More National/Supercup Pictures (besides the ones below)

US Cyclocross Nationals...Day 1,  12/16/00 
submitted by Paul Weiss:
Sneaked out of Portland on the first flight after they cleared the runway from the 6 inches of fresh snow that blanketed Maine.  Glad to be on the plane and off the runway with snowstorms hitting every part of the country.  What am I doing thinking about Cyclocross with all this snow!  Well it has been an amazing season for me this year, so why not.  Since, September this will be the 20th  race,  but all those were in New England.  

Funny, the cycling community is small, of course you end up running into people you know all the time.  As was the case in Chicago's O'Hare.   Ran into my fellow Mainer Nate Rice who goes to school in Burlington, VT.  He was with his friend and teammate Larry, they were headed to do the collegiate Cyclocross race.  The flight was fun, I got halfway through Lance Armstrong's new book "It's not about the Bike", a very good read, inspiring.

Landing in Kansas city at 11:30 PM on a snowy runway gave me ideas on how the course would be in the AM.   I felt kind of out of place staying at the "race Hotel" a really nice one called the Double Tree.  I mean, you suffer and struggle in the cold and mud and snow, then off in the evening to this posh place with nice dinner.....is this how the guys in the Tour De France do it?

The Nationals, at a place called Stoll Park, in a small suburb of Kansas City called Overland Park.   It was 60 degrees here a week ago, now 8 inches covered the ground.  This is going to be fun.  All the favorites were here today, but it was going to be my first day and my day to race in the Masters Level race.  They broke it down to 5 year age gaps.  Mine being the 35-40, can you believe that I am that old?  I mean I get carded every time I go to a bar...to drink a diet coke.  The course would have been very fast with mostly fields and turns with several very fast hurdle sets and some off camber downhill turns.  One long run up with two sets of hurdles made for some interesting times.  It was a more classic course, built by the pros for speed and was wide for passing.  Except for one thing, 8 inches of snow.  This kind of eliminated every aspect of technique and strength you had and made you rethink everything.  

My race started fast, with some pavement that was clear, then off into the snow.  You had to follow a line...the only line in the course.  The packed center trail.  That is all there was, you could not ride any other line, else you were forced into the snow and slowed to a crawl.  It was almost impossible to pass anyone except for a few section of pavement.  Since I was not to close to the front of the pack I started to work my way up the pack.  The race turned out to be, how few mistakes you could make.  If you made few mistakes you stayed ahead.  Any little line into the side of the trail and it really made you lose time on your opponents.  I worked up slowly into the 20's position, then got a little to cocky in the turn and did a full snowman, head first in an off camber turn.  Lucky the announcer did not see me do this else there would have been great public embarrassment.  It did cost me several places though.  I ended up finishing a respectable 35th.  I was happy with that.  Mud, snow and humble pie were the tickets for the day, but I was very happy to have done so well and be racing at this level.  Back for another day tomorrow. 

A tired and happy finisher in a Kansas field.  So, how was the Saturday ride?

US Cyclocross Nationals...Day 2,  12/17/00
submitted from the field, by Paul Weiss:

What started out as a windier version of yesterday, turned out to be something completely different.  The 8 inches of snow was still on the ground, but there were increasing winds and plummeting temperatures as the day progressed, and I do mean plummeting.  By the end of the day the temperature was hovering in the single digits and the winds had increases to gust of over 40 MPH.  This dropped the wind chill to a level not compatible with human life, let a lone cycling.  I mean usually at cross races there is always some guys that wear shorts or knickers, even in the coldest of conditions.  Today people were wearing almost everything they had, no shorts, even on the tuff guys.

The course turned itself into hard packed treachery.  The short road sections had what we call in New England "Black ice".  This made every section of pavement, almost non ride able, you could not accelerate or turn in any harsh way or you greased out big time.  Finesse was the order of the day.  There were no banked turns to be had, anywhere, only lightly balanced, delicate dancing.  Sometimes with the inside leg making the brace before the fall.  Some parts of the course did have some dirt that had worn in the day before.  These sections were a nice hint of what normal Cyclocross is all about. 

