Super Cross Cup 2008

Hello again.... it's us.

We had tremendous interest in the local hotel scene, and will have a partner property within the week. To all those who wish to make a pre emptive lodging strike, google southampton hotels, and look for the "bentley", "Atlantic", or Capri. Three good ones within 3 miles of the race venue. Also try "sag Harbor Inn", a little further away. More info will be up shortly, and thanks for the support!

Mad Props

This is the awesome preview video from Sam Smith and Blunt Trauma Productions of this weekends events. While we have your attention, there are some people we would love to thank..

First up, all the people on the ground that made this possible. Barley, Team Sisson, Alan Atwood, Brian and Michelle. Nikita, Ken, and the guys from Verge for helping out. Meghan and JD for being, well, themselves, and doing a great job with results.

Our officials, for doing a superb job as usual, and helping out above and beyond the cause of officialdom.

Stu Thorne/Cyclocrossworld.com for helping us out with some technical aspects for day 2. Adam Myerson, same deal. Your wisdom and input is always welcome.

Racers- For showing up and making this event something to talk about. Thanks for believing in us enough to make the trip! Sorry about the rocks on day one. Hey, I broke stuff too.

All of our sponsors.. Without whom none of this would have been possible. TK, DB, AS, JK, DM, thanks so much. Sothebys, Rotations, Wildthyme, Thyme & Again, also, thanks millions, for both believing that top american women should get paid what they are worth, and that american riders deserve a shot to square off against the best in the world.

That's it for now. I'm certain I have forgotten someone in my haste, it's off for some much needed paper work and perhaps fly fishing as well. Photogs, thank you too, if anyone has pics please forward them on to us for use on the site!

Final Preparations

My initial plan was to head into Whitmore's fully rested. Considering I've ridden 5 times this month, that didn't seem to be a problem. Now that the Lymes and Pnuemonia are gone, life is better. In any event, today most of the course got a trim. Mark busted out the heavy artillery, and essentially everything is cut. My thoughts are as follows.
-Riding a Cross bike is alway so much harder than I think it is. Got winded riding in from my house to the course. (a distance of .9 miles.) That can't be good.

UCI Day 1- "The Long Course". - Wider fence crossing than Last year. Rocks OUT. Elite men will have 3 dismounts per lap, including planks. Women that have podium'd at Nationals likewise will have 3. Everyone else, 4 per lap. Deal. Despite cool weather and lots of rain, the lower portion of the course is still a little lumpy. We are adding more asphault sections, and fewer lumpy ones in an effort quicken things up. Even with the cut grass still on the ground... FAST. Very Hard. It will suck for a lot of people.

UCI Day 2- "The Infamous Short Course". Diffrentiated from the long by not crossing through the fence to the other playing fields. Immediate turn up the hill. There will definitely be some elite men getting their hustle and flow on in turn 3. Forget Law and Order, we have guaranteed drama. Elite men will see 2 dismounts per lap, likewise super elite women. Everyone else 3. Not as short as we think it is, distance wise the two courses are very close this year. But very very FAST. Some very technical speedy descents that will challenge all riders.

The smackdowns are upon us all.

Since it's up in print already on the lateset http://www.cyclingnews.com/ blurb, we will make it official. Current World Champion Erwin Vervecken is headed to Southampton to kick off the East Coast UCI season. And why not? It's not like we have the largest prize list in the world for women and he doesn't want to support his sistahs, right? Or the bestest venue in the land, bling atmosphere, wicked landscapes, ocean, bay, Puff Daddy, Southampton ROCKS.

And yes, contrary to popular belief, no sea monsters.

Big props to people that are hooking us up with cool stuff to give to racers.

First off, Alex Evenings, for sponsoring the pro ladies with some free evening wear. Their stuff is hot, you can get all mucky at the race, clean up and look all gorgeous in time for dinner.

Second, http://www.procyclocross.com/ for once again throwing us everyones favourite foreign language cyclocross videos for wicked primes. Holla! If you have never checked out the site, go for it. Super races you can't get in this country, reasonable prices, and a super nice attitude. Great for winter roller sessions.

Third, our good friends at Wildthyme Restaurant and Bar, for allowing the smelly hordes of racers in after saturdays event for a great Prix Fixe dinner. (Rated excellent by the NYtimes, super food, and yes some vegan stuff.)

http://www.sysinc.org/ for loaning us the venue indoors, and the greatest changing rooms cyclocross has ever seen. Be sure to hit the ultra hot showers post race before dinner!

Anyone that has helped hold a rake, mower, banner, police barricade, stake, plank, rebar, hammer or picked up someone from the airport to help us pull this off. Word Way Up.

Many people have been looking to us for hotel ideas. Here is what we know.

