NorCal Cycling News

The Mach is starting to understand the difference between riding a bike for shits n’ giggles … and doing it for a J O B.  Roman knows it, too ~ but, he’s forever gonna be a bay area kicker, so he tries to shut the beast down.

always a bad idea.

Still … can’t wait to see if Machy is going to have enough energy left to keep up on his rants n’ raves this year ~ it’s too much fun to lose out on.

But … all those hours at the front, or at the back grabbing bottles, or in the wind moving boys up …

I think we’ll understand if the posts get thinner like his hairline…

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CrossNatz … coldness

Welp, Treboner took the crown again in a big display of his open-course power.  He’s like a plains-traveler … able to gallop and cover huge chunks of land like he was bred for it.  I remember the first time i saw him race ~ it was at the Mt.Hood Stage Race up in Oregon.  It was the final day, the downtown crit that features a nasty-biter 180 turn at the top, and a long uphill grind-athon finish.

A two or three hundred dollar prime was bell’d out and I sniffed out that some big lankster of a beast was going to hit his throttle to launch out for it.  Trebon went right after the 180, leaving well over 3/4 a lap to the line.  I slotted on to his wheel immediately and figured i’d have to take at least one pull with him before we started to pull out knives to see who’d get the cash.  Well, no more than a few pedalstokes into his attack, i knew that this bastard was something of a different order.  On his wheel, with him out of the saddle for 10, 15 20 seconds … and all the while accelerating … within a blink we had a massive gap and he was launching us through the course like somebody’d edit’d the film and left out the middle section.

Before i knew it, we were through the bottom half and already on our way up the finishing shoot.  Unbelievable power and I can only imagine how difficult it’d be to try and stay on that action in dirt.  He’s got massive drags of power in that body, those long levers just pouring onto the pedals … built for speed.

{and yes, of course i jumped him and took the cash … come’on, it was bloody handed to me… and he’s just too pretty not to piss on whenever you get the chance}

On Sunday, with the cold, frosty conditions … but, no real slop on the course - it was a day made for the biggest engine.  And, Treboner’s came up firing all cylinders.

You can’t begrudge the guy for winning another title … but dayum, it woulda been pretty frickin’ sweet to see Driscoll win that jersey.  To my mind, Driscoll is THE next big US cross champion.  He is a true-blue CX rider … loving the feel of dirt in his teeth and the cold, wintery feel of bars in bare hands.  He’s the one i’d have preferred to don the stars n’ bars, but his time will come. No doubt.

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Katherine the Great

Gould and Lloyd were awesome ~ but, Compton is the world’s best woman’s cyclocross rider. Period.  I’ve had a crush on Compton ever since I saw her jump the fence at Laguna Seca after finishing a grueling 2 laps out against the wind and soul crushing climbs of  the Sea Otter X-country course.  She was left for dead by the wee MTB climbers, off riding solo and out of anything close to getting paid … but still, there she was smiling and suffering ~ giving us fans a show, no matter what.  No dnf, no pissy attitude at losing … just doing her job.

What class.

The US World’s team seems set ~ Gould, Compton, Lloyd are the terrible threesome that can all go top-10 in the Netherlands this year.  And, with VanGilder maybe tossed in there?  Dombrowski the destroyer?

Best US women’s field ever.  Women’s CX in the US is the deepest, most talented, and most under-funded in the world. Compton bought her own damn shifters, for chrissake.

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We’ll see what shakes out.

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*HRS RockLobster’s Sarah Kerlin won herself the 35s title in dominating fashion.

hellyeah.