Granogue Cross,

The Clif Bar Development Cross Team had a great weekend at the first US Junior UCI race of the 2011/2012 season. Granogue is the first of 4 race weekends that have world ranking UCI points for juniors. These points are very important for qualifying for Euro Cross Camp and the World Championships.

On Saturday, Curtis White out foxed Bobs Redmill rider Drew Dillman to take the win. Zane Godby chased hard by himself all day and finished third. Spencer Downing overcame a poor start and held on for 12th.

Sunday presented another difficult course. Curtis and Drew road hard on the front for the whole race until the last lap when Drew got an advantage and took the win. Going 1 and 2 on both doth days, Drew and Curtis are now tied in points for being the Worlds top ranked junior rider. Zane, or Mr Consistency road in for another strong 3rd place. Spencer improved on Saturday with a 11th place finish.

The team was very well supported by Tom McDaniel and Mike Gavagan. Tom does an amazing job of supporting development in cyclo cross and promoting an amazing race. If you have the chance, attend this race next year.

Check out some of the interviews and video from the race from our friends at CyclingDirt.




Watch more video of Granogue Cross 2011 on cyclingdirt.org



Watch more video of Granogue Cross 2011 on cyclingdirt.org



Watch more video of Granogue Cross 2011 on cyclingdirt.org



Watch more video of Granogue Cross 2011 on cyclingdirt.org

Gloucester 10.1-2

This past weekend was the opening to my season, in "Glah-stah" MA. On day one, a nice front had dropped a bit of rain on the course, so things were going to get pretty sloppy. With it being my first race, I had a poor starting position, 7th row. As soon as the whistle blew, I tried to get to the front as quickly as possible. Within the first half lap, I had found myself off the front with former teammate, Nate Morse. Unfortunately, as soon as I got up to the front, I flatted. When I got a new bike, I had dropped down into 8th position. Over the next few laps, I tried to get back up to the front, but was held up by several more crashes and mechanicals. In the last lap, I was fighting for 2nd place in a group of three. Leading into the sandpit, I opened up a small gap and held it to the line, taking 2nd.

Going into day two, a strong wind was coming off the ocean, so the course dried out a bit, making things a bit faster than day one. Shortly after the start, I had a small gap, but got a little too excited and slid out going around a corner. I was able to get back into the flow with no issues. Soon after, a lead group of 7 formed. The group widdled down, bit by bit up until 2 laps to go. Nate Morse put in an attack, and instantly got a gap. Almost right after Nate went, I bridged up to him. Going into the last lap, it was mano a mano. I started to put the hurt on him, and almost gained a gap a few times, but Nate was able to shut it down. Going into the barriers, with 300 meters to go, we were together. Coming around the last turn, I opened up my sprint and held it to the line, with Nate close behind. All in all, it was a great weekend of racing.

That's all for now.

-Curtis

Up the run-up on lap one of day 2. Photo credit to Marty Allen.

Trying to shake Nate on the last lap of day 2. Photo credit to Wil Matthews.

Standing on the top step, day 2. Photo credit to Emma White

CLIF BAR Team Camp

During the last week of August all the team members came to Boulder Colorado for a team training camp. It was a chance for us all to get our beautiful new bikes all dialed and get some good miles in on them before 'cross season gets in full swing. Also it gave us opportunity to spend some time with each other, some team bonding if you will... Below are some photos to give you a peak into how it all went down.

Getting the new bikes all built up for the guys.

Next we all went to RETUL to get our bikes fitted. They have a really cool system for fitting. Lots of cameras, infra red lights, and 3D imaging. Here we see Curtis getting strung with infra red lights 

Todd Carver from RETUL Working his magic

Practicing 'cross out at Valmont bike park

The "Sand Pit"

No 'cross camp would be complete without some run-ups!

Team photo shoot at Valmont 

More photo shooting...

 In between everything you saw in the pictures above we were out logging some miles on the new bikes and we were all having to much fun on the new mounts to take any pictures.

Well that's it for now. Be sure to check back soon as the race season gets underway!

Thanks for reading,

Kolben Preble

A New Season

Back for 2011 the Clif Bar Development Cross Team will be coming to a race near you.

Look for us at

Fort Colins USGP, October 8th and 9th
Granouge Cross, October 15th and 16th
Boulder Cups, October 30th and 31st
Cincinnati UCI 3, November 4th, 5th and 6th
Louisville USGP, November 12th and 13th
Jingle Cross, November 25th, 26th and 27th
Bend USGP, December 10th and 11th
Euro Cross Camp December 16th through January 1
US National Championships January 4th to the 8th

The team is retaining its squad from last year except for Mitch Hoke who has moved to the Clif Bar Pro Team.

Kolben Preble and Bjorn Fox will be moving out of the U19 category into the Elite/U23 Ranks. Zane Godby, Spencer Downing, Jordan Cullen, Curtis White and Zack Gould will be looking to dominate the U19 fields in the US and Europe.

The team started the season of right with a Team Camp in Boulder Colorado. Todd Carver of Retul got all the kids bike fits dialed on their new Ridley X-Fires. Retul will be joining the team as a sponsor for 2011-2012 season.

