Wake up Blog!!

I have really been missing out on all of the fun that goes along with the KWCX and therefore have not been posting. I have had a busy run of Thursdays including having to leave town this Thursday for a Friday wedding. On the positive side I have been able to get out to a couple CX races as have many of the people who use KWCX as a fun practice ground. I am glad to hear reports weekly that others are still going out and riding their bikes. I hope to be back out next week and even a few more weeks possibly with bike lights affixed tot he cross bike. Here are a few shots from the 2 races i have been able to attend. Thanks to the photographers :-) 

Mike

CX Practice Week 2 - Bruised Ego and Body

7 guys showed up for week 2 which was up from 4 on week one. I showed up about 1/2 hour early because I knew I needed to get out of there by 7pm (ended up more like 7:30pm). We did a longer warm up followed by some laps of the course to inflict some self pain. I was feeling good until the top of the first run-up where I completely blew it on my remount twice and showed just how green I was. From there I was let know the proper way of carying the bike on a run-up. This was good info and I used it on the next few run ups.

All through the laps I kept mounting the bike wrong and causing further scrapes and bruises but was not intent on giving up. Next came barrier practice and I was given some great pointers from Joel and started slowly getting it then speeding up the re-mount with each attempt. We then finished off with a little more skills work and then a couple of us had to take off. We decided to climb the course in reverse on the way out. I am guessing the others did some more hard laps.

I left feeling not as worked out as last week but like I had learned something and felt good about this.

Can't wait til next practice.

New version of training/challenge loop (Ver 2)

After the unfortunate crash experienced on the course a couple weeks ago we decided to take out the one downhill and replace it with a loop-back without removing any of the climbing (I bailed at the bottom of the loopback downhill last evening). Unfortunately some of the old stats seem to stay intact even though I moved the start line out quite a ways in Strava. I may extend it a little further to see if it places accurate statistics in the leaderboard.

(Edit, I think I removed enough of the start/finish to make the results "more" accurate.)

(More edit... still trying to fight the Strave API so that we can have 2 short courses close together :(..... )


Some of the people riding last night apparently do not use Strava and we will have to remedy that :-)

Everyone has a geek side, right?!? Not just me??


Also on Endomondo for a different view of the same...

Looking back on night 1 (Short vid)

Great times out there on night one. I have alot to learn about this sport as was evident by my couple bails.


4 of us showed up at approximately 6pm and I left at 7:30pm but a couple guys were continuing on.

Can't wait til next week!!

CX Training Reminder - Week 1

Hello Everyone!

Just a little reminder about the CycloCross Training. I'm planning on being at McLennan Park around 6 pm and parking at the base of the Mountain bike park just off Ottawa St. I'll Bring a long my practice barriers and it should be a fun informal night of technique practice, hill repeats and a bit of racing! If your thinking about trying the sport, come on out, ask questions and have some fun!

Thanks, Adam

OCA CX Schedule / Info 2012

I have found myself searching for this info on multiple occasions. Here is a quick link for myself and anyone else interested... 

http://www.ontariocycling.org/sports/cyclo-cross/events-2/

Preliminary Cyclo-Cross Schedule for 2012 (Subject to Change)
Month	Date	Event Name	Location	Sanction Level	Organizer
September	22	Pre Cowbell!	St. Catherines	Citizen	Nathan Chown
September	23	We Need More Cowbell	St. Catherines	S-Cup	Nathan Chown
September	29	Elite Health CX Race	Pickering	Citizen	Doug Richards
September	30	5th Annual Guelph Cross	Guelph	S-Cup	Speed River CC
October	6	Turkey CX	Hamilton	Citizen	Kevin Tearle
October	7	HBCC	Highlands Nordic	S-Cup	Mike Duncan
October	13	Real Deal CX	Toronto	Citizen	Mike Mandel
October	14	Toronto CX Daylight	Toronto	S-Cup	Andrew Paradowski
October	20	Superfly Racing/AJCC Albion Cross	Albion Hills	Citizen	John Bates
October	21	Superfly Racing/AJCC Albion Cross	Albion Hills	S-Cup	John Bates
October	27	Substance CX Race	Mansfield	Citizen	Dan Marshall
October	28	Hardwood Cross	Barrie	S-Cup	Team Hardwood
November	3	Esteemtraining.com CX Race	Albion Hills	Citizen	Fulvio Cubello
November	4	Baseball Cross	Barrie	Provincials	Barrie Cycling Club
November	10	The Hammer	Ottawa	Citizen	Jason Cheney
November	11	The Anvil	Ottawa	S-Cup	Jason Cheney
November	18	D’Ornellas / Bicycle Plus	Durham	Citizen	Dan Salter
November	24	Fireman’s Day 1	St. Catherines	Citizen	Jeff Moote
November	25	Fireman’s  Day 2	St. Catherines	S-Cup	Jeff Moote
December	9	Citizen Race	St. Catherines	Citizen	Nathan Chown
December	31	NYE Subway CX	Toronto	Citizen	Andrew Paradowski

