Get Your Turkey Now!

When: Sunday, November 4th

Where: Leesburg, VA; Ida Lee Park

What: Squadra Coppi Tacchino Cross. Massive suffering. Fun.

Hey everybody: c'mon down to Leesburg on Sunday, November 4th for the Squadra Coppi Tacchino Ciclicross, so we can put una battitura vicioza on you. Hey, you didn't think Team Cinzano let up on Dave Stoller in the off-season, did you? Heck no, they broke his heart at the big 'Cross race too.

The Tacchino is brought to you by Squadra Coppi, the same club that steals your heart and breaks your legs year after year by putting on the Giro di Coppi. So you know going in it will hurt you bad, but that only makes you love it more.

"Tacchino" means turkey in Italian. Il Tacchino is a the second course in a MABRAcross weekend smorgasbord of cyclocross suffering. Go ahead, we're all friends here. Have a couple helpings. Our friends in The Delaware Cyclocross Coalition of Delaware are staging the Wayne Scott Cross in Fairhill, MD on Saturday the 3d. Mmmm... tasty first course.

Then on Sunday the 4^th, you can come out to Leesburg and get stuffed by the Tacchino! We've got an interesting course with lots of flow - rolling hills, sweeping turns, a couple hairpins, and some memorable slippery off-camber turns. It is a balanced course that rewards power but also rewards good bike handling. It will be a fun course for experts and intermediates, and also a great course if you are looking to whip out the mountain bike or borrow a ride to try 'Cross for the first time.

This BikeReg.com MABRAcross event features five separate races and runs from 9:00 am until 3:30 in the afternoon, with the showcase Elite/Professional race starting at 1:30. The 3/4 women will have sole posession of the course starting at 9:00, and it's all racing from that point on.

It's not just about you though. If you haven't been to Ida Lee Park before, it's a very spectator-friendly venue, and a great place to have a family picnic and watch cross. This may help you test yourself in two races in one weekend without having to test your family's patience. There are two outdoor playgrounds, and we will have a Li'l Belgians Race at 1:00 PM, which is free. Kids can ride any bike in the L'il Belgians Race, but must have a helmet.

And, for a perfect recovery activity, Ida Lee Park sports a fantastic fitness center with a pool, jacuzzi and shower facilities, available for a modest fee. The pool has lap and free swim areas, so this is another activity that is kid and cross-racer friendly. Treat yourself and the pit crew to a well-deserved recovery swim after the ride.

Downtown Leesburg also has many restaurants and shops, and the Leesburg outlet mall is nearby. Not that anybody would ever get bored at a cyclocross race, but it's nice to know in case you and the support crew need to find some place to spend your winnings.

Registration is available through BikeReg. We are looking forward to seeing you there.

Granogue and Wiss 2007

Granogue ‘Cross – October 20, 2007

Known as the “Queen of the MAC,” Granogue is an unforgiving technical course that brings back racers year after year. This year, the previous night’s rainfall and the early morning dew combined to make conditions along the grassy slopes of the watchtower hill almost unridable. The flow was also disrupted for early races due to a silly chicane around the roots of a big tree. This particular course “feature” was taken out for the elite races, significantly speeding up the section leading into the road climb.


We got to the venue later than we'd planned and we rushed to get Jean registered, pinned, and warmed up before her 0900 start. We found out later that I had pinned her skinsuit to her base layer and that she was trapped in the Port-a-john with 10 minutes before the start. Oops. She got the start line on time but without a decent course preview. She was rattled from the beginning, struggling with her cleats not clipping in and concerned by the difficulty of the course.


With all of the excitement with Jean, I only got 2 laps in on the course and nothing at speed. I completely squandered a second row start by getting swarmed during the road start and into the prologue loop. Up and down the watchtower hill, the slick grass and tight off-camber turns caused several traffic jams and slowed me down quite a bit. I struggled on that section and never really got into the “flow” of the course that makes Granogue so famous. Toward the end of the race, when I crashed on the off-camber yet again and former Coppi Kevin Kuzas passed me (after starting at the absolute back of the field), I even had my own little “Bjarne Riis” moment of throwing my bike on the ground in anger. Cathartic, but not really conducive to going faster! I’m beginning to understand the existential angst that is cyclocross – perhaps even understanding Dostoyevsky’s assertion that “suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.” Whatever. The suck-o-meter was pegged that day!

Wissahickon ‘Cross – October 21, 2007

I’ve heard that “the first lap is one-half the race” in cyclocross. That was certainly true for me at Wissahickon this year. After a front-row start, I was passed by a succession of riders throughout the first lap until I was barely hanging in the top 20. After that I just tried to hold my own and avoid getting passed. I had my traditional 3rd lap fade followed by my 4th lap burst of energy, but it was too little, too late to make up much ground. I ended up 28th out of 61 starters and about 6 minutes off the winner. BSNYC nails it when he explains that starting on the front row and then completely exploding on the first lap is “like you're an Alka-Seltzer and the race is a big glass of water, and everybody gets to watch your effervescent, frothy demise.” That’s how I felt - like I was fizzizziling away.

I obviously need to work on my VO2max power, because that’s what it will take to hold or gain position in the first lap. Although the first lap is only 6 to 10 minutes of the 45-minute race, your finishing position in the race is largely determined by the end of the first lap. To excel, you need to have a really high VO2max power and good recovery. You may get a few seconds of respite here and there during the lap, on downhills or other sections, but for the most part, you’re going at near VO2max levels for the first 6 to 10 minutes of the race. So – its time to bring out the big stick and whip up some intervals. Word.