Excuse me, Sven.

So if you scour the internet like I do, then you've probably already seen the news. If you have a life, then I guess you can find out here... I've been selected to go to Belgium with Euro Cross Camp and the US National Team Director, Geoff Proctor. I'm going to BELGIUM TO RACE CYCLOCROSS! SORRY FOR YELLING, I'M JUST EXCITED!

I'm leaving on December 15th and coming home on January 2nd. While I'm there I'll be living in Izegem, Belgium at the National Team house. There are 8 potential races while I'm there, including 2 World Cups (Kalmthout and Zolder), a Superprestige in Diegem, a GVA Trophey race in Loenhout, and the GP Sven Nys in Sven's home town of Baal. Serious stuff. I'm excited, motivated, and a little scared, but the good kind of scared (if there is such a thing).



Knowing that this was on the horizon has made this last block of training so much easier, it's unbelievable. Thinking about cutting that last interval short? Better not. If you do , Sven and his pal Zdenek will lap you in 20 minutes. Not a difficult decision to put in the effort.



I know that this will be a humbling experience as well as one that can teach me so much, so quickly. I'm not going into this with any individual goals, but more the goal to go over and race as hard as I can, be as mentally tough as I can when I'm in these difficult environments, and gain every possible bit of knowledge that I can from these 3 weeks. Oh, and have fun. I think that this will be a life changing experience and hopefully give me lots of knowledge to take away.

As you can imagine, a three week trip to Belgium isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination, so I'm working on raising some money to help offset the cost of my trip. We're guessing it's going to cost somewhere around $3,500- $4,000 to make this happen, so any little bit helps. I'm going to put a PayPal button up so that anyone who's interested in helping can make a donation. If you don't have a PayPal account, shoot me an email at knapprd@gmail and we can figure something out.

I should be able to update this thing quite a bit while I'm over there, so check back for updates during the Holiday season. And also before then, because I've still got some racing to do stateside first.

Thanks to all of you who have supported me along my journey so far. I really appreciate it. I know that I wouldn't even be in this position if it weren't for so many of you helping me over the last 3 years.

As you know, Cross Nationals and the USGP Finals, and some other important races are just around the corner for me. I'm nearing the end of my final training block for the year and just got back from Iowa this weekend. Before I can give you the short and not so sweet low-down on Iowa, I need to report on my racing in North Carolina the previous weekend.

My dad decided to make the trip to NC with me and it was nice to get some time with him rather that karokeing in the car by myself during the drive to and fro. We got in late Friday night and I decided to ride the trainer for a little while to see if it really did any good for my legs the next morning. Well even though I had put in some pretty hard training days that week, a little trainer riding and foam rollering had my legs feeling pretty nice for Saturdays race. I guess I'm gonna be one of those trainer riding guys from now on.

Saturdays and Sundays courses and races were nearly identical in all aspects. The front group was pretty big because there were long open sections in between the technical sections and that would always allow things to come back together to some degree. Although the groups were a bit bigger, there were really only a few guys showing their face at the front and "racing". It became pretty tactical and a lot about positioning for the last lap of the race. Luckily there were a few harder sections at the end of the lap that allowed the race to be sorted out and didn't result in a big, road style, bunch kick.




I felt good through the entirety of both days, but think I wasn't quite strong enough to match Matter and Fratinni at the end. I also think I should have raced more aggressive in the finale both days as well. I ended with two 3rd places, but I was nearly as pleased that I had good legs after such a hard week of training. I really believe that taking care of them better after my rides and the drive down played a bit part in still being able to race at a decent level in the midst of a training block. Learning is FUNdemental. And good for UCI points.



I don't have much time, and don't really want to, so I'm not going to say much about Jingle Cross. Crashes, rolled tubulars, bad legs, bad bike handling, and who knows what else. I'm glad that weekend is behind me and I can focus on the bigger things coming down the pipe.



My crash as a result of a rolled tire on an off-camber. If I had known how the rest of the weekend was going to go, I'd have just kept rolling down that hill, all the way back to Bloomington...

You win some and you lose some. I'm still feeling pretty good about the way things are going. See you in Portland.

Kenny Tarmac

"Hey, Guy, I just landed! Yeah, IND to BDL!" Sorry if you don't get the reference. What I'm trying to say is that I've been on airplanes too much recently. Those things just fall out of the sky for no reason, ya know?