Team Ride with Brady Kappius and Colby Pierce

More updates to come. Also look for us on Facebook and Twitter as ClifBarDevo and Keep an eye out for Team Clif Bar at Cross Vegas, Start Crossed and Madison USGP

Greetings

We have a spent a little bit over a week at the EurocrossCamp in Belgium. It has been very cold, around freezing the whole time. On the rides the roads are either slushy, getting really wet, or super icy, making it hard to stay upright. We have spent time preparing for racing either at the house or out riding.

The first two races I did in Belgium were last Saturday and Sunday. The first race was a local race on an icy farm field and the second race was the Kalmthout World Cup race near Antwerp. On Saturday’s race most of us from the Eurocross Camp had enough UCI points to be called up to the front row. I had a great start and lead the race in the beginning; then I had a mechanical and dropping back a little to finish in third place. At the World Cup, I was called up in the 3rd row, didn’t have a great start but I had a blast in the race. I finished in 44th place, the first American. It was really fun racing with people from all different countries, an orange Dutch guy there, a small blue, red, white French guy there. Fighting against the best of all the different countries. The course was fast, icy, muddy and hilly.

Today is Christmas Eve, we woke up at 8:30am and went for a ride. I did a prep ride along the canal in town. The canal has a pretty cool bike path, but it’s icy and slippery which, is actually great cyclo-cross training combining handling and power. This afternoon there was a trip to the Tour of Flanders Museum. Today we had a special Christmas Eve dinner with the table set very nicely. Some family of the people who are in charge of the house joined us for food and it was a good time. We had a toast (only an Aquarius orange drink for us; champagne for the staff), dinner, and cake for dessert.

Bjorn

Belgium Update

Today marks the one week anniversary of my adventure here in Belgium. Im going to use this post to list the most interesting things that have stood out from my trip thus far.

1). Raced my first race outside of the U.S.

2). Raced my first World Cup

3). Bumped elbows with a Belgian in a World Cup

4). Crashed in my first world cup

5). Ate Speculoos

6). Had my first Belgian pastry

7). Got completely lost on a training ride

8) Tried white Asparagus.

Everybody on the team has their bikes now, and we were all able to pasticipate in the training race. While none of us won and got of the chores we all had a good time, and it was nice to mix up the training a bit.

I did notice some cool Practices here in Belgium that the US should adopt. The coolest thing is the recycling. The Belgians have really got this down. It really to see how much they care about the recycling, and how much the people here do it. Another thing is grocery bags. at the grocery stores if you want a bag you have to buy a reusable one, and most everybody brings bags to the store to reuse. I know I know "they have this already in the states" you say but the the difference here is that the ALL the Belgians reuse their bags, and its comes naturally to them. Anyways its dinner time now, but I will leave with some pictures.

Screen at the World Cup

World Cup Kalmthout

Riding along trail the canal

My Bed for two weeks

One Of the Team USA vans

Snowy Daze

The whole team arrived last week safe and sound. Bjorn Zane and Kolben safely navigated the Wold Cup in Kalmthout which is a tall order for the second race in Europe.We are looking forward to a little bike scrimage tomorrow with the whole EuroCross Team tomorrow.

Unfortunately no bikes for me yet, but I will have a CX bike to borrow tomorrow and hopefully trusty steads arrive soon. This is is supposedly the biggest snow event they have seen since WWII, they don't plow road hear and the Belgians don't really know how to handle the snow. Flights keep getting canceled because the planes don't have any de-icer which is being delivered but the trucks are stuck on the roads which aren't plowed.

Wings of airplanes curve a when they don't have any more petrol

New Training Bike, note that side walked is plowed better then the road

One Whole Gallon

Check Back soon

Mitch Hoke

First Day in Izegem

Well day one of racing is done here in Europe. The boys had a successful day. Bjorn finished 4th and Zane and Kolben treated the race as opener and got a couple hard laps in at the front and then took some easy laps. They should be going good for tomorrows World Cup in Kalmthout.

I unfortunately got delayed and put on a train from Frankfurt so i have no bicycles yet.

Check in Later for more pictures and results.

Mitch

USGP in Portland

Everyone had great races at the second of the USGP in Portland.

In the mens 15-16 race Jordan Cullen conquered a challenging course to take the win. He looks really strong coming into nationals.

The 17-18 race was dominated by former team member Yannick Eckmann. Zane and Bjorn scored some UCI points coming in 4th and 5th and Kolben came in 7th for another super strong ride

I had the best GP yet finishing 17th.

More photos to come and stayed tuned for updates from US National Championships and from Europe after that.

Thanks

Mitch Hoke

Europe Bound

Great news. We are sending 4 riders to Euro Cross Camp this year.

Kolben Preble, Zane Golby, Bjorn Fox and myself will be heading across the pond after nationals to race. You can follow are adventures here and find more info on the camp at www.eurocrosscamp.com.

Check back for more.

This weekend the team is off to Jingle Cross in Iowa City followed by rounds 7 and 8 of the USGP at the infamous PIR course in Portland.

Sea you out there

Mitch Hoke