Message from Adam

High Mike (and others!),

Unfortunately I was out there riding last Thursday and had a pretty hard crash coming down the toboggan hill on my Cross bike. I landed mainly on my face and gave myself a concussion along with a sore back but fortunately no broken bones. I'm heeling well but I need to take it super easy this week and let myself recover. Hopefully next Thursday I'll be ready to go and feeling good. If you look on the KWCX Blog you can see the course that Mike Osborne has setup. If you head out there to ride it, take it super easy coming down that hill as the path is pretty eroded, from my computer it looks like I was doing just under 30 km/h when I lost it which isn't very fast on a hill like that.

I'm hoping when we go out there to setup some nice tight hairpins and corners to practice through as I feel like that is one of my weaknesses. I also have 3 x 8 foot wide PVC practice barriers to bring along and setup out there (sorry, no bunny hopping them!). Hopefully week by week, we can mix up the course a bit to keep it fresh. I'm hoping to start at around 6 pm but it’s the type of thing where people can show up and leave as it suits.

I've included anyone in my contacts that I think has a cross bike in their collection, feel free to forward this on to anyone else that you think might be interested. If you've never tried a Cross race I highly recommend it and there will hopefully be a few of us there that have a little experience so feel free to ask us any questions. Hopefully this will be a lot of fun and beneficial for anyone interested in the sport. Also, if you have a mountain bike, come on out! Your allowed to race a Mountain Bike in everything but the M1 and Elite Cross race (1 pm races) so try it out.

Adam

Video of loop 1

Snagged a new bar mount for my gopro this past weekend and have been trying different mount locations. I like this angle except for the but shots when I get out of the saddle. I guess this is one more thing to help me learn to ride strong from the saddle again.

Anyway, this is a video of one lap on the initial course without the barriers. I am planning another attack of the course today and maybe tomorrow I will scout the area for some tight twists stuff as has been requested to be added to the loop. A work in progress.

We need to get out on an evening before too long. Is next week too soon?? edit: Went back out today and re-recorded the video with gopro stem mounted. Much less bum shots!! Too lazy to make different music selections though... Cheers!

Couldn't Wait!!

Well I said it would be a few days. I even told someone last night that I wouldn't get out until next week after I switched back to my CX tires (road tires on now). The preliminary work here/twitter/Strava/etc got me too excited, plus it was raining a bit. I took the bike out and scouted a first version of the CX Challenge loop. Let me know what you think.


Unfortunately my BB gps cut out at one point so the stats are a little screwy. I have included a Gimped up version of the loop below so you can get a good idea of where to ride. I have not marked any fake barriers or put any real ones in yet but they will come. I had to run most of the steep climbs today as the road tires wouldn't grip at all (not that I expected them to). Also took it easy pretty much everywhere for that very same reason. I can't wait to get out there and give it a better go next week!!

Map:

Enjoy!!

A little introduction

I was looking for a weekly CX series in the KW area but there was nothing to be found. There are a few races not to far away but no real opportunity to train for them except with a couple friends. We have a great facility that lends itself to the easy creation of a CX course without causing damage. Strava gives us an easy way to keep track of stats etc. I will be creating a rough course using Strava and have partial commitment from others regarding potential barriers and markers for a weekly challenge.

I plan to in the next week or so get out and ride a preliminary course. I will from there create a Strava segment and link to it from here. Everyone can feel free to ride that segment to challenge yourself and others. From there I plan to meet at the start line once weekly (Currently thinking Monday or Thursday evening) and do a very simple "mass" start with whoever shows up. There will be no timing/prizes/cost/etc to ride. This is essentially a group ride at race pace with self timing and challenging using Strava. Who will take the KOM?!?

If you have any suggestions please let me know. I hope to see you out there!!

KW CX Challenge