Sag Harbor- 8miles away.

Barons Cove Inn

Sag Harbor Inn

American Hotel (bling bling)

Barcelona Inn

Southampton (2miles away from venue?)
Bentley, Atlantic, and Capri

Enclave Inn

Southampton Inn

Village Latch (bling)

1870 House (Bling bling) (bling)

Bayberry Inn

Easterner

Hampton Bays NY (6 miles away)

Hampton Maid (Blingy, but nice pancakes)

Bowens' by the bays

Arlington Shores

Bel-Aire Motel

Colonial Shores Resort

Hampton Star Motel

Shinnecock Mist waterfront Hotel (lock your doors..)

Sunset Bay Motel

Riverhead NY (20 min by car)

Holiday Inn express

Swiss Motel

Budget Host East End

Best Western East End

Greenview Inn

Islip NY (35 min by car)
Jos and the guys from Fiordi Fruitta stayed out here one year, said it was nice. Islip MacArthur airport is in town, so there are a tonne of hotels. A La Quinta, and a big Holliday Inn come to mind, but I can't find them online. They do exist, I swear

Cyclocross Update 2007: 26 days until the smackdowns are upon us.

Word up to all the 'crossers, and 'crossettes in the Northeast. And Northwest, Canada, Belgium, France, and everywhere else people have enquired about the races this year. This update will be a quick one, otherwise the smackdown will be on me courtesy of the Mrs. Races are ON!! So on it's not even funny. October 6-7th 2007, Southampton NY. Whitmores Landscaping Super Cross Cup #1 and #2.

Register online here http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=5253

And Here http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=5255

Important points of note... Equal prize for the ladies! Star Studded fields! Beautifull facility with plenty of parking! Easy to get too. NO SEA MONSTERS!

Props

Now that the race report is done, it's time to give mad props to a few people that went absolutely above and beyond with the races this year.

First, my lovely wife, who for reasons unknown puts up with 2 weeks of hell each year so I can get out there and take care of business. Despite running 2 businesses, being pregnant and a mom, she still takes care of a lot of loose ends so I can run amok.

Next up........

Parks and Recreation of Southampton, for again loaning us the venue grounds. THANKS!
SYS inc for loaning us the building, lockers, showers, chairs, parking lot, bathrooms....
Southampton Town Department of Public Works for loaning us traffic barricades!!!

For believing Southampton needs a real, honest to goodness, bike race..
TK, DM/JR, BP, DB, SF, RL, AS/SM. Thank you. When you wonder why we can provide the best prize list for women in North America, travel money, barrier primes, these people's financial contributions are why.

Anyone that loaned me a house, couch, bed, room, apartment, fold out mattress, inflatable bed, guest house, pool house, RV, trailer, or other amenity so we could host a deserving racer. THANKS!

For making it a super cool bike race- Any elite rider that took the time to show up. Yeah, it's a bit of a haul... but we make it worthwhile!

For doing registration duties, and providing lots of infrastructure- Alan Atwood. Holla!


For providing cool merchandise prizes...
IF, JK, RL/Rotations, NYCvelo, RC of SBA, RedBull. THANKS!!! if you got cool schwag, it came from one of these guys!

Excellent Nuetral Support and mechanical love- Mark Voisocki. Mark has done this for us for 2 years now, and provides good, honest, fast top notch service. Seek him out if you are running some cross in the NE/MA region and need a wrench.

Marco Quesada of marcoquesada.com and nyvelocity.com . Took the best pictures of the best bike race ever!

Results and placings.. Jd Bilodeau. Word up. Pioneer event registration rocks. Doing a major event? don't be daft.. Rent JD for a day. Money well spent.

Pre Registraion- Bikereg.com. Thanks for bending rules slightly for us Steve!

Officiating- The Millers, Mrs. Dorsey, Mr Taus, and Mr Lamm. Top Notch cool understanding people! Thanks again guys.

All the people at Hampton Velo that came out and busted their butts helping me set up. Thanks!!!

The staff of wildthyme restaurant and bar.. for covering my butt the last 2 weeks. Word up!

Aftermath.........

Yup.. Ryan Trebon really is that fast. He was actually doing a track stand when marco snapped that pick, I think the grass was running away from HIM it was so scared of being beat down..

Day one pretty much unfolded like this..
Lyne Bessete whupped up on everyone. Other girls were in fact somewhere out there, but it was all Lyne all the time... Uci c1 victory, and over a grand in her pocket for winning the richest ladies cross race in north american. Holla!