I've racel a lot lately and some have gone well and others haven't. I really raced poorly at the USGP in Louisville, then I went to New Jersey and raced a lot better, but still not great, and finally, I was in Northampton, MA last weekend and didn't really ride very well either. Kinda bummed about it, but I feel like I'm going the right direction since I shit my pants (not literally... ahem, collegiate nats RR 07) at the USGP. I was happy to get a "real" podium at Beacon Cross, but besides that, I feel like I've just been a bit off from where I need to be, should be and would like to be.

New Jersey was an experience all together. I flew with two bikes in two giant hard cases and took the train to John Minturn's place in Manayunk for the weekend. I aint from the city, so that was a bit of an experience, especially with the two giant boxes. John was an great host for the weekend and staying with him/ carpooling to the races saved me millions of dollars and actually probably made the rest of my cross season possible. Because I got dinged 350 big ones by the effing Delta bitches, I was looking for a way to avoid flying my bikes home and then right back to MA the next weekend. Adam Myerson and Lyne Lamoureux from Podium Insight each came through for me and each took a bike from New Jersey to races in Massachusetts. That potentially saved me 700 bones. So thankful that bike racing isn't like golf. Many less dousches. John Minturn even fedex'd the empty boxes home for me. Nice people are awesome. Not to mention all the nice people with the C3 team from Baltimore who were trying to help me out with my bikes situation too. Sorry to make this so sappy, but I've really just been amazed with all the great people going out of there way to make shit happen for me.

Northampton, MA was my next destination for Adam Myerson's Cycle-Smart International races. I got home from NJ on Monday night and was back at the airport again on Friday morning at 6 AM, a bit too short of a turn around for my liking, but then again, I'm going to race my bike, so I really have nothing to complain about.

Massachusetts was perfect. I don't know why I like that area so much, but I've been looking forward to going back since Fitchburg last season. I stayed with Steve Roszko, the owner/ founder of BikeReg.com. He lives right on a bike path that runs directly into the park where the CSI races were held. Rough set up, I know. Steve and his wife took care of all my meals and I had a nice bed to sleep in thanks to their 7 year old son, Oscar, lending his out to me. I was able to do the 10-15 minutes spin to and from the course every day and it couldn't have worked out any better. I almost forgot, I got off the plane and Steve was waiting by the curb with the BikeReg team car and my bike already picked up from Myerson, waiting for me in the back. Unbelievable. I felt like Burt Reynolds or somethin'.

I'm glad that I've refrained from giving you guys the boring details/ excuses about these recent races,I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it. I've been thinking about how I just wanted to do a post about all the people who have been helping make this last block of travel and racing possible. Thanks to all of you who have been going out of your way to let me play the bike game this year. It's fun. I'm not really traveling to race this weekend, so I'm actually going to do some hard training and sleep in my own bed. I've gotta put some serious efforts in the bank during these next few weeks, because Nationals and the USGP finals are just around the corner.



Anyone around Bloomington want to motorpace me soon?

Thanks for reading.

P.S. I decided not to post any pictures with this entry, even though there are lots of good ones from Podium Insight, because I'm sick of seeing the stupid face I'm always making when I'm racing cross.

P.P.S Jonny Sundt is a nice dude. We've been talking a good bit at these races recently and he might be the nicest bike racer I know. I told him I used to hate him because he yelled at me. He didn't remeber, but didn't doubt it.

Ice Socks... Wha?

That was some seriously un-cyclocrossy weather! The Cincinnati UCI3 Weekend has come and gone and I employed the ice sock tactic at a cyclocross race. Unbelievable.

I seem to forget how hard these 3 day cyclocross weekends are. Stage race hard. So, I was talking to (name drop coming up) Jeremy Powers on Sunday and we decided that this was definitely harder than Joe Martin. You try to do 3, one hour time trials in a row and see how you legs feel. Anyway, it was all in the name of fun and UCI points.