My race was interesting.  At first the officials thought that they would delay the race for several hours or for a day, but then someone in the Cyclocross federal government decided to have the race regardless of the conditions.   I told them that it was just like Maine weather.

   There was a special tent set up with about a dozen training stands in it to warm up before the race.  Well we were in  there all right, but not warming up.....keeping warm.  It was brutally cold.  The winds were unreal and howled out of the North.  As our race started, it started to snow sideways, as it got colder.  My race was fun and interesting, the only advantage that I had was that I knew the course from riding it the day before, and I was from Maine, cold weather wasn't so bad.  I had a good race, working with some small groups of riders and having them to block the wind on the north side of the course made  a big difference.  The winds were so harsh, that on some sections they threatened knocking you off the road.  No kidding.  Luckily, no big falls for me today, for the most part, things went well as can be on this ice course.  I finished 32 today, good enough for government work.  The damage was on my feet though, half frozen, I got them back to the heated official tent before frostbite set in.

The Men's A race was fantastic.  I am sure you will read the Velo news reports but, fellow New Englander and Saturn rider Tim Johnson is now the National Champ.  He put on the move late with his dual with standing national champion  Mark Gullickson.  Mark McCormack was close in for third.  The Women's A race was very exciting as well.  Everyone rooted for the second place finisher Anne Grande, but it was the International Superstar Alison Dunlap, with all her Mt biking skills that took this one.  New Englander Carman Richardson started very strong with an early lead, but a few follies in the snow and ice and she dropped back a few places and fought hard for the rest of the race.  The Junior race was pretty wild, fellow Mainer Ollie Cote learned early that you cannot accelerate quickly on ice.  Greasing out several times on a really tuff course.  This costing him a lot of time.   He was all smiles though, back in the hotel, safe and warm as I feel also.  Tomorrow is supposed to be an even colder and windier day.  It should be interesting........I'll keep you posted.

US Cyclocross Supercup Finals...Day 3,  12/18/00
submitted from the field, by Paul Weiss:

Well this was it.  The last in a series of 4 national venue Cyclocross races.  Since they were UCI sanctioned (the international cycling body),  several riders from Europe were in the neighborhood.  The first Supercup was in Boulder, then Glaucester, MA and Chicago, and now Kansas.  This being my second Supercup this season, I was looking forward to a little fun o the high plains.
The day started with sunny skies and a temperature of 10 degrees, but at least the winds were not as strong as the day before.   A new course greeted us, a wonderful one with some technical tricks laid out by pro course designer extraordinaire: Tom Stevens (who is now a Maine Native....Saco).  To make things interesting they used some of the route from  the day before and those sections were melted a bit.....ie the road sections.  The rest of the course was a good frozen slog across what seemed like tundra.  Snow is still easier than ice.
My race was started with the Collegiate race a minute behind ours.  The collegiate riders soon mixed with our field, and it made for some interesting passing in the tight corners and icy paths.  Even got to ride with my friend Nate Rice, for a while until he dropped my in a sharp turn.  He was riding well this weekend having done fantastic the day before in the National race.  I slogged along and raced well placing 29th.  A good feeling came over me as I realized this was the last ride of the 2000 season...........well a good way to end things at least for Cyclocross.  Maybe it will warm up enough in Portland to get out a road ride when I get back...hehe.

The Women's A race was fantastic with Alison Dunlap again keeping a lead over Anne Grande, with awesome performances from the 3rd chasing Rachel Loyd and 4th Carman Richarson. The Men's A race was charged, with Tim Johnson attaching from the gun, but former US champion Mark Gullickson countered every move, and made a bike length dash at the end that gave him the win of the day, and also for enough points for the series title.

Fellow Mainer, Ollie Cote, had a fantastic race (a combined Junior and Master field).  He blasted from the start with Master rider Chris Delucio.  Two laps in a tagteam formed with his former Teammate (Team Grimace) Alan Obey (the VT native) and finished in 2nd overall!

Well that is all for now, I will post pics when I get back to Maine.  Hereis one that my buddy Mark Abramson took.  Man was this fun or what!...chow....pablo