Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Summerhill 13th in GvA Series round in Niel

TEAM CLIF BAR's Danny Summerhill will be back in the US this week to re-join the team for the 2nd round of the Crank Brothers US Gran Prix of Cyclo-Cross Series in Mercer County, NJ.
----

Jaarmarktcross Niel (GvA Trofee #2) - C2
Belgium, November 11, 2008

Kenneth Van Compernolle Sunweb Projob
2 Tom Meeusen Fidea Cycling Team
3 Jim Aernouts Palmans-Cras
4 Stef Boden
5 Arnaud Jouffroy
6 Joeri Adams
7 Quentin Bertholet Fidea Cycling Team
8 Kevin Cant AVB Cycling Team
9 Sven Verboven Palmans-Cras
10 Dave De Cleyn Scott USA Cycling Team
11 Gianni Denolf Palmans-Cras
12 Philipp Walsleben Palmans-Cras
13 Daniel Summerhill TEAM CLIF BAR

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Junior State Cyclocross!


This Saturday was the Junior State Cyclocross Championships! This was my best race so far. At the start line I was all ready to go, and then I heard the whistle. I was one of the first off the line and I thought I was clipped in so I started sprinting, as if to take the hole-shot. Suddenly, my foot slipped and I swerved a little and was not in the position I would have liked to be in. I was probably in about sixth place and about fifteen seconds behind the leaders. I had to bring up the tempo a lot and finally caught up to fourth and fifth place. In this race there was a ton of singletrack so it was very difficult to pass, but once we eventually got on to a dirt road section I flew past fourth and fifth place. Then I came into a barrier section, the barriers were set to half height, I attempted to bunny hop both of them and did it successfully. By then I had a minor gap on fifth and sixth place. Just five seconds ahead of me I saw second and third place putting down the hammer. Then I came into another barrier section and the barrier was the same size so I attempted to bunny hop that one, and got the first wheel about six inches off the ground and the second one only about two. I nailed the barrier at around 15-20 MPH and almost did a front flip and slammed my whole right side into the ground.
It turns out afterward that I also cracked my helmet. Anyways, I got right up and got on the bike. But when I crashed fifth place caught up to me, and as it turns out third place was right in front of me when I crashed. So we got onto the single track again and I took about thirty seconds to collect myself and then dropped the hammer. I caught up to third place, and passed him on the wider, dirt section part. This time I ran over all the barriers. By the next barrier section, me and third place broke away from fifth and the third place rider was trying to drop me. I didn't budge. The other rider hit a root and his rear wheel started making a weird noise. I passed him and dropped him on the run up and then twenty seconds later I hear a loud POP! I finished in third place and was so tired but the good hard working kind of tired. I did better than I thought was even possible for me to do. So, the moral of the story is; don't give up even if you have a bad start or crash hard. Other good results from the Clif Bar Development CX Team: David Kessler:15-16 State Champion. Zane Godby:13-14 State Champion. Yannick Eckmann: 5th place- Pro Race. Robin Eckmann: 6th place- Pro Race. Brady Kappius: 3rd place- Pro Race. Mitch Hoke: 10th place Pro Race.
By Zack Gould

TEAM CLIF BAR is working to fight climate change