less painful...70 minutes of UCI cyclo-cross goodness covering all the race categories. Helmet cam, bike cam, stage cam, 1500 photo collage, rocking soundtrack, and racer interviews courtesy of Masher's Media.

Buy online, or BioWheels in Cincinnati has them in stock.

Mark Your Calenders...

UCI3 2009

Darkhorse Cyclo-Stampede (UCI C2): October 9, 2009 / Burlington, KY

Java Johnny's - Lionhearts International Cyclocross (UCI C2): October 10, 2009 / Middletown, OH

Bio Wheels/United Dairy Farmers Harbin Park Cyclo-Cross (UCI C1): October 11 / Fairfield, OH

Harbin Park DVD Trailer - Lotsa misc action!

2008 Harbin Park Cincinnati Masters 1/2/3 CX Race Video

Powers & Compton Enjoy Cincinnati UCI 3-Way Wins

(Photo: Men's Elite Podium courtesy of Jeffrey Jakucyk)
Note: Photos of 3-day weekend available at Jeff's link above

On day 3, the UCI C-1 race of the Cincinnati International Cyclocross Festival, Katie Compton (Spike Professional/Primus Mootry) and Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com) completed their hat-tricks of the first ever 3-day UCI weekend. Thanks to a broken chain on Jeremiah Bishop’s Trek just 250 meters to the line, Powers took the win in the Men’s race over Bishop (Trek Factory) at the BioWheels/United Dairy Farmers Harbin Park International sponsored by Reece-Campbell. Katie Compton held off a determined Georgia Gould (Luna) for a third day in a row to collect maximum UCI points on the weekend.

Article continued here.

J-Pow & Compton Stampede To Wins at Cincinnati Cyclocross Festival Days 1 & 2

(photo: Katie Compton coutesy of Jeffery Jakucyk)
The course at England-Idlewild park rattled bones and turned wheels to tacos at the Darkhorse Cyclo-Stampede UCI C-2 in Burlington, KY on Friday, October 12th. The Cincinnati area hasn’t seen a soaking in weeks and the victims of the pounding course lined up for post-race massages at the Wellington Orthopedic tent throughout the day. The 80 degree heat compounded the hurt. In the Men’s race, after a lap-3 bike change which sent Barry Wicks (Kona) on the defensive, Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com) took advantage for the win. For the women, it wasn’t until lap 5 where National Champion Katie Compton (Spike Professional/Primus Mootry) put in a dig near the “horseshoe” chicane and shook Olympian Georgia Gould (Luna) off her wheel and escape to the finish.

Day 1 Article continued here.

Day 2 Article Below:

Compton and Powers win in Ohio
By Promoter's Release
Posted Oct. 11, 2008

The mid-October heat in Middleton Ohio was matched only by the hot racing action at the Java Johnny’s / Lionhearts International UCI C2 race on Saturday.

The women's race saw Katie Compton power away from the field of the country’s top ‘crossers, including Rachel Lloyd, who finished second on the day, and eventual third-place finisher Sue Butler.

Georgia Gould finished sixth after putting in a huge effort overcoming a flat, and was assisted in the pits by none other than Mark Legg-Compton, Katie’s husband, and Kris Auer, mechanic for fourth place finishing Laura Van Gilder of C3-Sollay.com. Sportsmanship reigns supreme in cross.

The men's race saw a flurry of attacks. Barry Wicks, Jeremy Powers and Jeremiah Bishop each took flyers at the front, none of which were successful until two laps to go when Powers was able to accelerate away from his rivals and take the win.

Both Bishop and Powers used their crowd-pleasing bunny hopping skills to separate themselves from the pack. Bishop, the current U.S. MTB short track champion finished second while Wicks, rounded out the podium. It was an identical podium to the previous day’s Darkhorse Cyclo-Stampede.

Next up is the Cincinnati International Cyclocross Festival’s Grand Finale: the Bio-Wheel / United Dairy Farmers Harbin Park International, a C1 event for both men and women. As a C1 event paying top finishing women equal to men according to the Gould Formula, the race in Fairfield Ohio’s Harbin Park will be one of the world’s richest women’s cyclocross races n 2008.

Elite Men

1. Jeremy Powers – Cyclocrossworld.com

2. Jeremiah Bishop – Trek/VW

3. Barry Wicks – Kona

Elite Women

1. Katie Compton – Spike Professional/Primus Mootry

2. Rachel Lloyd – California Giant Berry Farms/Specialized

3. Sue Butler - MonavieCannondale.com

Joes Meet The Pros

(article continued on "Out Of True" The Best Bike Blog Ever)

Directions to the center of the Cycling Universe:

Use your favorite web service to get directions to Friday's Darkhorse Cyclo-Stampede:

England Idlewild Park
5550 Idlewild Road
Burlington KY 41005

Two John's Podcast Sign On

Two John's Podcast have signed on to provide audio play-by-play and color cometary for the Cyclo-Stampede. Find your missing saddle and check out their blog here.

