Help us get to Europe!

We are doing our annual team trip to Europe and need your help to get there!
help us out by donating here: http://www.gofundme.com/3vwaj8
or if you want to sell some stuff on the pros closet and donate the proceeds to the team contact Mitch Hoke: mitchell.hoke@gmail.com
thanks for your generosity!

Jingle Cross Rock 2013

Last weekend the Clif bar development cross team traveled to Iowa City for the 2013 edition of Jingle Cross Rock. My brother and I were the only 17-18 year olds to go because the two 18 year olds (Maxx and Gerret) had to go on college visits. Brady on the elite team, Ian from the u23 team, and our mechanics Myron and Zane also joined. We arrived the day before the race on Thursday and did a short easy ride before the sun went down.  We  went to bed early and  got lots of sleep. The next day we went to the course early and sent up the  tent area. Next we pre rode the course will CLIF Bar company rider Terra.  After that Cormac and I got ready for our races. I raced the 2's and he raced the 3's , our first ever night time races.. I had last row call up in the 2's, but had a great start and battled this guy all night, and I out sprinted him for the win. Saturday we raced the juniors really early. I took the win in a not so competitive race over Cormac but gained lots of experience on the course, which I am told is one of the most European courses in the US. Sunday I decided to race both the juniors and the 2's for experience in the mud. I won the juniors again and practiced my pitting almost twice every lap. The 2's was a different story, I had last call up again but had a bad start and never could catch up. The group of 4 leaders we saving their energy while I struggled in the wind. I picked a few guys off every lap but ran out of time and managed 5th. However I gained lots of experience in the mud. 

 Struggling in Sundays wind on my way to 5th in he cat 2's

 Cormac rides the railroad track

Top of the podium for Fridays night race in the cat 2's

Brady doing what he does best on Thursdays easy ride

Boulder Cup

I was ready, my shoes were perfectly tightened, I was wearing my lucky socks, and my skinsuit was pinned just right. It was the race I had always dreamed of doing in the elite category, The Boulder Cup.

 I was ten when I saw my first Boulder Cup. It was at Harlow Platts Park right near my house. I saw all the elite riders racing and I said to my mom, “I need to do this sport.” The next year I saddled up and raced in the juniors. I did not race very fast, but I had a lot of fun, and I kept coming back. Each year I would get better and better until I won my first Boulder Cup in the category four mens. Every year, after my race, I would watch the elite race and think how much fun it would be to have all of those people cheering for me.

This year I was finally old enough to race in the ELITE men. (I am really still just a first year U23, but in the Boulder Cup they race together.) The race was a blur, but it was an amazing feeling being cheered on by hundreds of people. I finished 28th out of 64 elite riders being the youngest rider in the race. Even though I couldn’t beat my elite teammate Brady Kappius it was still one of the best races of my life, to date.

-Ian

Amy Dombroski

I was exhausted, my body was aching, and I had a blinding headache. My shifting was making a grinding sound I can’t even describe. I was maybe three miles from the finish of the Mike Horgan Memorial Hill Climb up Sugarloaf when things went from bad to worse; my back started to seize up. I was in incredible pain and I got off my bike and started walking it. Every time I would try to ride, my back would seize up. After some light stretching and getting my breath back, I was able to soft pedal a bit to keep going. Then after a few minutes my coaching mentor, Amy Dombroski, came riding up to me. She had already finished her race in the women’s category and she recognized me and started cheering me on. I told her I wasn’t feeling too great, and she told me to try to breath into the pain. All of a sudden I was able to pedal again, and the the knots in my back started to untie. Amy rode up a bit further with me and then turned around and cheered for some other kids on my team. When the pain was gone, I was able to focus on my race, and I made it to the top in first. As I recall, Amy was second in that brutal race and still had the energy to cheer us on.

