Palm Springs Camp 2012

Coach Dan just returned from the National Team Camp in Palm Springs and the first US Cup in Austin, Texas. Team Canada is off to a great start for 2012.

Mountain Bikers Gear Up for 2012.

Canadians Dominate US Opener

Coach.ca profiles Coach Dan

A coaching profile on Elitewave’s founder Dan Proulx.

http://www.coach.ca/london-2012-coach-profile-dan-proulx-p149159

Specialized Stumpjumper Expert Carbon 29

Thanks to Oak Bay Bikes and Specialized Canada for their support. This bike is awesome.

Stybar’s Specialized Crux at Baal-Tremelo, GVA Series

Photo: Cyclephotos.co.uk

Specialized Crux Cyclocross Bike

I took the Specialized Crux over to Belgium for the Christmas cross series. Sarah was racing and I did a lot of pre-riding with her on each course. The Crux handled all of the euro cross courses with ease (even with the stock tires on it). It’s a beautiful bike and it’s easily the best cross bike I’ve ever ridden. Even though I wasn’t racing, it was obvious to me that this bike can handle anything the Euros can dish out. It’s a very legitimate cross bike that is only limited by the pilot who is driving it.

The bike really stands out (but not as much as the pink Specialized Crux that Stybar rode yesterday). In the euro cross races, there are literally 1000′s of spectators cruising the pit area of each race….and I noticed the Crux attracted lots of attention even when it was just leaning up against the car! It’s a very cool bike.

Thanks to Specialized and Oak Bay Bikes for their support on this mission.

Looking forward to getting back to Victoria and trying out the Specialized Stumpjumper 29er.

Belgian domination bad for the sport?

Posted to www.cyclingnews.com
By Brecht Decaluwé. December 28, 10:13

While the popularity of cyclo-cross in Belgium and the USA is strong, the lack of growth of the winter cycling discipline outside of these countries is of concern to cycling’s governing body, the UCI.

The UCI’s off-road discipline manager Peter Van den Abeele decried the lack of international stars and international interest in cyclo-cross in an interview with De Zondag.

“Out of the four disciplines I manage, cyclo-cross is only third,” Van den Abeele said. “Mountain bike has 400 international races, cyclo-cross has about 150. It’s big in only two countries – Belgium and the USA – but elsewhere it doesn’t move. There should be six World Cup rounds outside of Belgium and two in three but it’s almost the other way around.”

Currently, the podiums of all the top races are dominated by Belgians, and riders from other countries who rise to the top quickly leave the circuit for the more lucrative road scene: most recently Lars Boom, and perhaps in the future, Zdenek Stybar.

Should the Czech world champion have followed Boom’s example and curtailed his ‘cross racing this season, there would no non-Belgian riders on any of the podiums of the three major series: the UCI cyclo-cross World Cup, the Superprestige Series and the Gazet van Antwerpen (GVA) Trophy. Van den Abeele sees this as a major problem.

“There’s the super high level in Flanders (Belgium). Riders and organizers are super professional, and that is a huge hurdle for the others. Try to climb over that as a non-Belgian,” Van den Abeele said.

“Secondly, there’s the fact that cyclo-cross isn’t an Olympic sport so there are no budgets and no investments. The result is that in Flanders everything is possible and elsewhere almost nothing. Compare the World Cup in Zolder with the one in Igorre: Zolder is super professional while in Spain there are a couple of volunteers who scrape together a small budget which is enough to get 39 Elite Men at the start. It’s sad.”

The growth of the sport in the USA gives Van den Abeele optimism for the future, and he hopes that more countries will follow suit.

“I’m really happy that we have the world championships at the USA in 2013. Maybe that will do something internationally. It’s in the States where they have a fire burning for ‘cross. The man from Cross Vegas [Brook Watts] is doing a great job. He tries to copy the Flemish races. We need men like him.

“That’s why I will meet Mr. Guerciotti. He used to sponsor Roland Liboton and myself in the past and he organized the ‘cross in Milan. I want to try and engage him to get things going in Italy once again.” Van den Abeele said.

“We at the UCI switched courses drastically to focus totally on the basics. This will last no longer than three years. Change has to come from the youth categories. Switzerland needs a new Frischknecht, Germany a new Kluge, Italy a new Pontoni, Denmark a new Djernis…”

20 December, 2011 14:24

Photo from today’s race in Suhuisterveen.

Centrum Cross – Surhuisterveen, Netherlands

Sarah had a good one today. She finished 11th after battling for 9th position throughout the race with 3 other riders. It was an epic day of deep mud and cold temperatures. I was standing in a couple inches of mud and water in the pits! A really cool day in the Netherlands.

Photos from the race are here: http://www.waldnet.nl/wn/fotonieuws/8567/Centrumcross_Surhuisterveen_in_beeld.html

Marianne Vos wint dameseditie Centrumcross

Een lekke band kon niet voorkomen dat Marianne Vos de Centrumcross van Surhuisterveen voor de tweede keer op rij op haar naam kon schrijven. De regerend wereldkampioene liet de Engelse Helen Wyman en Reza Hormes-Ravestein in de slotfase achter zich en soleerde naar de zege. ,,Op het technische stuk in het bos kon ik een paar meter voorsprong pakken en die kon ik op de weg verder uitbouwen’’, vertelde Vos, die zeer content was met haar huidige vorm. ,,Het maakt me niet meer wat voor weer of wat voor parcours het is en dat is een prettige verandering’’, zei Vos na afloop in de expositieruimte van het Feanster wielercomité aan de verzamelde pers.

