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The 2014 Trek CXC Cup Pro Women – Kevin Sparrow

Reportage By: John Watson

The 2014 Trek CXC Cup Pro Women – Kevin Sparrow

The 2014 Trek CXC Cup Pro Women
Words and photos by Kevin Sparrow

With a heavy thunderstorm moving through overnight I was secretly hoping for some mud. Turns out, the sun made another appearance late in the day making for almost identical conditions as the Saturday races. The wind did seem to kick it up a notch however.
Some of the biggest names in Women’s Pro cyclocross were in town and I’d be damned if I’d miss shooting some of the best athletes in the world.

Katie Compton, Georgia Gould, Gabby Durrin, Meredith Miller, Caroline Mani were all favorites for Sunday’s race.

The first couple laps there was a lot of bottlenecking going on. A group started to form in the front all heavy hitters. After the third lap Compton found her way to the front and never looked back. Gould chased but couldn’t seem to reconnect with Compton. Caroline Mani put in another huge effort, this time ending up taking third place.
Damn good show.

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The 2014 Trek CXC Cup Pro Men – Kevin Sparrow

Reportage By: John Watson

The 2014 Trek CXC Cup Pro Men – Kevin Sparrow

The 2014 Trek CXC Cup Day 01
Words and photos by Kevin Sparrow

It’s not too often we get cross weather like this in Wisconsin. The sky cleared up and dried the course for the pro race. Its always a treat to have big names show up for races here and they didn’t disappoint.

The course was on the Trek Factory grounds in Waterloo, Just 15 miles outside of our state’s capitol. Riders from Chicago and Minneapolis were thick in attendance.
The big names in attendance were Powers, Johnson, Driscoll, Mcdonald, and Berden just to name a few.

From the get go Jeremy Powers had a pulled away, looking strong through the race as Tim Johnson and Shawn Milne battled for second. Most of the spectating was done on a super steep down and up section that many fell victim too. Powers held his lead and went on to win day one of the event.

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Perspective on Cross Vegas

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Perspective on Cross Vegas

Let me begin this by saying this is by no means a pitty party post (PPP), it’s more of an open letter, or apology – the latter of which I’m still not sure I owe to anyone, but it’s easier to make mends than it is to carve a soap box from stone. And I suck at using a chisel.

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Neko Mulally’s Bad Luck 13

Neko snapped his chain, right out of the gate and still pulled off one of the best times of the day at the UCI Downhill WC, landing him in 4th place overall. All this kinda makes that bad luck 13 number suddenly seem quite lucky. I can’t stop watching this.

Thanks for sharing this video, Neil!

Manual For Speed does Vegas

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Manual For Speed does Vegas

There are some weird, strange places on the internet and Manual for Speed is one of them. Not many media outlets can tackle Las Vegas into submission, but these two put out a damn good effort. See the Las Vegas Red Carpet post and the Cross Vegas coverage at Manual for Speed.

Also, surely you can see the difference between Daniel and I, right?

Party Times at the 2014 Cross Vegas

Reportage By: John Watson

Party Times at the 2014 Cross Vegas

Cross Vegas is the official kick-off for American cyclocross season, in my opinion anyway. It’s raucous, rowdy and best of all, FUN! The highlight of the evening for me is the Wheelers and Dealers event where industry reps and shop peeps battle head to head for a place on the podium next to Craig Etheridge – who wins every year.

The crowd loves it. Everyone’s doing handups, toss ups, spraying beer, hecking and this year, like it does every year, it carried on well into the UCI race. This year’s event drew big names like Lars van der Haar and Sven Nys – maybe you’ve heard of them? At any rate, these pros had an introduction to the party time that is Cross Vegas and yes, things got out of hand.

Thanks to everyone who hung out and made the evening an enjoyable one!

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Rapha: Davis Phinney Connie Carpenter-Phinney Jerseys and Documentary

“This film, produced by Rapha and Ben Ingham, is about two of America’s finest and most inspiring road racers, Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter-Phinney. For anyone who saw them race, Davis and Connie came to represent the best in American road racing, combining bold racing with uncompromising attitudes on and off the bike. Their careers saw them move from domination of domestic races to international and Olympic success…”

See the full story behind this incredible project at Rapha. Don’t miss out on the Connie Carpenter or the Davis Phinney Jersey.

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Shaun Palmer Coming Home

When Shaun Palmer lost the ’96 World Championships by a 1/15th of a second, sending his life into disarray. This introspective piece barely scratches the surface at the inner struggles pro athletes deal with each time they race. As Shaun finds, sometimes, the ride is more important than the win and now he’s returning to ride for Intense.

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Brooks
State Bicycles
Paul
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Mission Workshop
Rivendell
SimWorks
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