When I was first getting into cycling, I was on the Flatiron Flyers. Flatiron Flyers was a local junior cycling team, and Amy was an assistant coach. She would come ride with our group and give us pointers on how to become better bike riders. Amy was one of the top U.S women's cyclocross racers and was getting close to being able to win a world cup race.

Recently in Belgium, Amy was hit and killed by a car training. It was a tragedy that affected the entire cycling community.

I was exhausted, my body was aching, and I had a blinding headache. The mountain bike I was borrowing  was too small and was clunking when I tried to shift.  I was one and a half laps into my four laps and it was by far the worst I had ever been performing during a bike race. I was nearing the end of my second lap when I realized I could end all my misery by just calling it a quits and going back to our team tents. Then my lower back started to cramp. It was a sharp pain right above my hip. Then, I remembered Amy’s words of encouragement, and I knew what I needed to do. After that, it felt like she was riding with me. I started to speed up and the stabbing pain went away. Even though I still finished poorly, I was very proud of myself and I think Amy would have been as well.  

-Ian

Providence Cyclocross Festival

Last weekend was the first UCI junior race of the season.
The trip Started out with a short Visit to the MET school in Providence where the team chatted about cyclocross, the race, and What the life of a mechanic is like. We also wooed the crowed with our fantastic pit changes, wheelies, and oh ya... Human barriers.

The first day was super dry and tacky which mad for fast group racing until a three up sprint decided the podium. I finished up 5th and grabbed 1 UCI point. liam was 9th garrett was 14th and cormac was 16th.

After some great racing we celebrated with some Thai food and Ice cream and Liam took some great selfies via snap chat.

The second Day started out terrible because I could not get a wink of sleep due to unbelievable stomach pains, but thankfully Myron had some Tea that calmed my stomach so i could race. 

the course was very similar to the day before except it was covered in super slick mud! this made for some sweet racing! I finished up 8th, Garrett 12th Liam 13th Cormac 21st.

All and all it was a super fun start to the season.

Next up is Boulder Cup this weekend before I fly out two the first two world cups with team USA

Thanks for reading,

Until Next time!

-Maxx Chance

#chinaCX

The u23 team is in China for the first ever UCI cyclocross event held in China. Yesterday we all took a bus to the mountains and checked out the Great Wall. Take a look at the photos below! 

After exploring the Great Wall we built up our bikes and went for a ride to explore the course and some of the surrounding area. 

Riding with 100 other cyclocross racers from all other the world through the streets of Yanquing is a very unique experience!

Racing starts Saturday (tomorrow) so be sure to check back for more updates. Until then we'll leave you with this shot of Spencer and his new friend. 

*update* we are all back from this amazing trip! It was a great experience to get to do this race and I'm sure we will all remember it for years to come. Be sure to search for the hashtag #chinaCX on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to see photos from others that were on the trip. 

Stay tuned for profile on our team bikes for 2013! 

Video From Montana Cross Camp

Here is a video recap from the USA Cycling Summer Cyclocross Camp. See if you can spot the CLIF BAR riders...

https://vimeo.com/72116895

Thanks Sam Erickson for the video!

Montana Cross Camp Update

Hello readers,
It has been awhile since anyone has posted. My name is Liam Dunn, this is the first time that I have posted, I'm relatively new to Clif Bar. I race junior men 17-18. Anyway, I wanted to give everyone an update of the off season training that Maxx, Garrett, and I have been doing. The three of us just got back from Geoff Proctor's USA development Camp in Helena Montana. Cross camp had a deep roster, 17 of the best U18 cross racers in the states. Camp was hard but it was super fun and a good refresher of our skills. The first day we arrived around 8 pm, and everyone's bikes made it to Helena, except mine. This meant that I would be waking up early the next morning to build my bike, because it wouldn't get in until midnight. Camp consisted of 4 sessions each day. Starting at 5:30 am running, core, stairs, and agility ladders. Then we would do a 3 hour cross ride focusing on different skills. We would play games, have competitions on the "Sven Climb" and do little races.In the afternoon we would do 3 hour road rides, climbing into the mountains and crossing the Continental Divide multiple times in one day. Then after dinner we would have a 2 hour long class room session analyzing the European cross races. Camp was super fun and helped us all analyze where our skills were at and what we needed to focus on. On the very last day we went the ice cream shop in downtown Helena. Maxx, Garrett, David, and I split the "Super Nova," which consisted of 2 brownies, 6 scoops of ice cream, and 6 toppings. All in All, camp was amazing and I would like to thank Geoff and the assistant coaches for everything, we all had a blast and learned more about cross than we knew possible.

