It’s that time of year.

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Summer is winding down and Cyclocross practice has been in full effect (affect? effect?) in Cincinnati since July. My bike just got painted and rebuilt. I rode it for the first time on Tuesday night for hot laps at Kings and promptly busted the fucking shifter. In the sand pit. HUGE shout out to D2 and Gnome for hooking me up with another 9 speed ultegra shifter (HARD to find). Until it gets here, I had Dominic put on an old 105 that only shifts into maybe 3 gears. I gotta hand it to Dominic. He had that shifter switched out in less than a half hour so I could get my ride in. I am lucky to have him working on my bikes, even if my livingroom is basically a bike shop now. He even salvaged that DC sticker off another bike since we were out of them.

Thursday night was the weekly CX time trial. This means allballsout laps. I signed up for the intermediate level which was two laps. I didn’t have time to ride the whole course (big shock, racing the course blind is kind of how I roll) so I just dicked around on part of the course, praying there would be enough bright orange cones to guide me. It was a running start and I have a pretty good remount so off I went, grunting loudly as I hopped on the bike. Let’s just say my HR could have been higher and I got passed by several people, kids included. A 7 year old kid came up behind me and he was trying to hold on to me for dear life, poor kid. He almost made it. Then Polly, my friend, came up from behind and we tried to navigate the rest of the course together, both of us cracking up as I yelled “look for the orange cones!”. She passed me and I continued on alone for my 2nd lap, just having fun. I am pretty sure I skipped a big portion of the 2nd lap and ended up with some very inaccurate times. Who cares, it was fun as shit, even if my cables needed stretching and I didn’t change gears.

Good news from Steven at Bike Cliques.

October’s Cincinnati UCI3 Cyclocross Festival will feature the largest weekend prize purse for women cyclocross racers anywhere in the world, matching last year’s unprecedented $10,000 cash purse….

To get an idea of the scope of the prize money, consider that the winner of the Women’s UCI Elite race on the event’s third and final day will win $2,351, which translates to 61% more money than the total UCI mandated minimum purse for the entire women’s field that many major races pay. All three races of the UCI3 Festival will pay prize money according to the formula devised by current U.S. Mountain Bike XC Women’s Champion Georgia Gould, where the top three women’s finishers are paid according to the UCI men’s minimum standard.

Another article from Velonews on the topic.

Organizers of October’s Cincinnati UCI3 Cyclocross Festival say the race will offer the largest women’s prize list of any cyclocross race in the world: $10,000.

The total prize list for the Oct. 8-11 event is $30,000…..

….The UCI3 Festival, is in its third year and claims to be the world’s only three-day cyclocross festival. It takes place at three venues near Cincinnati. More information at CxFestival.com.

I need to give a shout out to the three race directors in charge:

Nick Tinler – Devou Park
Doug Dobrozsi – Java Johnny’s
Mitch Graham – Harbin Park

A couple of clarifications per Mitch on the press release that appeared in Velonews:

– we are matching the women’s payouts down to five places – not three
– it says in there that we are the world’s only 3-day cyclocross festival – it was supposed to say first (there’s one in Iowa now too)

This is the Funnest Weekend of Cyclocross. Oct 8th, 9th, and 10th. Last year I raced at Harbin, it was a KILLER. This year I am going to race it on a singlespeed. Come out and race!

There will also be another women’s clinic with Katie Compton, who is the baddest of the bad. Only 40 spots available and it will sell out. I took the clinic last year and it was really fun. Plus I’d pay 40 bucks just to ride bikes with Katie Compton.

Have a good weekend. Get out and get some mud.

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