TEAM CLIF BAR season kicks off in Northwest

CLIF BAR Development Team graduate, and current TCB star, Troy Wells, gets the 'cross season started right this weekend, in the home of Dale & Anne Knapp.

Saturday night is the Star Crossed race outside of Seattle, and Sunday is the Rad Racing GP in Tacoma. Let's hope Tdub has been doing his nighttime and hill run training.

Great Job

I'd like to congradulate Yannick in winning in the 3s this past weekend. Keep rippin it!

Brecktobercross

So i raced my first cross race in the season up in Breckenridge in the Cat.3. I started in 4th or 5th row and when we started i moved up right away to 6th place. Than on the first paved part i moved father up to 2nd place. When it went in the dirt part again there was a mud pile, you could go through it or on go around it. The first guy took the right so i decided to go left i passed him there and moved into first place. After a while i looked back and i had a gap of 6 seconds so i decided to just go hard for two laps. After does 2 laps i was still in first but this time with a 40 second gap. Each lap my gap got bigger and in the last lap i had a minute and 20 seconds before the second guy. I didn't go as hard anymore just to keep my gap between him. So i finished the race about a minute before the second guy finished. 

I achieved one of my goals already and that was to win a cross race in Cat.3 so now my goals are to win some more Cat.3 races.

Yannick Eckmann

Cross in Chicago

Further evidence cross is growing like crazy across America: 30 people out in the Portland-esque rain for the Cycle-Smart Chicago cross clinic I taught yesterday. Thankfully it was 70 out, and the mud helped create some better practice scenarios.

The clinic was hosted by the Chicago Cyclo-Cross Cup. Thanks to Imelda March for organizing a great clinic, to Franco for taking care of me while I was in town, and for all the motivated participants for braving the rain to learn new skills!

BIG thanks to Alex Wassman @ SRAM for waking up early on Saturday AM to drop off a SRAM tent - otherwise we would have been hanging out in the rain ALL day for the clinic. Much appreciated!!! The CLIF BAR crew is psyched to be back on SRAM this season. TEAM CLIF BAR elite riders Troy Wells, Brady Kappius and Danny Summerhill will be rocking SRAM RED, and the CLIF BAR Devo team is rolling the updated RIVAL group.

08-09 Season Preview

With September half gone and 'cross races already starting in Colorado, New England, and elsewhere, it's about time to preview the 2008-09 version of the CLIF BAR Development Cyclo-Cross Team.

First, some things remain the same: the team again is focused on Junior/U23 development and Colorado riders. Almost all of our amazing sponsors have returned to help keep a great program running smoothly. The team again will be emphasizing "sustainable cycling" in its operations, bike industry partnerships, and community involvement. Our race schedule will be geared towards the Colorado schedule, Worlds-qualifier races, and Nationals.

Some changes: Our two U23 veterans (Brady Kappius '04, and Danny Summerhill '05) have graduated up to the elite TEAM CLIF BAR squad, joining Troy Wells (Devo team in '05, '06).

Over the summer we were fortunate to add some new up-and-coming 'cross riders: juniors Zane Godby (15-16) and Dave Kessler (15-16), and Under-23 mountain bikers Colin Cares and Mitch Hoke.