Below are a picture of the "Super Nova" and an early morning in the dorms
Here is the link to Tom Robertson's Gallery http://portfolio.tomrobertsonphoto.com/#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=16&a=0&at=0
A video from camp will be uploaded shortly

Thanks for reading, Liam Dunn.

 

Euro Cross Camp Update

Hello World,

Its been awhile since we updated this thing but I will try to give you a quick rundown of whats been happening. After Louisville, the next team race was the Bend USGP everybody except Curtis made the trip, and we had a pretty good showing. The following week (December 15) Spencer, Curtis, Jordan, Zane and me (Kolben) all went to Belgium for the ninth edition of Geoff Proctors Euro Cross Camp. That brings us to the present...
We all have been here for about a week and a half now, and we have a little under one week to go. Its been a good trip so far with fairly nice weather, lots of mud, and we are getting tons of great experience, plus a few good results.
One of our jobs here at the camp is to write a Cyclingnews.com diary on one day of the camp. So far Curtis, Spencer, and Kolben have all written one, and they can be found:

Here-Spencer

Here-Kolben

Here-Curtis


We encourage you to read them, as they are meant to shed light onto what it is like to train, race, and live in Belgium.

Louisville USGP

The USGP always brings the top racers for all categories, and they are all competing for UCI points in the UCI races and not to mention the Exergy USGP leader’s jersey.  Also in 2013 the World Championships will be in the same Louisville venue as this past weekend.

This was the second big race weekend for the Clif Bar juniors, because this was the second weekend in a row with UCI points. All of the racers showed up to race, there were 29 starters on Saturday and 30 starters on Sunday. This is one of the deepest fields that the juniors have seen all season.

On Saturday’s race there were all the key players at the front of the field: Drew Dillman, Curtis White, Zane Godby, and Tobin Ortenblad. They made the race very fast, but after the first couple of corners there was a crash about half way through the field. Both Jordan and Spencer were caught in it, which makes for tough chasing.

On Sunday it was pretty much the same players, and thankfully there wasn’t a crash so everyone got through the start cleanly. The front group was the same: Dillman, White, Godby, and Ortenblad. With 3 laps to go Dillman attacked and dropped the other three riders, and they worked to bring him back. But Godby bobbled in the sand pit, White and Ortenblad rode away from him. Then Ortenblad got White in the sprint.

In addition to Zane and Curtis gaining UCI points, Zane ended the weekend taking over the Exergy USGP leader’s jersey.

Saturday:

1. Andrew Dillman (Bob’s RedMill)

2.Zane Godby (Clif Bar Development Cross Team)

3. Curtis White (Clif Bar Development Cross Team)

4. Tobin Ortenblad (Cal Giant)

5. Yohan Patry (Ride with Rendall)

10. Jordan (Clif Bar Development Cross Team)

14. Spencer(Clif Bar Development Cross Team)

 22^. Zack (Clif Bar Development Cross Team)

Sunday:

1. Andrew Dillman (Bob’s RedMill)

2. Tobin Ortenblad (Cal Giant)

3. Curtis (Clif Bar Development Cross Team)

4. Zane (Clif Bar Development Cross Team)

5. Logan Owen (Team Redline)

11. Jordan (Clif Bar Development Cross Team)

16. Zack (Clif Bar Development Cross Team)

19. Spencer (Clif Bar Development Cross Team)