Men... Little bit different. Most participants were only feeling mildly threatened by the presence of Mark the Shark, Jesse the kid, and Timmy J in the first warm up. Not to say that the Fiordifruitta boys are chopped liver, or Matthieu Toulouse from maxxis... THEN mysteriously the sun just went away.. Nope, not an eclipse, Trebon and Wicks really are that tall... Suddenly it seemed the smackdown was upon us.. After the gun that feeling was confirmed. Immediately a group formed. Containing McCormack, Wicks, Trebon, Anthony, Johnson, and White... yeah.. that's an owie.. Somehow they split the group, I thought it was Johnson drilling it on the hill. Trebon marked him, McCormack gave chase, towing Wicks.. Bad scene for Timmy J.. Trebon won't pull through cause Wicks is sitting on a flying McCormack intent on extending his 3 time Whitmore's winning streak... 8 laps later, Trebon moves past Johnson in the sprint. Props to Tim, he still made it interesting after pulling treefarm around for more than a few laps. McCormack somehow dumped Wicks, I heard rumors he whacked a tree..More likely Mark pulled him to death.. Shark took third, Wicks dragged it home for fourth.

I think these two actually went home arguing about who is the bigger 'cross bad as$...

nah...
Day two was a bit more interesting. In an effort to actually encourage the smackdowns, we moved to the short course.. 2.5k well over 125 feet of elevation gain per lap. Not change.. Gain. Womens field was bolstered y the appearance of a Vegas'd out Georgia Gould. Despite a rough week, the representative from the 'Chix still hung tough. Right behind Lyne on the first lap (1oo$ cash barrier prime went to the Cannuck). Faded out a bit on the second lap, but hung close enough to keep her honest. I had been wondering if Lyne would have it this year not racing road and all. Yeah... Lyne Bessette being out of shape.. as if.

Mens race.. Definitely had a different feel. What with the rock garden being "out" on the short course, the truce on the start was over and bloodlust came out in everyones eyes. The 180 at the end of the second straight is always the scene of some bumpin and grinding.. I think Taus had his back to the field on the first lap. Yours truly was able to use his inherent huskiness to his advantage, whupping some dudes in the corner, and rounding the hill glued to Toulouse's wheel. After working 20 hrs the day before and scoring zero sleep you just KNEW that wasn't going to last.. Similar groups as yesterday.. looked like Wicks was hot early, fading out a bit after 3 laps.. With times like around 5 minutes, that freaking hill takes a toll. Apparently TJ was able to use it to his advantage, and broke free of Trebon on the 4th time up. Trebon chased like a man possesed, and brought him back, but it was Timothy J on all channels Sunday, scoring the big win. Trebon got second. The big chase group was Jesse the kid, Wicks, and McCormack.. Jess was in the drivers seat the whole race, towing the other two around. Shark didn't look good, meaning he was still way above average, but slightly less than his sharkey self. Jesse inflicted major damage on the other two, using the Clif bar vs Kona 2 on 1 to his advanatge, and just sheer speed. I can't believe he's like 21.... scary fast. Gapped the other two, leaving Mark to drop Wicks, and rally for 4th. Big story was Toulouse, who motored into the top 5. Almost caught McCormack on the last lap, but looked like he over did it on the asphault, and blew on the hill a bit. Still a great ride.

Overall, this was without question our best race ever. We had great pro turnout, a super woman's prize list, great masters fields, b fields, and good weather for cross. I can't wait until next year.......

Final thoughts....

Here are some final thoughts, 24 hrs before the first race starts tomorrow.. First, if you plan on attending the prix fixe dinner at Wildthyme restaurant and Bar, and seeing Sam's new CX film, "Transistion 2, 'cross the pond" please make a reservation so we can be sure to accomodate you. Dinner is from 6-7.30, we will show the movie during that time, and likely again from 7.30 to 10pm. We're told it's 90 minutes in length. For reservations call 631.204.0007. Restaurant is a mile from the venue, and the venue does have showers in both the womens and mens locker rooms.

We are just about done with the course. Some final cutting and taping needs to be done, and I'm picking up some hay bales momentarily. I think the long course is pretty darn good, likely the best course we ever had. It's funny, every year we wonder if our course is good enough for elite level competitoin. Last year, I was sharing this thought with our club Treasurer, we watched Jessie Anthony just stack it up on one of the downhills in a warmup.. As he got up to pull the grass out of his helmet, I turned to Barley to say "Dude, Jessie just crashed on our course, sweet..." and out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of Mark McCormack picking his bike out of a tree.... Rampant stackage. He later confessed to me he hadn't crashed that hard in about 3 years. Our course is much more mentally demanding than it appears, especially at speed. We work hard to put on safe, fun events, that are not only physically demanding, but mentally as well. I hope that you all have a great race tomorrow, have safe travels, and a fun day at the fourth annual Whitmore's Landscaping Super Cross Cup.