Friday was a new course from last years slog in the mud, but no less brutal. Very, dry, dusty, and some said "mountain bikey". It was one of those courses where you couldn't really ride it easy. With temps in the mid 80's too much time above red-line and there was no coming back from it, the theme for the weekend. I got an uncharachteristicly good start and slotted in 3rd wheel behind Powers and Trebon, exactly where I didn't want to be. I was afraid I'd go too hard, too early, following those two, but the pace wasn't terrible so I decided to follow for a few. Eventually I settled into a group with Chris Jones and Troy Wells, racing for 6th place. We weren't really close to catching anyone, or being caught. I was comfortable for a while, but started feeling it with a few laps to go and went out the back. I was able to ride the last few laps solo and avoid being caught by Jake Wells in 9th. I was toast afterwards, but pleased with the placing.



We stayed at Chris and Kim Chartier's as we do every year for these races and it was awesome, as it is every year. I knew my legs were milked, so I tried to do the "professional" thing and drink water instead of beer and give my body a good shot at recovery.

Saturday was hot and dusty again, but the course had less elevation change and was more wide-open. I spent the time before the race trying to convince myself that my legs felt ok and that they'd be fine once we started racing, and I did a good job of it. I lied. I felt like trash for every second of that race. Not only did I have shit for legs, I had shit for brains. I couldn't seem to hit any of my lines and I felt like I was giving up 10 seconds a lap, in about 5 different spots on the course. It was just one of those days where I couldn't put it together. Group after group spat me out the back until I limped in in 13th place. Bummed, but optimistic for the big C1 on Sunday.



My legs felt infinitely better turning the pedals during warm up for Harbin Park. With all the traffic, the course was disintegrating by the hour and I spent a good amount of time pondering tire selection. I checked the with others and some were riding Mud tires and others, semi-slicks. There was no continuity as to the tread du jour. I Felt like my FMB semi slicks were hooking up well, so I went with them. I decided not to ride the course between the women's race and our race, which in hindsight, may have been a mistake. I got an average start, but I guess I was just far enough back that I felt like I had a million bees buzzing around my head through every corner, so I took to moving up through the first few corners of the course. No sooner than I take the "hot line" through a slippery off-camber corner, I find myself on my ass. Crashed. Chain dropped. Race riding away. I scrambled to right the ship and get to chasing. After one balls-out lap, I found myself in the group racing for 13th. I'm ping-ponging off of riders trying to get through that group and in search of the next targets. Just as I'm about to head out the good end of that group I come up on Derrick St. John at the bottom of the screaming descent with the "g-out" at the bottom. Since I was in kamikaze mode, I didn't touch the brakes. Apparently he isn't familiar with the Ricky Bobby mentality and was just fine with 13th place and taking it easy through that corner. Before I knew it I was on his ass, and soon after that we were rubbing wheels and I was body slamming myself on the fastest part of the course. Perfect.

I ate it hard. While I was going down, I thought to myself; "welp, there goes the collar bone. I can't believe you've done it again." I managed to tuck and roll and avoid breakage, but I had knocked the air out myslef and proceeded to roll around on the ground for a minute, regaining composure. I thought about dropping out, but decided that was for losers (so is finishing 23rd, but less loser-ish than quitting). I found my bike, straightened the bars and shifters and set out riding hard out of anger and desire for gas money.



It was really nice to hear all the cheers for me even though I wasn't preforming well. There are so many awesome supporters in the Ohio Valley and honestly, I didn't want to set an example for all those Red Zone kids that quitting is the thing to do. I was nearly last after the second wreck and managed to make it up to about 19th or 20th, but riding with reckless abandon for an hour caught up with me on the last lap and I gave a few spots back as I limped in.

It's hard to say that the weekend was a failure, because it was so much fun and I managed to get one decent result, but it was nowhere near what I was looking for. I feel like I missed a huge opportunity by letting the C1 points slip away, but as they say, "that's bike racing". I wish I could personally thank everyone who came up to me with something nice to say, or encouraging words during the race, it really means a lot to have such a home field advantage when I get to race a UCI in my area. Thanks to everyone who cheered, regardless of how fast or slow I was going this weekend.



Coming up we've got our OVCX race in Bloomington this weekend, BloomingCross. Barry Wicks is coming down to do a clinic on Saturday at 4 pm and then we're doing a bonfire/party after the clinic. The after the bonfire/party we're taking Wicknasty to Kilroy's for a Jager Bomb, Bear's for a Hairy Bear and Upstairs for an AMF. All the while, I'll be drinking water. Gotta find some way to beat him on Sunday.

See you this weekend!

