Last month, USA Cycling crowned its new elite-level cyclocross national champions.
But amid all the hype for Sunday’s marquee races, the week of championship events leading up to that can be drowned out.
One event you may not know about, but which delivers massively entertaining racing, is the singlespeed cyclocross national championship, held the day before the elite competitions. As the name implies, racers have to choose one gear, deciding which parts of the course to maximize speed, and are stuck with it for the entire race.
Sunny Gilbert managed to defend her title and pick up another stars and stripes jersey. We got a closer look at her Blue Bicycles Norcross, converted into a singlespeed racer.
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Gilbert raced on a Blue Norcross cnoverted into a singlespeed.
These well worn GRX cranks are set up with a 40T Wolf Tooth chainring.
That’s a 20T cog in the back.
Crank Brothers Candy pedals are at home in cyclocross.
The Norcross is built up as a traditional cyclocross race bike, but this one has been converted to a single speed.
Gilbert used an alloy FSA stem and compact handlebars.
A Fizik Antares saddle with metal rails.
Many of the components on this singlespeed machine have seen better days cosmetically, but functionally still are at the top of their game. Using Di2 shifters on a singlespeed build speaks to the cobbled together nature of many of these bikes in the singlespeed race.
Challenge Team Edition S3 tires are a popular cyclocross choice.
This lizard sticker is from Gilbert’s win in the 2019 Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championship. She has a matching lizard tattoo.