Class

Well the last couple of weeks or so I have had some presentations to do in my English class. The first presentation I talked about our team, and what were doing to help start Global Cooling. I started off on talking about how we try and make the races in Colorado zero waste. I also gave the class a couple of tips on what they could do, even if it was only in there rooms. The easiest way the class thought they could help out is to start recycling and actually use the recycle bins around campus. My professor really liked what our team is trying to do and now does not let us use the trash can and makes us recycle during class. Also, I let them know to ride there bike or walk when ever they can. There is no reason to drive and put Co2 into the air especially when it’s only less than two miles. I found this really cool, because going to class now I see some of my class mates riding there bikes to class instead of driving. I also let them watch a clip on what Cyclocross really is. A lot of them had never heard of it and found it really interesting. My next presentation was just last week over Global Warming. Sure the class has heard of it, but most of them did not know how bad it is already. And a lot of them had no idea that we were contributing to Global Warming that much. These presentations were fun to give, because I got to teach people on this issue and I learned a lot more information in the process.

Conor

Crank Brothers team issue green Candy SL pedals for sale

Head on over to Cyclocrossworld.com

Weekend Racing

This weekend there was two UCI races. One in Gunnison on Western State Campus and one in Durango on Fort Lewis Campus. Conor, Brady, Danny and I were at both races. Conor and I raced in the Cat 3's. We were doing great the whole race on Saturday off the front with one other guy. Conor crashed with 2 laps to go, into a corner. It was just myself and another guy from Durango off the front. Then on the last lap about half way through the lap my chain broke. Conor came in second and I got a DNF with my mechanical. Then Brady and Danny raced shortly after. They both had a great race and both placed in the top ten with Danny finishing on the podium.
Then on Sunday the race was in Durango. Conor and I got there to warm up and get the course dialed in. But once we got there we noticed that we went off an hour and a half earlier then the day before. So we had no time to warm up or ride the course. We finished up 6th and 7th. Then again Brady and Danny rode a great race. Danny had a mechanical and worked his way back up. Both again placing in the top ten on a UCI race.

Zero Waste results from Boulder UCI races

Back to the race weekend that started it all in 2006 - the CLIF BAR Development Team started its Zero Waste events work at last year's US Gran Prix Series events in Longmont and Boulder.

Race promoters Rus Kappius and Chris Grealish were really keen on the idea of reducing the environmental impact of their events, and the team learned a lot working with Eco-Cycle on how to make sure as little trash as possible is generated at the races. For our first effort with the USGP races, we achieved a 74% diversion rate - so, only 26% of the total materials collected ended up going to the landfill.

Not bad, but we wanted to do better, and spread the idea of low-impact events as much as we could.

This year, we've partnered with the US Gran Prix of Cyclo-Cross Series and Crank Brothers to make the entire USGP Series Zero Waste, which is a huge task for races occurring in Louisville, KY, Trenton, NJ, and Portland, OR.

Locally, we're helping the BoulderRacing Cyclo-Cross Series go Zero Waste, and of course we were back out at Boulder's biggest weekend of racing, thanks to Chris Grealish's enthusiasm and support for Zero Waste events.

Over the Nov. 3-4 weekend, with the large UCI events (Redline Cup on Sat, Boulder Cup on Sun), the team worked hard to improve on our 2006 Zero Waste results.

The two races combined had a diversion rate of 80.3%. Resources saved: 2.8 trees, 819 kilowatt hours, 755 gallons of water and diverted 2320 pounds of compostable materials from the landfill.

Kappius and Summerhill in top 10 at Fort Lewis UCI race

Following up on their strong rides Saturday in Gunnison, CLIF BAR Development teammates Danny Summerhill and Brady Kappius both ended up in the top 10, scoring UCI points, on Sunday.

The race was held on the Fort Lewis College campus, and after a fast start both riders were in good position early in the race. A flat tire and a crash derailed Summerhill quite a bit, but he was able to scratch his way back up to 9th spot. Kappius rode smoothly all day and took home an excellent 6th place finish.

Some photos from the race can be found here.

Sunny California

Checking in from sunny California. A night of heavy rainfall created gorgeous cross conditions at the race. In today’s NorCal Cup #4, I raced the under 18 category and won my race and a large case of strawberries.

Bjorn

Summerhill on first UCI podium, Kappius gets first UCI points of season

Mountaineer Cross (UCI Cat. 2), Gunnison, CO - Saturday November 9

CLIF BAR Development 'Cross Team captains Brady Kappius and Danny Summerhill road tripped this weekend to a small pair of UCI-category 2 races in Western Colorado.

