Robin Eckmann race report: 11/25 Red Rocks CX

At Sunday's race it was the first time in a while where I was again able to relax before the start. My goal at the race was actually just to watch my pedal frequency and be relaxed on my bike, and to look back and say this race really helped me prepare for the next USGP and Nationals.

I was not even planning to try for the win, I was just thinking to myself that I want to be in the first ten, then I need to make the first selection of the race because it was really windy at the beginning. After two laps about 10-15min into the race, three of our team were in the lead group (Andrew, Kevin, and me) and there was no other team in the front group. We were tying to figure out how the Belgians sometimes do it at Worlds with many in the front group, and we decided to try to ride like the team time trial guys in the Tour de France.

After four laps, Andrew had some bike problems so we were down to two left but then with two laps to go Conor was trying to make the move up. When Conor made it up to the group then I made the last move and I won. I was really happy because that was my first cat.3 win in cyclocross.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well last weekend racing down and Denver was a good time. Though the drive over from Grand Junction was just a mess with all the snow and traffic. The course on Saturday was real fun and technical. Along with it being really bumpy and muddy and had a good steep s-turn climb which started to hurt after a couple of laps. And the whole team had some good results.

Than it was Sundays race witch was also another great course. Warming up on the course it was really slick and muddy. It was like a slip and slide. Though by the time we started the mud harden up a little bit but was still slick. Then we got the call ups to the front line. I had an awesome start and was off the front at the beginning. Andrew and Robin followed and we worked together to make a bigger gap from the field. Kevin was just behind us with a Pro Peloton racer and was working for us by trying to slow him down. Andrew had some bad luck and had a mechanical with his bike causing him to drop back from the break. With about two or so laps to go Kevin started to bridge his way up. Never did get up to us but did make a gap from the fellow Pro Peloton racer. Robin attacked on the last lap to get the win. I took 2^nd and Kevin took 3^rd, sweeping the podium which was awesome. Andrew and Yannick finished up strong finishing up not far behind.

Conor

Zero Waste results from New Jersey USGP weekend

This time around we had a diversion rate of 80% (only 11.5 bags of trash, believe it or not!). Resources saved: 0.9 trees, 625 kilowatt hours of energy, 576 gallons of water and diverted 6465 pounds of compostable materials from the landfill.

thanks to Jen from Eco-Cycle for running another amazing Zero Waste cyclo-cross weekend.

Finally posting New Jersey USGP results

catching up after a busy couple weeks and Thanksgiving...here are the team's results from the second US Gran Prix Series weekend, in Mercer County, NJ:

Saturday -

Danny Summerhill, 14th overall Elite Men / 2nd U23
Alex Howes, 33rd overall Elite Men / 9th U23

Andrew Barker, 6th Jr 17-18
Cody Cox, 14th Jr 17-18

Robin Eckmann, 2nd Jr 15-16
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Sunday -

Danny Summerhill, initially 22nd overall Elite Men / 5th U23 after coming back from a broken chain - but DQ'd for an illegal bike change.

Brady Kappius, 26th overall Elite Men / 7th U23

Andrew Barker, 11th Jr 17-18
Cody Cox, 14th Jr 17-18

Robin Eckmann, 1st Jr 15-16
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Overall USGP Series standings after 4 races:

U23 = Summerhill 3rd, Kappius 10th

Jr 17-18 = Barker 11th, Cox 16th