Jeremy Powers and Tim Johnson in the final mile of TJROW.

For the third straight year, pro cyclocrosser Tim Johnson and a group of hard folk rode bikes from Boston to DC to raise awareness and money for People For Bikes. For the first time, the ride was not in conjunction with the Bike Summit, but rather a month later, which made for a bit more pleasant riding conditions than in years past.

I caught up with the group in College Park, Maryland, at Proteus Bikes and rode the final leg into DC. Along the way, I had a chance to catch up with Richard Fries, Jeremy Powers and Pete Webber, along with Tim, to talk about the ride.

In the video I failed to mention that Richmond 2015 was also a sponsor of the event and next year the plan is to add an extra day to TJROW so the group can head to Richmond, Virginia, and preview the World Championship road course. Check it out at Richmond2015.com.

If you care about bikes in everyday life, and not just when you pin a number on, take a moment to donate a couple dollars to the cause. You can get more information at rideonwashington.org.

Special thanks to John Cutler for the original music.

Here’s the video.

Thanks for watching.

Tim Johnson’s Ride on Washington 2013 from In The Crosshairs on Vimeo.

(1) On March 26, UCI President Pat McQuaid sent the following letter to all national federations:

The objective of Article 1.2.019 is that exemptions should only be granted in exceptional cases.

Licence holders who participate in a “forbidden race” make themselves liable not only to sanctions  by their National Federation, as scheduled by Article 1.2.021 of the UCI regulations,  but also run the risk of not having sufficient insurance cover in the event of an accident.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please accept our kindest regards,

Pat McQuaid
President

(2) The letter was not well received and on April 5, USA Cycling released this clarification:

To: USA Cycling Members

RE: UCI Rule 1.2.019

There has been a tremendous amount of discussion and misinformation recently in articles and forums regarding UCI rule 1.2.019, which prohibits all UCI licensed riders from competing in events that are not sanctioned by a national federation. USA Cycling received the following letter from the International Cycling Union (UCI) on March 26 to all national federations clarifying its expectations in the enforcement of rule 1.2.019.  It also explains what the few possible exceptions to its rule are.

The UCI confirmed that Rule 1.2.019 and the related sanctions in 1.2.020 and 1.2.021 must apply to every UCI-recognized national federation in the world. Therefore, as a member of the International Federation, USA Cycling will comply with the direction from the UCI.

Clarification on affected riders: The letter from the UCI confirms no UCI licensed rider, in any discipline, may participate in an event not sanctioned by a national federation recognized by the UCI (USA Cycling is the sole national federation in the United States). Originally, this was described as only affecting those UCI-licensed riders on UCI teams. The UCI has subsequently clarified that the rule extends to ALLUCI-licensed riders, even those not associated with a UCI team. This rule only pertains to those riders holding an international/UCI license.

USA Cycling Working to Ease the Transition
USA Cycling understands the fact that this rule enforcement has a far-reaching impact on riders and race directors alike, particularly in the mountain bike discipline. To help manage the impact and assist riders and race directors with the transition, USA Cycling will work with non-sanctioned mountain bike events by providing the following for mountain bike events permitted with USA Cycling after April 1, 2013:

• For any mountain bike event that occurred in 2012, but did not sanction with USA Cycling in 2012, USA Cycling will waive the permit fee (2013 only). USA Cycling will also subsidize $1 of the $3 dollar per rider insurance surcharge. The per-rider insurance surcharge for mountain bike events that occurred in 2012 but were not permitted in 2012 will be $2 per rider (2013 only).

What a USA Cycling Event Permit Provides for Race Promoters:

• Low permit fees. A mountain bike race of less than 500 riders has a maximum permit fee of $100 a day. The only other fee USA Cycling collects is a per-rider insurance charge of $3 which covers one of the most robust insurance packages in cycling for the race director, the landowners, the sponsors, and excess accident medical coverage for participants. Comparable insurance coverage cost per rider is much more expensive.
• Racing infrastructure for a safe and level playing field including anti-doping, rules and trained officials. As the only USOC and UCI recognized cycling organization in the U.S., riders in USA Cycling events can be subject to the groundbreaking USA Cycling RaceClean™ anti-doping program to create a level playing field.
• Access to USA Cycling’s online registration system that allows riders to register for events and sign electronic waivers on the USA Cycling website or by using the USA Cycling smartphone app.
• A $0.40 rebate to race directors for each registration when you use USA Cycling’s online registration system.