Java Johnny's - Lionhearts International Cyclocross

The second leg of the Cincinnati International Cyclocross Festival, the Java Johnny's - Lionhearts International Cyclocross (UCI C2) is open for business. Register here. Doug and crew are back for another great event. Check back for more details as UCI3 approaches.

Let the registration begin...



http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=7040

The CX Training Killer: Daylight Savings

It’s the end of August, new chains and cables round out both CX bikes. You switch-flopped saddles and cranks between bikes. To top it off, your new carbon tubular wheels bling hard enough to make Kanye West jealous, uh. While the CX races haven’t started yet, the bikes are dialed in and everything seems to be going to your evil plan. Gulp. Now you got to live up to the hype, yo.

Some will say that August is too early for CX, but this is the OVCX series we’re training for and those people are likely road racers. The OVCX ends early December. Unless you plan on racing through December and into January on the World Cup circuit the time to hit it hard is now.

Hopefully you’ve spent at least part of your August practicing technique, have a few bad-ass core workouts to your credit and have 2-3 interval workouts under your belt. I’ve been racing the OVCX for the past five to six years, and if you’re trying to figure out a training plan now, at the end of August, you’re totally F’d. Kidding. But you better get crackin’ homie.

Read on: Article Continued on the Joe Biker Blog here.

The OVCX Diabolical Double

Masters aged crossers in the OVCX series this year may notice something a little different with the daily race schedule this year. The Cat 3, Masters 1/2/3 and Cat 1/2/3 race are back to back to back, Noon, 1pm and 2pm respectively. For Masters aged racers, with only a fifteen minute turn around between masters and open races, the double is now the diabolical double.

There’s a method to the madness. In the past, it’s been Masters 1/2/3 first, then Cat 3’s, then Elite 1/2/3. With the Cat 3 (B) race in between, it gave masters aged racers nearly an hour to change their stinky kit, recharge, down a coupla gels, relube the chain, stretch, pony up a 2nd entry fee and do the double. At the same time, Cat 3 level masters aged racers who could compete in the Cat 3 race and the Masters 1/2/3, faced a quick 15 minute turnaround. Consequently, masters aged Cat 3 racers usually chose one or the other. However, for some “middle of the pack” masters aged Cat 3 racers, that left a tough choice on race day: get whopped by doubling 1’s and 2’s in the Masters race or get smoked by younger racers in the Cat 3 race. This year, doing a double will require a 15 minute turnaround for masters aged racers of any level. In less words, the playing field is more level for the double. For those “middle of the pack” masters aged Cat 3 level races, no matter which race they enter, trust that the beatings will continue, but the competition should be a little more evenly matched in the Masters than in year’s past.

For more on the purse structure and points system of the OVCX visit www.ovcx.com. Note: the OVCX schedule changes for UCI race dates.

Written by: Joe Bellante BioWheels Racing - Read more from Joe on the "Joe Biker Blog"

Joe Biker and the Search for the Holy Tread

If you want to make a cyclocross racer curl up into the fetal position, rock back and forth and suck their thumb, tell them that the can’t get their favorite tire. No! Wait! Chill! Your tires are available! It’s not you, it’s me. And, it’s not that the tires aren’t available any longer, I just switched to tubular wheels and the tire I like for racing in the OVCX, the Ritchey Excavator, doesn’t come in a tubular. It’s okay. Take your thumb out of your word hole.

After my wife uncurled me from the corner, I got to work to find a tubular that I think would work for me in the OVCX series. The operative words are “me” and “OVCX.” Everyone rides a bit different, I tend to lay the bike kind of low in tight corners, so euro style tires with small knobs and very little side tread like Tufo elites or ones with the file pattern are out. Again, that’s me…and that’s my bike sliding under the caution tape. Until the November rains come, most OVCX courses are relatively hard packed, mostly grass and I think have a lot of off camber turns. I need a tire that can hook up in tight grassy corners. Grass is slippery. Dugast's (pictured left) are pricey. What's an OVCX tubie newbie to do?

Read more here. BioWheels Joe Bellante’s article continued on the Joe Biker Blog. Kill time at work and Google “Joe Biker Blog”

Starting to Feel Like Cross Season

It’s beginning to feel like cyclocross, isn’t it? The Tour de France is over, the magazine rack in the grocery store is littered with football preview issues and you’re starting to see college kids driving U-Haul trucks. Are you ready?

