#professional-cycling

tag

Iowa’s Mt. Krumpit and Jingle Cross – Andy Bokanev

Reportage By: John Watson

Iowa’s Mt. Krumpit and Jingle Cross – Andy Bokanev

Iowa’s Mt. Krumpit and Jingle Cross
Photos and words by Andy Bokanev

“And they told you Iowa was flat,” it was before noon and I’m pretty sure the beer the dude was holding was not his first. His geographically themed heckle was aimed at a random backmarker struggling his way up Mt. Krumpit with the “why I am doing this?” look painted all over his face. This was just one of many similar experiences this weekend at Jingle Cross hosted in Iowa City, Iowa.

The three day race kicked off under the lights on Friday evening in freezing conditions with the temperatures hovering in the mid teens. Saturday brought about more cold and snow just in time for the UCI C1 race. It continued snowing through the night so when everyone showed up for a the last day of racing the ground was completely covered in the white stuff eventually giving way to a thin layer of mud.

Some observations:

-Caroline Mani from not wearing any leg warmers. There is no amount of vaseline and embro in the world that would convince me to do the same.
-The race is extremely well organized featuring one of the best (if not THEE best) cyclocross course in the United States. If there is one race that deserves World Cup status, this is it
-Just like bottled water on hot and humid days there is a tariff on hot chocolate on extremely cold days. The going price for a cup of hot chocolate on Sunday was $6
-It not as cold when it’s snowing
-The course layout was different all three days which kept things interesting and challenging
-People in Iowa love pizza

So do not let the weather scare you, Jingle Cross is absolutely worth the travel.

____

Follow Andy on Instagram.

Radar

CX Hairs: Your Moment of SVENNESS 1.1

I wasn’t expecting this from CX Hairs:

“While we put together the next full-on SVENNESS episode, here is a bit of a return to the SVENNESS roots. For “Your Moment of SVENNESS” the idea is to take one feature on a course or one specific skill and concentrate on just that. No race recap, just an analysis of one feature.This is similar to the first six episodes of SVENNEsS from two years ago.

Your Moment of SVENNESS (YMOS) 1.1 is taken from the Super Prestige Ruddervoorde race. It looks at one of the two sets of steps on the course and the off-camber turns directly after. The discussion includes a look at different carrying techniques and then a breakdown of the run vs. ride decision.”

Radar

CX Hairs: SVENNESS 3.4

For this week’s SVENNESS, CX Hairs takes us to Koppenberg Cross in Oudenaarde, Belgium for some ascending and descending that fabled Flemish pavé and mud.

Radar

CX Hairs: LIKEAVOS 2.1

God, I’d love to race on courses like this!!

“The first World Cup Cyclocross race also meant the first time this year the pro women were broadcast, and that means we can finally premiere the first episode of LIKEAVOS, season two. The World Cup opener took place at Valkenburg in the Netherlands. The course is a brutal one. As you’ll see it rides more like a mountainbike race than a cyclocross race, with many elevation changes and off-camber sections. For this episode we concentrate on a tricky off-camber section, the run-up and descending skills. We also watch Katie Compton deal with adversity and Helen Wyman show great form.”

CX Hairs is killing it.

Radar

CX Hairs: SVENNESS 3.2

Here you go, the second installment of this year’s SVENNESS series from CX Hairs. Just in time to get you stoked on the weekend’s races!

Shimano
Tern
Wolftooth
Argonaut
Brooks
State Bicycles
Paul
RiG'd Supply
Mission Workshop
Rivendell
SimWorks
Maxxis