Why you Should Support USA Cycling Sanctioned Events:

• USA Cycling spends more than $4 million per year supporting American athletes in development and international competition programs. Much of that money is generated from the racing activities of our more than 74,000 members racing more than 600,000 racing days each year in sanctioned events. Every time you race in a sanctioned event, a small amount of revenue is generated to support critical athlete programs.  Most importantly, virtually every dime USA Cycling generates as a result of your racing activities is reinvested in the sport.  However, when you compete in an unsanctioned event, nothing goes to support these important programs that help to maintain our international success and create the heroes and role models that are so important to the sport.
• In 2012, USA Cycling spent more than $530,000 in support of mountain bike development programs, world championships and pre-Olympic camps to help riders achieve their dreams on the world’s biggest stages.
• Professionally-licensed riders are the direct beneficiaries of USA Cycling’s significant investment in athlete support. As such, they have a vested interest to support the sanctioned events that fuel that support.
• Insurance protection at sanctioned events is some of the best available and provides coverage not only for the race directors, but also for the volunteers and officials working the event, as well as the racers themselves. At unsanctioned events, there is no guarantee that the insurance provides adequate coverage to anyone other than the race owner. Most unsanctioned events will claim they have comparable overall insurance coverage for their event when compared to what USA Cycling’s insurance program provides, but our own research and analysis have shown that is just not the case.
• Sanctioned events provide a safe and level playing field by a consistent standard  for athlete protection such as accident insurance, an enforceable code of conduct and USA Cycling’s RaceClean™ anti-doping controls conducted by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
• Sanctioned events provide licensed participants with the opportunity to be part of the USA Cycling National Results and Ranking System that allows you to compare your results to everyone else in your age group by city, state, region or even nationally.

(3) This clarification did little to quiet the outcry. And today the UCI backed down, if only for a year:

So here’s the rundown. Rotten Tomatoes links, Trailers, Twitter handles and all. Lots of good stuff out there. Maybe next we do music?

Features

• Beasts of the Southern Wild

• Lucky Number Slevin

• Crimson Tide

• The Godfather

• Se7en

• Rounders

• The Man with One Red Shoe

• The Toy

• See No Evil, Hear No Evil

• Trading Places

Documentaries

Mo Bruno Roy@meaux_marie

•  Jiro Dreams of Sushi

• Waste Land

Footage is via Sporza: www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/wielrennen/veldrijden

Music by Ride: itunes.apple.com/us/artist/ride/id496692

Thanks for watching.

SVENNESS No. 6 from In The Crosshairs on Vimeo.

Cyclocross Worlds comes to America.

The 2013 UCI Cyclocross World Championship took place February 2 in Louisville, Kentucky. Originally planned for February 2 and 3, a quickly rising Ohio River forced organizers to hold all four championship races on Saturday. By Sunday, Eva Bandman Park, site of the championship, was half under water. It turns out flood waters, unlike weather, are much easier to predict and the organizers made the right call.

For anybody who has raced in the U.S., where promoters routinely hold six to eight races a day, having four events in one day didn’t seem that compressed. Granted, getting to the early morning junior race, after a late night in Bourbon-land, was a challenge for a whole bunch of people  and the crowd definitely grew as the day went on.

As for the event? Allow me to dip my toes into a pool of hyperbole and say “It was amazing!” The course, venue, fans and racing were all top-notch. My goal post-race was to ask every person dressed in Belgian colors and smoking a cigarette how we did. Not one had a negative word to say.

As part of the U.S. cyclocross community, this was a proud day for all of us. And hopefully the beginning of a new age in U.S. cyclocross, in which most top European racers routinely come to race on American soil at least once a year. Although it may be a while before we have the World Championship back in the states, a World Cup race in the next five years should not come across as a pipe dream.

The only downside of Worlds was the concessions. The planning or execution on that front fell well short of expectations. The condensed schedule may have had something to do with it, but standing in line for over an hour for food or beer is unacceptable. Personally, I brought some food and drink, and didn’t bother with it, but I felt bad for families wanting to feed their kids, and folks anticipating some easy food during the day. A captive hungry, thirsty audience should have been a dream for food vendors. Definitely an opportunity missed.

In the big picture, the concessions hiccup was more of a footnote than a headline. The important part of the day was that THE WORLDS BEST WERE RACING IN THE UNITED STATES IN THE BIGGEST RACE OF THE SEASON!!!

This may not come as a shocker, but I’m a huge fan of  Sven Nys and the rest of the Belgian squad. It is the Dream Team and seeing them race up close  was by far the top highlight  for me as a cyclocross fan. However, witnessing the super strong showing by the Netherlands was right up there. Marianne Vos, Lars van der Haar and Mathieu van der Poel are making a strong argument that the Dutch and not the Belgians are the new royalty of cyclocross.