Speaking of magazines, have you seen the new issue of Cyclocross Magazine yet? There’s a feature article on Zipp OVCX Tour’s Bob Bobrow and the Louisville Kid’s Cross scene. Check it out, it’s their best issue ever.

Can’t write anything more right now. It’s almost cyclocross season, and Word Guy is not ready.

I Hate My Cyclocross Pit Bike

Let me save you another season of dreading flats, rolled tires, tangled chains, and bent shifters because you can’t bear the thought of jumping on your P-O-S pit bike. First off, your poor pit bike is a decent bike. You just treat it like it’s the nerd of all your bikes. After I got my custom Indy Fab Planet X, my Jamis Nova hit the “D” list in my stable. Last year I moved it up to “B” list status by getting the fit and feel as close to the IF as possible. Better yet, it became an advantage in races, rather than a last resort and didn’t cost a whole lot to do it. Keep in mind, fit and feel is more about how you feel on the bikes, not so much how the bikes handle the terrain. Pay more attention to the areas where your body touches or is affected by the bike. Before September is the time to get crackin’ on your CX rig setup. CX stuff is stacking up in the shops and you’ll most likely get first dibs on your friends old parts if you start asking around now. Rather than upgrading your race rig, it might make more sense to make both bikes as similar as possible.

Harbin Park '08 Course Map

For those that are already out on their cross bikes at Harbin, here's a little teaser of what's to come in October:

Summer Crit

Sucking wheel at Ault Park in June

mind drifts to fall 'cross

Back to the front

Crazy and Stimulated

So here it is, the official blog for the Zipp OVCX Tour's Greater Cincinnati International Cyclocross Festival -- and they gave me the password. Are they crazy? What were they thinking? That's like giving your 17 year old son the keys to the Lamborghini...

Speaking of crazy, how's this: Three consecutive days of UCI and Zipp OVCX Cyclocross around Cincinnati in October. Like, the only other place they do stuff like that is in Belgium, right? There was one press release in May that barely mentioned the three-day weekend and, judging by the Google search results, lights went on all over the country. Apparently there are a lot people who "used to be" from Ohio and Kentucky, and they're already thinking "homecoming". I can't wait to see what happens when they make the big announcement.

But you're probably thinking that a promoter would have to be crazy (or stupid) to run a cyclocross on a Friday afternoon, right? I mean, who would be crazy enough to organize a bike race during a work day in America? Oh sure, there's Super Week, and the Tour of California, and the Tour of Georgia, and the Tours of Missouri & Utah & Pennsylvania, and just last week was Philly Week (which had races on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons). I know what you're thinking, "but those aren't normal races." Give yourself a star for getting right to the point(s). Because Cincinnati on October 10, 11, 12 aren't going to be "normal" cyclocross races. Think about it, are any of your local cyclocross promoters simultaneously working on their cyclocross races and their base tan? I didn't think so.

It's funny, even just 2-3 years ago, people used to say you had to be crazy to race 'cross. (Of course, those people were right, you DO have to be crazy.) But now, people also say you're crazy if you're a bike racer that doesn't do 'cross. So it would seem that you're pretty much screwed no matter what you do. But remember, there are different kinds of crazy. There's "crazy" like the fun-loving crazy guy that dresses fashionably trashy and always seems to leave parties with the hottest girl. And then there's "crazy" like the guy who thinks he's going to score by wearing last decade's clothes (because "you can't dressy trashy 'till you spend a lot of money") and refusing to go to parties because "that's not what I do". To each his own, but we all know who's going to be stimulated on Friday...

Speaking of stimulation, if you're not already a cross dresser this is your golden opportunity to be hip, trendy, cutting edge and dirty all at the same . Thanks to Uncle George, you have a shiny new economic stimulus check (you didn't spend it already did you?). The Prez is a big-time mountain bike rider, remember? Sheesh, he rides one of Lance's old Tour de France bikes on a trainer while flying on Air Force One. Do you think it's merely a coincidence that the government is giving couples just enough money to buy a bike but not nearly enough to do a home improvement project? The government gave you that money to stimulate the economy and save America from oil dependency, by golly! It's you patriotic duty to spend it on a new bike! Whatever your political views, you gotta admit this is the greatest excuse of all time to buy a racing bike, "I need to spend the money on gear Honey to, uhh, stimulate the economy. All our friends are doing it. And think how much money we'll save because everybody knows that cyclocross bikes are the perfect commuting bikes and it'll save the planet from global warming and protect that very expensive and delicate road racing bike I bought last year. And besides, you look totally hot in Wellington boots."

Cincy's gonna be the place to be when the cross festival kicks in. Are you crazy enough to dress fashionably trashy and be there?

Or are you going to stay home and wait for that casting call from Ashton Kutcher...

Chill.