Cyclocross

Held the day after Christmas, Heusden-Zolder in Belgium is the seventh round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup.

Kalmthout, Belgium, is the sixth round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup.

Igorre, Spain is the fifth round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup.

UCI Commissaire Harry Lam, injured at a Massachusetts cyclocross race, is recovering at his parents' home in Virginia.

A day after playing the role of Ryan Trebon’s punching bag, Tim Johnson punched back.

The third round of the 2009 Superprestige cyclocross series is in Gavere, Belgium.

Mercer Cup, Day 1: Trebon and Nash triumph

2009 USGP Mercer Cup Day 1 & 2 results

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Wednesday during ’cross season is one of the best days of my week, but this Wednesday was even better.

Ryan Trebon says he has the legs to beat the odds at this weekend's New Jersey USGP races.

Part way through the ’cross season, Amy Dombroski is switching to Primus Mootry and a new set of sponsors.

Do tubeless tires work for cyclocross?

Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com swept the men’s podium and Katie Compton (Planet Bike) swept the weekend by winning Sunday’s Boulder Cup, the second round of the fourth North American Cyclocross Trophy weekend.

Mary McConneloug Jeremy Powers take top honors at the Cycle-Smart International in Northampton, Massachusetts, on Saturday.

Barry Wicks finds the bear in his backyard isn't reason to panic, but his presence may offer a bit of a lesson.

Mud surely took its toll on both riders and bikes at Saturday's Blue Sky Velo Cup in Colorado.

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Lennard shares some recent experiences and insights from the cyclocross races.

Challenge Grifo Pro

Niels Albert is on a roll. The world cyclocross champion, a rider who became the discipline’s new prince last season, started his season with four victories in the lead-up to the first World Cup in Treviso, Italy, which he went on to win. Until now, Sven Nys has been regarded as the king of ’cross, but he’s had a very different start to his season. After a top-15 placing at the 2009 mountain bike world championships, his cyclocross season had a rocky start.

Editor's Note A version of this review first ran in VeloNews.com last December, too late for most cyclocross racers to make tire buying decisions for the race season. Matt has reviewed the information to make sure it is still relevant, and re-written parts. Watch for Matt's review of some new Vittoria cyclocross tubulars soon — and look for the VeloNews issue containing the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross Guide on newsstands October 1.

Can I use a Dura-Ace 7900 crank with a 9-speed drivetrain?

Just in time for fall, Fort Bicycles is rolling out some great deals on cyclocross frames. A Fort all-aluminum Cross.Max frame is now selling for $349, and the carbon-aluminum Cross.Max.SSC is just $549. Both are sold as frames only (no forks), but Fort does offer SRAM, Campy, or Shimano build kits as special order items.

Daphne van den Brand, Kupfernagel and Compton battle at the 2008 Koksijde World Cup. | Photo: Frank Bodenmüller/CBGPhoto.com

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Felt Bicycles has issued a voluntary recall of about 1450 2007/2008 F1X Cyclocross bicycles. The bicycle’s fork steerer tube can break, causing the rider to lose control, fall and suffer injuries. There have been six reports of these forks breaking with minor injuries reported in two of the incidents. The recall includes all 2007/2008 Felt F1X Cyclocross Bicycles. These bicycles are available in Semi-Matte Black and have aluminum frames with carbon fiber forks with aluminum steerer tubes.

Road bikes are nothing new to Gary Fisher. He began racing on the road as a junior decades ago. His original goals were to make it as a professional road cyclist but those plans were derailed when he began his mountain bike business. Fisher thanks his experience as a roadie for his obsession with the perfectly fitting mountain bike. For a complete new road line, Fisher aimed to build bikes that stiffer and lighter plus a few extras that should improve the ride quality.

New Technology

The Cannondale people know a good thing when they see it, and hosting their international sales meeting and product release in Park City, Utah, is one of them. Setting up shop in the small ski town and mountain bike mecca gives Cannondale dealers and the press a chance to try out some of the company's latest products. This year we've gotten a look at Cannondale’s 2010 line, including top-end models of the cross country Scalpel, the 7900-equipped CAAD9 road bike and the race-ready CAAD9 cyclocross bike, complete with tubulars.

“Press Camp” is a new event for the cycling industry. Positioned somewhere between Interbike and the elaborate, expensive, private media launches by the biggest brands in cycling, it’s an intimate affair designed to give the small- to medium-sized players in the industry some one-on-one time with reporters. Almost twenty brands have convened in Sun Valley, Idaho, and gathered about the same number of editors for two days of focused meetings, product introductions, and demos. Look for reports to trickle out over the next week or so as we gather the stories and bring them to you.