Although fawning over the Euros like a kid was fun, watching our home-grown superstars race in the World Championship in their own country was by far the most moving part of the day. To be a world class cyclocross racer you need to race in Europe. American hopefuls must either take  several trips across the ocean per year, or actually live overseas. For this generation of American stars to have a World Cup level race—much less the World Championships—in the U.S. was almost unthinkable when they entered the sport. That cyclocross held its biggest race of the year in their backyard is still hard to comprehend.

To a racer, I do not believe there was a U.S. team member who was not somewhat disappointed in their performance. But I did not hear one of these folks say they would’ve traded the experience for anything. The crowds at Worlds treated everybody between the barriers as if they were a rock star. But the cheers that were already deafening became almost painful every time a Stars and Stripes kit passed by. It was simply awesome.

There was a spate of bad luck for our American stars, but that’s all part of the game. In the end, seeing the footage of Tim Johnson high-fiving fans as he came down the finishing straight epitomized what this event meant for U.S. cyclocross. A huge accomplishment and a day for which the U.S. team and  fans can truly be proud. A collective pat on the back and a hearty congratulations. We pulled it off.

So cyclocross Worlds in the United States.  How great was that? An exciting memorable race on a challenging track and a bravo from the rest of the world. We did it. We got our foot in the door.

Now let’s blow it off the hinges.

…

For the World Championship we decided not to get media credentials or shoot video of the race. The opportunity to do so would’ve been amazing but it would have meant missing out on a lot of the fun. We wanted to take it all in as a fan and a spectator instead of sprinting from spot to spot trying to cover the whole race and only being able to enjoy it by returning home and watching the footage we shot. That would’ve been lame.

But I couldn’t resist lugging some cameras around. We found a nice spot right after the run-up and had a first row vantage point to watch the race. The location afforded a cool perspective and sparse background. Although it did not fully reflect the crowds or craziness, I was able to get some interesting looks at the racers, especially in the men’s race when the temperatures rose above freezing and the mud began to appear.

Thanks for reading.

With the size of the crowd and the international fans, if you didn’t know this was Louisville, the race venue could’ve easily been mistaken for Belgium.

Marianne Vos ran away with the women’s title. Vos is Boss. Cross is Vos.

Katie Compton got caught up in a crash at the beginning of the race and looked out of contention. She worked all race to methodically move through the field and did an amazing job to finish second.

Logan Owen was the field’s best chance to beat junior powerhouse Mathieu van der Poel. Things didn’t go as planned but Owen still ended up a respectable 4th.

Seeing the field crest the hill on the first lap was an amazing feeling. That the Belgians were all congregated at the front was not a surprise.

The first lap chaos continued as the rest of the field fought for the front.

Jonathan Page was looking good for a possible podium finish for more than half the race before mechanicals cost him time and spots.

As the race shook out, it became clear it was going to be a two Belgian race. Here, Sven and Klaas come through alone with 2 laps to go.

Don’t let the silly hats fool you. For most Belgian fans, this is serious business.

On the final lap, the gloves came off and it was every man for himself. Soon after this shot, Klaas became briefly entangled in a barrier giving Sven the space he needed to take the win.

Powers.

Trebon.

Driscoll.

Antonneau.

This was the shot I wanted when we found this spot. It may be my favorite from the day.

Have You Seen Him? from In The Crosshairs on Vimeo.

1E6: Category 5 established for men in cyclo-cross and upgrade system changed to resemble the road more. There will be voluntary upgrades and mandatory upgrades based on points. Cat 5 to Cat 4 upgrade by experience only.

Full upgrade section with new rule changes:

 1E6. Cyclo-cross Upgrades and Downgrades

Cyclo-cross categories are upgraded similarly to road category upgrades using the system below:

(a)  Requirements for upgrading:

5-4:      Experience in 10 races is a mandatory upgrade.

4-3:      Voluntary upgrade with 10 points. Fifteen points or two wins if the field had at least 30 competitors is amandatory upgrade.* 

3-2:      Voluntary upgrade with 15 points. Twenty points or two wins if the field had at least 30 competitors is a mandatory upgrade.*

2-1:      Voluntary upgrade with 20 points. Twenty-five points or two wins if the field had at least 40 competitors is a mandatory upgrade.

*Juniors are exempt from this mandatory upgrade

(b)  Points awarded for Cyclo-cross Races

(c) USA Cycling may add additional requirements for upgrading at their discretion. Any such changes shall be made available on the website.

(d) Cyclo-cross Conversion

Cyclo-cross (CX) categories may also be upgraded by conversion from a rider’s earned road or mountain bike (MTB) cross country (XC) category. If during the season, a rider upgrades his or her road or XC category, the cyclo-cross category can be upgraded to match the road or XC category shown below by request of the rider or by request of the administrator.

Complete USA Cycling Rulebook can be found here: http://www.usacycling.org/forms/rules/2013-USAC-Rulebook.pdf