Thanks to Lyne from Podium Insight for all the photos!

Madison USGP's

Leading up to these races I wasn't really sure what my goals should be. I had been racing for a few weeks and feeling decent, but hadn't raced against this calibre field yet. As I browsed the start list, I did the ol' "yes, no, no, no, yes, no, no, no, maybe" as to whom I thought I could beat, or had beaten in the past, I didn't come up with that many "yes" answers. I was trying to be realistic, but this field pretty deep, probably the best field I've ever been a part of. French National Champ, Francis Mourey was still hanging around soaking up UCI pts before heading back to Europe, so was former Swiss Champ, Christian Huele, Belgian Tim Van Nuffel and pseudo Belgian Jon Page. After them it was pretty much anybody who's anybody in 'cross filling the grid.

I decided that a top 15 would be a really good ride and a top 20 would be pretty solid too. I was hoping my 33 UCI points from last year would maybe get me into the second row, but in fact, I got number 22, one of the last spots in row 3.

I kicked at my pedal for about 30 seconds after the gun went off, but somehow managed to not lose too much ground. I slithered though the first few corners with my elbows out, pin-balling my way forward. I noticed I had made good progress because Todd Wells was driving our group and Barry Wicks was on my wheel and a few other quality guys were surrounding me. I knew I had good legs almost immediately because I never felt the need to let off the gas and recover after the initial shock of the intense first lap. I tried not to think about where I was or who was behind or in front of me, but it was hard. I almost crashed in a gravel corner and that helped me refocus on the task at hand. As our group splintered after a few laps, I found myself chasing Troy Wells solo and he was chasing the back of the lead group. Behind I had Barry Wicks and Brian Matter chasing me, not the worst company to be in, for sure.



I dangled in no-mans land for a while, but was picking off guys who had been blown out of the lead group. Two of these huge fish to catch were Ryan Trebon and none other than ol' Frankie Mourey. Trebon was cool to pass and drop, but he obviously wasn't having his best day, but when I caught Mourey, Matter and I were racing pretty hard and I was afraid I would get gapped off of Brian while we were overtaking Mourey. Mourey doesn't speak English, so the thought crossed my mind, "how to I say 'inside' in French?" I obviously didn't know, so I just gave him a nice assertive pass in the corner and he didn't seem to care. I couldn't believe I had just blown by the guy I was watching videos of earlier that week. I thought about retiring on the spot. I tried not to star-gaze, but come on, it's Francis Freaking Mourey!

Anywho, Me, Wicks and Matter raced the last few laps together and couldn't really drop each other. I made a move into the last technical section and was able to put a few bike lengths on those two and hold them off on the run up before the final road section. I wasn't sure how far up I had made it, but I was pretty pumped about the days events. It turns out I was 11th on the day and since it was a C1, that was good for 8 UCI points.

Wow, that was a bit long for just one days recap, so I guess Sunday's recap will be the condensed version... I didn't feel very well at all and didn't do as much slithering through the field at the start, but I still found myself in no-mans-land chasing the front group, with the same guys, plus a few others chasing me. This time I was hurting from being out in the wind so much, when I really didn't have the legs to pull it off. Barry dragged a big train of 5 guys up to me and I tried to get in that group and recover, but that wasn't happening. I got dropped and passed by all 5 of 'em on the run up after a few laps and rode the rest of the race pulling Luke Keough around trying to help him get the U23 jersey. He's a nice kid and couldn't really pull through, so I didn't have a problem dragging him around to help his cause. I ended up in 18th on Sunday, kind of disappointing when compared with the previous day's result, but I would have taken it before the weekend started, so I was fine with it... I guess.



You know you've been driving too much when the 6.5hr drive home from Madison seems short. Looking forward to a local race this weekend, then trying to kill it for the Cincy UCI3 and next round of the USGP in Louisville.

Photos by Caitlin Coar

Nittany Lion Cross

I decided last minute to drive out to Allentown, PA for the first UCI cross race of the season. There wasn't too much going on around here, so I figured I could make it a quick in and out trip and hopefully get a decent result to kick off the year.