Price: $3,388 Colors: Blue, red, or white Web site: www.ridetommasini.com Tommasi introduces their new X-Fire road bike. The X-Fire uses double and triple butted Columbus XCR stainless steel to compliment its ride quality. The X-Fire is available in both stock and custom geometry. The stock geometry frames are also available in both classic and compact geometry. Tommasini recommends their carbon FKT56 fork to best suit the geometry of the X-Fire.

Saturday’s Blue Sky Velo Cup in Longmont, Colorado and Sunday’s Boulder Cup are part of the North American Cyclocross Trophy series.

Ridley president Jochim Aerts is nothing if not motivated and inventive. Aerts was a well-known frame painter and frame builder making bikes for other brands when he created the Ridley brand a dozen years ago. And even in this economy, his company keeps hitting sales records every month. Ridley is now the biggest-selling bike brand in the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg). Not bad for a company that only began in 1996. Now with QBP distributing it in the USA, the sky is the limit here as well.

2009-2010 UCI World Cup Cyclocross rankings, updated Jan. 18

The fourth round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup is in Koksijde, Belgium.

The Mercer Cup weekend in New Jersey is the penultimate weekend of the USGP series.

American Katie Compton (Spike Shooter) and Belgian Erwin Vervecken (Fidea) won the fourth round of the cyclocross World Cup, the Cross of Koksijde Dunes, in Belgium on Saturday. Compton outsprinted world champion Hanka Kupfernagel, beating the German by one second to the line on Saturday. Kupfernagel, who won her fourth world cyclocross title in January, finished 17 seconds ahead of Holland's Daphny van den Brand. Compton’s win moves her to seventh place in the overall World Cup standings, with 110 points, well behind Kupfernagel’s solid first place, with 220.

Greetings from seat 15B of Continental flight 34, Denver to Houston. It’s leg No. 1 of a two-flight journey that will deposit me in Chihuahua, Mexico, a few days ahead of next week’s seven-stage Vuelta a Chihuahua. I can’t tell you a whole lot about the race at this point, except that it has a lot of climbing (the north-central Mexican state of Chihuahua is roughly along the same latitude line as Colorado and the Rocky Mountains), Garmin-Chipotle is sending a team, and I think I’ll get to see Copper Canyon, a gap in the earth so grand it apparently dwarfs Arizona’s Grand Canyon.

Editor's Note: The following column was written by Matt Shriver, an Exercise Specialist and Senior Level Coach with Colorado Premier Training. He also is a professional cyclist currently racing with the Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling team.

“A 60 percent chance of snow before 10 a.m., then rain and snow likely. Cloudy, with a high near 36. South wind between 8 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.” Welcome to December cyclocross in Portland, Oregon, host city to the2007 Crank Brothers U.S.Gran Prix of Cyclocross finals. The forecast for this weekend’s events,a pair of races that will determine the series winners, is wet, cold andmuddy. It’s going to be a sloppy weekend. Saturday appears to be the harsherday of the two, with colder temperatures bringing the possibility of snow.Sunday is predicted to be nearly 10 degrees

Despite a shaky start, two crashes and constant pressure from a top field, Sven Nys still took the win in the fourth round of the UCI World Cup of cyclocross on Saturday in Koksijde, Belgium. Holland's Daphny van den Brand took the win in the women's race, finishing seven seconds ahead of American Katie Compton (Spike-Shooter). In the men's race, the current World Cup leader and reigning champion, Nys scored his third successive win at Koksijde, riding away from the competition on the last of 10 laps of a tough, sandy and hilly 2.775km course. Nys, who often dominates ‘cross

Sven Nys (Rabobank) displayed his dominance once again in round six of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup on Saturday, riding away from an elite lead group to a solo victory in Koksijde, Belgium. The World Cup leader and Belgian national champion had been at the head of a lead group containing teammates Gerben De Knegt and Sven Vanthourenhout, Bart Wellens (Fidea), and John Gadret (Ag2r Prevoyance). With five laps to go, Nys had begun chipping away at the group, and a lap later it was three Rabobank riders off the front through the start-finish area. Then Nys stepped on the gas, leaving his

Erwin Vervecken won the fourth round of the cyclo-cross World Cup on Saturday in Koksijde, outsprinting compatriots Sven Nys and Ben Berden. It was the 32-year-old Belgian’s first victory of the season, and the fourth time he has won in Koksijde. Belgian racers dominated on the sandy circuit, led by a six-rider group that included Vervecken, Nys, Berden, Tom Vannoppen, Sven Vanthourenhout and world champion Bart Wellens. Wellens fell victim to a puncture, while Vanthourenhout simply fell off the pace. Unwilling to trust his chances in a sprint finish, Nys tried to make a break in the

Our man in Belgium, Marcel Van Hoecke, was on the job in Koksijde at the fourth round of the World Cup. A gallery of the usual Belgian battlers, along with a resurgent Richard Groenendaal and the tenacious Jonathan Page, is presented below. For the story, click here.