In Saturday's race on the Western State College campus, Summerhill used a great start to separate himself early with two of the strongest riders, Todd Wells and Joachim Parbo (Danish National Champ). While he couldn't match their pace, Summerhill rode a steady race to hold 3rd, the first time he's been on the podium at a UCI-ranked event.

Kappius also enjoyed a great start and rode to a strong 9th-place finish, gaining his first UCI points of the season.

Zero Waste results from Louisville USGP

This year the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross Series has committed to a Zero Waste initiative, in an effort to minimize the amount of trash produced at all 6 races in the Series. This initiative is being funded by the USGP and Crank Brothers, and organized by the CLIF BAR Development Team and Eco-Cycle.

The goal of a Zero Waste event is to plan out as much of the potential waste stream as possible ahead of time, and then make sure that as much waste produced on race day as possible can be reused, recycled and composted. To learn more about Zero Waste, please visit Eco-Cycle's website.

ZERO WASTE RESULTS FROM LOUISVILLE USGP WEEKEND:

Diversion Rate: 75.6% (meaning less than 25% of the total materials collected went to the landfill).

Resources Saved: 2 trees, 918 kilowatt hours of energy, 846 gallons of water, and diverted 3900 pounds of compostable materials from the landfill.

Summerhill's report from Louisville

As i wrapped up my first grand prix weekend as a u-23 i have to say that as hard as it was i still had a lot of fun, and definitely learned a lot.

My trip started out at 6:00 Thursday morning when i had to still pack my bag - the night before i had actually fallen asleep on top of all the clothes I was supposed to be packing. Thankfully my mom came to wake me up early which gave me just enough time to
finish packing and get all the last minute things taken care of.

The next thing I know i am sitting on the runway finally on Kentucky soil. As our bags were unloaded every other persons’ bag managed to make it off of the flight except for mine. So, without any riding clothes, toothbrush or fresh pair of boxers, we met up with Jim Hale, one of our friends at Pedro’s. Jim picked us up in one of the coolest Sprinter vans i have ever seen, the Pedro’s Love Tour Van. From there we drove to the course where i got to see one of the coolest features i have ever seen in an American cyclo-cross race…the giant hulking beast called the Green Monster was a genuine European fly over!

The next day i woke up around 9, ate breakfast and went back down to the course where i got to be a part of my first USGP Media Day, where i got to do a photo shoot and was interviewed with people like Tim, Lyne, Jeremy, Jessie, and Katie. Later in the afternoon I coached the CLIF BAR kids clinic, along with Ben and Troy Wells from TEAM CLIF BAR and US National Team coach Geoff Proctor. We had 25 kids from the local junior team Red Zone practice their mounts and dismounts and carrying their little bikes over the barriers, and practiced riding the sand pits.

24 hours later i found myself on the start line shoulder to shoulder with people I’ve grown up watching race, like Mark McCormack and Ryan Trebon. The gun goes off and i switch in to gear. As the laps count down i am now sitting in second U23 position, about 10 seconds off of Jamie Driscoll’s wheel when the next thing i know Chris Horner is coming up on my left hand side going really fast. Thankfully Chris doesn't have nearly the bike handling skills as he does power on the straightaways so i was able to stay with him as he pulled me back up to Jamie's wheel.

As the last lap bell rang i new that no other U23 was going to catch us and either Jamie or myself would wear the USGP leaders’ jersey at the end of the day. As we entered the finishing stretch, i attacked to try to distance myself from Jamie, and thankfully i managed to hold that small gap all the way to the finish line.

The next day’s race went just about the same except with Jamie crashing out early it gave Chance N and Nick W the open door to take the lead with me. It was fun and really hard racing in the group with those two, with lots of attacking. i basically jumped the same place i had the day before and thankfully it worked again and i ended up taking the win with a sprint both days and the USGP leaders’ jersey.

I know that without the help of a whole crew of people this solid weekend for both the team and myself wouldn't be possible. A ton of thanks goes out to Nick, Alex, John, Josh, Jim, Ben and our amazing host families in Louisville.

I’m already looking forward to the next USGP weekend in New Jersey!

Tour of NREL Wind Energy Test Site

Last Friday before the Boulder UCI race weekend, several CLIF BAR team members took a fascinating tour of the National Renewable Energy Lab's Wind Energy Test Site, located up on a windy mesa between Golden and Boulder.

Team member Andrew Simms' dad works at the site, and gave us an extensive tour of some test wind turbines, and showed us how they test new blade designs and motors. Highlights were getting to go up on top of an older turbine (fortunately only half as tall as the latest models), and seeing the incredible size of the blades and motors up close. The scale of the testing equipment and the procedures used to test are pretty incredible.