De volledige uitslag:

1 1 Marianne Vos
2 6 Helen Wyman
3 8 Reza Hormes
4 16 Maureen Bruno-Roy
5 15 Arenda Grimberg
6 23 Annefleur Kalvenhaar
7 12 Joyce Vanderbeken
8 14 Ellen van Loy
9 20 Nikoline Hansen
10 35 Asa Erlandsson
11 39 Sarah Stewart
12 38 Bianca van den Hoek
13 26 Ilona Meter
14 21 Margriet Kloppenburg
15 27 Esmee Oosterman
16 33 Kim Banga
17 28 Lotte Eikelenboom
18 29 Wendy Oosterwoud
19 37 Marjolein Wijkel
20 19 Madara Furmane
21 24 Anouska Koster
22 32 Melissa Steenhof
23 30 Pernilla van Rozelaar
24 36 Margriet Engelsma

Start of UCI Cyclocross in Namur, Belgium.

One of the toughest cyclocross courses ever! A good day of fun for all.

Sarah finished 39th and managed to make it through in one piece. Steep and slippery downhills, off-camber slip and slides and evil run-ups. Add a bit of snow for good measure. It was a grueling event. According to many, Namur sets the standard for difficulty in World Cup cyclocross. A great event!

Last week’s event was in Antwerp. Sarah finished 18th, managing to give herself a concussion on lap 3 of 5. The course in Antwerp was 30% sand and some sections had to be moved back because they were 2 feet underwater when the tide came in. This was the first time in the races history that the entire course wasn’t frozen over with ice.

Gotta love Belgium!!

On Tuesday were off to Holland for a UCI cross event.

Here’s the article from cycling news:

Dropped chain cancels direct Vos and Compton duel

American national champion salvages podium spot as Vos claims victory
By Brecht Decaluwé. December 18, 21:05

The entertaining cyclo-cross course at the citadel in Namur was expected to produce a World Cup duel between world champion Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) and US national champion Katherine Compton (Rabobank-Giant Off-Road Team). A mechanical meant that would not be the case and both riders missed the chance to go head to head.

While the snow started to fall in Namur, the women lined up at the foot of the citadel. “Vos was laughing and saying that she should’ve worn long tights and gloves, too,” Compton said.

Both Compton and Vos started well initially, but then Compton had to put her foot down. “I’m disappointed with my bad start. My chain dropped when I shifted before reaching the steeper part of the starting straight. I had to stop, get off the bike and get the chain back on. I was DFL,” Compton said.

Meanwhile Vos powered away up front. For a short time, she was accompanied by French rider Lucie Chainel-Lefevre. By the end of the first lap, Vos dropped Chainel and from then on, Vos worked her way through the mud to her second World Cup win of the season. “It was a shame that Katie [Compton] had a problem in the beginning. It’s more fun to fight it out with the best in front. I heard the announcer saying that she was moving up, but she had no chance to come back as she was nearly a minute down,” Vos said.

During the second lap, Compton risked a lot by flying through a tricky off-camber section. She went head-first over the handlebars and in the second lap, she got stuck in the wiring at the bottom side of the section. “Running is so slow, so I gave it a go,” Compton said. During the following two passages, things went smoother. “It still wasn’t good, but I didn’t want to change from riding to running.”

In the end, Compton quite easily managed to get back to third place and she was content with that. “I’m happy that I salvaged the podium even though I lost so much time,” Compton said. During the last lap, it even seemed possible to get back to Chainel, but the Frenchwoman held on to a margin of 15 seconds at the finish line. “I didn’t know she was so close. I didn’t see her,” Compton said.

When checking out the lap times, it is clear Vos was going much quicker up and down the slopes of the citadel in Namur. Compton lost 43 seconds over Vos during her first disastrous lap, then lost 23 seconds during a not so fortunate second lap that included a bad passage at the off-camber section. During a clean third lap, she was still 17 seconds slower than Vos. Only during the last lap was Compton slightly faster than Vos. Of course, it’s impossible to say how things would have unfolded if Compton would’ve been on Vos’ wheel.

The tough conditions in Namur didn’t allow any of the women to sit back and let others do the work. The snow, the mud and the steep sections in the course easily separated the good from the best. “I love this kind of racing. You need technical skills and power. It was hard and that climb after the start was the hardest. Downhill it was fun. What can happen.” Compton wondered about crashing in a soft pool of mud or ice water.

Compton added that the most important thing was not to get sick at this time of the season, which was had happened to World Cup leader Daphny van den Brand (AA Drink-Leontien.nl), who finished eighth, and Sanne van Paassen (Brainwash), who didn’t take the start in Namur.

It is still to be confirmed whether Compton will skip the next World Cup round in Zolder next weekend as she will soon be heading back to the US to prepare for the national championships on Sunday, January 8.

Specialized Tarmac SL3 Mid-Compact

Thanks to Specialized and Oak Bay Bikes. No time for photography lessons…gotta get out and ride!