CLIF BAR DEVELOPMENT CYCLOCROSS TEAM

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.
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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

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Best race so far

Last Saturday and Sunday were my best races in my season so far. It was the Boulder Cup that weekend. The first day at the reservoir was really good. I raced the juniors Elite which started 2 minutes behind the Cat.3. So we basically chased the cat.3 down. I had a perfect start. I got the whole shot and kept my pace up as long as i could. I got a a gap in the first lap. But I got chased down from a lot of my team mates and other people. I tried to stay away from them, I went each lap so fast as possible. Also each lap i got closer to the leader from the cat.3 guys. In the last lap i was in 7th place in the cat.3 and first place in the juniors elite. When i finished i needed 34 seconds more to catch the leader of the cat.3 but that didn't happen. I still said to my self I still have another day.

On sunday we started 2 minutes behind the cat.3 again. My brother robin got the whole shot, Skyler from Black Sheep was in second and I was in third. After like the 3 corner before the hurdles I past both of them and went through the hurdles first and got a gap. Each corner the gap got bigger and bigger. In the first lap I caught a lot of cat.3 riders. In like the 3 lap in the race i was close to 5 place. I was far gone from the junior field i was like 45 seconds ahead. I didn't slow down though I wanted to catch the leader from the cat.3 guys. It took me another 2 laps until i caught the leader. When i passed him i just kept on hammering it down so i rode away from him too. The announcer went crazy yep talk about how old i am and that i started 2 minutes behind a caught all of the riders and all that. Oh by the way the run up after the hurdles was just amazing the crowed was just yelling and everything it felt like i was in the pro race. On the end of the race I ended up in 1st, 43 seconds ahead of the first cat.3 rider and more than 1 minute in front of the next junior Elite rider. A lot of people came up after the race to congratulate me and all it was just so cool.

So that is why is was my greatest weekend ever.

written by Yannick Eckmann