I left early Friday morning and got to the venue around 6:30 that evening, with just enough time to do some laps before dark. Pretty similar course to last year, and pretty straight forward. I grabbed a bite to eat and set up my accommodations for the evening, the back of my car. May sound terrible, but it really wasn't bad at all. A Grocery Getter with the seats down makes for an ideal "cheap hotel". With not much in the way of entertainment in my "room", I was asleep early and awake even earlier. If I wasn't already a loser for sleeping in my car, I definitely solidified my loser status by getting a "table for one" at Panera for breakfast. I took my sweet time at breakfast and was back to to venue by 10am.

The promoter was nice enough to not leave the UCI races for the last races of the day, so we were racing at 1:15. I was nervous. Seriously nervous. I always get pretty keyed up before the first race of the year, but I think I put quite a bit of pressure on myself just because I had driven all the way out there for 1 hr of racing, so it had better be a good hour. I was fine once the gun went off, but I was mess on the inside before hand.

I got a good start and slotted into 4th wheel. I just wanted to get a lap under my belt with no mishaps. Before I knew it we had a little gap and there was a group of 5 or 6 of us, with another equally sized group not far behind. Adam Myerson, Luke Keough, Valentin Scherz, his other Swiss teammate, plus me. This was the group I wanted to be in. Once we settled in the pace was pretty tolerable, so I decided to test the waters with small attack. It got rid of Scherz's teammate, but it was too early for me to try to go away alone and no one really wanted to work. Scherz was waiting for his teammate, Myerson didn't mind a group sprint and Keough fancied a sprint as well, so I didn't have much in the way of allies for keeping the pace up.



A few laps later I tried again and this time I dropped my chain shortly after I gave it a go. I couldn't believe it. I probably let out a few expletives, but I couldn't believe that the chain decided to drop now. I probably had 5 or 6 hours of riding on that bike in race like conditions, and the chain decided to come off NOW???



I surprisingly kept my composure and got the chain fixed quickly and chased the front group down within the next half lap. Then it came off again in the wooded/rooted section. It looked like the chain keeper had come loose and moved away to where it wasn't doing it's job at all. I spent the next few laps trying to baby it through the rough sections and still make up time. I eventually dropped my chain 4 times, the last one being with 1.5 laps to go. The legs still felt decent, but I had fallen all the way back to 11th. I chased my ass off and finally caught back on with just under a lap to go, but when it came time for the final throw down, I just didn't have enough left and pretty much had to watch the sprint from the back of the group.



5th place and 10 UCI points is noting to scoff at, but I couldn't help but think what could have been if I didn't have to waste so much effort making up for my mechanical issues, I'd like to think a podium at the very least. Coulda shoulda woulda, I know. Lucky for me I have another chance at redemption this coming weekend when Mike and I head out to Baltimore for two more UCI C2's.

I made it back to Bloomington late sat./early sun. morning and after a night's rest I decided I'd rather do a local cross race and potentially win a little cash, than go out and train hard by myself. I made the relatively short drive south the the Huber's Apple Cross near Louisville KY and was able to beat my head against the wall for a solid 60 minutes and come out with my first win in a bike race in way too long. Thank god for cyclocross.

CX Magazine Write-Up

It's a leaf

I wrote a partial blog entry a few weeks ago, but my motivation died mid post, so it lies in the drafts folder. We'll see if I can pitch a complete game today. I'n my writing absence I pretty much raced the entire second half of the road season. I took a break in July to try to get myself fresh for the second half of the year and then transition to cross. My racing in the second half of the season was just so-so. I felt good, but couldn't seem to put it together. The team raced ok as well, but in general I just felt like the team, as well as me personally, we're operating at less than our potential. I guess that's how it goes sometimes.

I've been enjoying some time at home in the month of August and it's been everything I thought it would be. I've been trying to ramp up my training with cross just around the corner, and being able to stay at home and still race a bit has been nice for the mental side of things. The equipment side of things is also coming together finally. I've just got to do the gluing and Aquasealing this week and then I'll be all caught up. I can hardly tell you how excited I am for this coming season. I feel like I barely got to race last year and now I can get a clean shot at a healthy schedule.

Bloomington is crazy right now, with all the college kids coming back. It's great entertainment to walk or ride through campus right now. I constantly find myself saying "I'm glad I didn't act like that." I probably did. I bet I would have called college Ryan a douche. Not even I can escape my own scrutiny when it comes to douching around.

Anyway, the leaf is turning. New motivation, new weather and new bikes.
Coming to a cross race near you.