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.

Salsa unveils custom CLIF BAR Devo Team frame!

Well, it's official and now out in the world for cross bike lovers to see. The limited edition Salsa Chili con Crosso - CLIF BAR Development Team edition. More info on the Salsa blog.

First team meeting, Sept. 7

The CLIF BAR Development team had its first pre-season meeting Sept. 7 in Boulder, joining in on the Cycle-Smart Cyclo-Cross Skills clinic which was held by Boulder Cycle Sport. The team got in some skills practice and helped instruct over 20 beginner and junior crossers.

Danny Summerhill and the Eckmann brothers taught a large junior group...the future of the sport here in Colorado is awesome to behold with so many kids getting into cross. Not to mention tons of beginners of all ages getting into cross - check out Mud and Cowbells for a recap of the clinic and evidence of the huge cross scene we have going out here in Boulder.

*Photos courtesy Greg Keller

Tour of California Clean up

Today I was cleaning up for the Tour of California stage 1. The part of the stage we cleaned was on Highway 1 outside of my house. We picked up all kinds of recyclables and used an old bike trailer to carry them back to the recycling station.
Björn

Eckmann brothers strong in German Nationals

Brothers Robin (age 15) and Yannick (age 14) Eckmann returned to their homeland of Germany for the holidays and participated in the German National Cyclocross Championships on Saturday.

Showing the impressive form and skill they maintained during the fall in Colorado through US Nationals last month, the brothers made up for a back-row start by charging all the way into the top 10.

Switching their finishing places from US Nationals, this time Yannick took 4th place, and Robin 6th place.

Race reports and photos from their trip coming soon.

Zack Gould's Language Arts class speech

What is global cooling? We all know what global warming is. Today I am going to tell you about global cooling. Global cooling is mostly trying to stop global warming. We can start global cooling by riding our bikes or walking to school, instead of taking a car which releases pollution into the atmosphere decreasing the ozone making it hotter.

Who likes snow? I sure do! So by starting global cooling we can have more snow days. Another way to start global cooling is to recycle and compost. By doing this we can reuse our natural resources instead of dumping it into a landfill and have to use up more energy to create paper and bottles. To help global cooling we can put solar panels on the top of our houses to get energy from the sun instead of Xcel Energy.

I ride for CLIF BAR Development CX Team (a cycling team) which promotes global cooling. CLIF BAR is one of the sponsors which supports global cooling.


-Zack Gould, age 12