Summerhill Report from Belgium: first race

On Saturday, Danny Summerhill and most of the other U-23 and Junior Euro-Campers headed to a Belgian B-series race in Laarn for a warm up race. It brought out some top Belgian U-23s, as well as many Belgian amateurs and some Brits and the US kids. Great ride for Rad Racing's Nick Wieghall, in 14th place. Here's Danny's quick report:

"I started on the front line right next to Niels Albert and I beat him to the whole shot! I led the first half lap but then settled down in 3rd for the first half of the race. After that, I hit a post, popped my chain off and didn't really have that great of a second half of the race. So, I ended up 20th, which I was not too pleased about. We have a pretty big race in Zeddam tomorrow (where the 2006 Worlds course was, with 100 stairs) so that should be interesting!"

Results:

U23
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1		Niels Albert	Palmans-Cras
2		Vincent Baestaens	Fidea Cycling Team
3		Gianni Denolf	Palmans-Cras
4		Davy De Scheemaeker
5		Kevin Eeckhout
6		Stijn Penne
7		Nico Clarysse
8		Sven Verboven	Wielerclub Galmaarden Sportief
9		Patrick Bassez
10		Mike Thielemans
11		David Fletcher
12		Toon Devenyns
13		Bjorn De Decker
14		Nicholas Weighall
15		Matthias Onghena	VZW Wielerclub " Onder Ons - Parike "
16		Kristof Boelens
17		Thomas Vernaeckt	Asfra Racing Team
18		Kenneth Van Compernolle	Sunweb ProJob
19		Dieter Schol	K.S.W. De Demerspurters Haacht - Betekom
20		Daniél Summerhill
21		Steven De Caluwe
22		Steven Sluyts
23		Laurens De Vreese	Wielersportvereniging Artevelde VZW - Gent
24		Alex Atkins
25		Mitchell Peterson
26		Carson Miller
27		Ross Creder
28		Valentijn Ponseele	WC De Molenspurters Meulebeke
29		Wim Maes
30		Kristof Scheirs
31		Steven Schol	K.S.W. De Demerspurters Haacht - Betekom
32		Vincent Van Hooste	Asfra Racing Team
33		Jackson Vijarona
34		Koen Boelens	VC De Lievespurters - Zomergem
35		Simon Mathys
36		Kjell Van Driessche

Euro Camp kicks off for Brady and Danny

Just days after Nationals, CLIF BAR Development Team captains Brady Kappius and Danny Summerhill re-organized all their gear, got some tune-up and packing help from team mechanic Nick Legan, and headed over to Belgium for the 5th edition of the European 'Cross Camp.

Nice write-up today on VeloNews.com

And, the Euro Camp website has all the details

This will be the third time both Danny and Brady have attended the camp, and it has played a huge role in their development as top-level cyclo-cross racers.

Stay tuned for results from Belgium - race schedule below:

2007-08 Euro Cross Camp Schedule
Dec 20 - Arrival
Dec 22 - Laarne - Juniors/U-23/Elite
Dec 23 - Balegem - Juniors
Dec 23 - Zeddam C1 (Holland) U-23/Elite
Dec 26 - Hofstade WC - Juniors/U-23/Elite
Dec 27 - Tourhout C2 - Elite
Dec 28 - Loenhout GVA Series/C1 - Juniors/U-23/Elite
Dec 29 - Middlekerke C2 - Elite
Dec 30 - Diegem SuperPrestige/C1 - Juniors/U-23
Jan 1 - Baal GVA Series/C1 - Juniors/U-23
Jan 1 - Petange C2 (Luxembourg) Elite
Jan 2 - St Niklaas C2 - Juniors/U-23/Elite
Jan 3 - Departure

Summerhill named to World Championships team

Summerhill riding the sand in New Jersey at the USGP

The US Team was named this week for the 2008 UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championships, in Treviso, Italy (Junior, U23, and Women; Men get named in January).

CLIF BAR Development Team's Danny Summerhill was selected as a coaches' pick, after finishing a strong US season in which he won two US Gran Prix races, finished 2nd overall in the USGP Series, and took 3rd at Under-23 Nationals.

Full story here.

US National Championships Report

It was a successful weekend across the board for the CLIF BAR Development Cyclo-Cross Team at last weekend's US National Championships, in Kansas City, KS.

Brady Kappius took home the Stars 'n Stripes as the Division II Collegiate National Champion - he rode an incredible race, was in 2nd for several laps, ended up 4th overall in a 3-up sprint, and was the first Division II rider across the line.

In the Junior 13-14 race, Zack Gould finished a tough, icy early morning race in 15th.

In the Junior 15-16 race, the brothers Eckmann took home 4th (Robin) and 6th (Yannick), while California kid Bjorn Fox ended his first ride on snow in 15th place.

In the Junior 17-18 race, Andrew Barker dealt with several crashes and a flat tire, and survived a tough day for 22nd, while Ethan Bell raced his first 17-18 event and finished 30th.

The Under-23 race was one of the marquee events of the weekend, and unfortunately a dropped chain early in lap one on some icy ruts kept Danny Summerhill from battling it out with his usual peers, Jamey Driscoll and Bjorn Selander. Those two raced off the front, and Danny went back and forth with Nick Wieghall. Despite a few spills and a flat tire, Danny won the sprint for 3rd. Brady Kappius got a great start, and rode a strong, smooth race to finish 10th place.

Congrats to CLIF BAR Development program alums on a great weekend:

- team co-founder and racer for TIAA-CREF/CLIF BAR, Brandon Dwight, scored a victory in the Masters 35+ age group.

- two year team member Troy Wells (who won the U23 National title with the team) notched the best result of his career, finishing 5th in the Elite Mens race.

CLIF BAR kids win Best Cyclo-Cross Team in ACA

Following the Colorado State Championships, Dec. 9, the American Cycling Association named it's Best Cyclo-Cross Teams and Riders for each category, based on a points system for a select series of races this year.

Despite many kids missing races at home due to US Gran Prix trips, the CLIF BAR Development team was well-represented in the final rankings, both as a team and individuals.

In Jr. 10-12, Zack Gould was 1st!

In Jr. 15-16, Danny Hiller was 3rd!

In the Open Men division, Brady Kappius was 8th, and along with Danny Summerhill, teamed up to take 3rd in the team competition.

In Cat. 3, the big squad of 6 CLIF BAR teammates won the Best Team competition. Conor Mullervy was 2nd, Robin Eckmann 3rd, Kevin Mullervy 9th, Andrew Barker 12th, Cody Cox 17th, and Yannick Eckmann 20th.

In Cat. 4, Yannick Eckmann was 6th.

Summerhill wins, Cat 3 kids sweep podium at CO States

Category 3 Men: CLIF BAR kids sweep the podium!
Barker (2nd), Eckmann (1st), C. Mullervy (3rd)

Does is always snow for the Colorado State Championships? I think the past two years it did, and this year a new race course in Lyons was broken in with a Friday snowstorm and bitter cold temps.

In the Junior race, Zack Gould braved the 12 degree weather and took home the silver medal.

In the Cat. 3 race, the CLIF BAR posse of young guns was in full effect, at one time holding down the top 4 spots in the race. Robin Eckmann showed impressive form in winning by a wide margin; Andrew Barker steadily moved up all race and wrapped up 2nd place; Conor Mullervy nailed down 3rd place. After being in the mix for top 5, Kevin Mullervy succumbed to some mechanical problems and ended up 16th.

Funny analysis of the Cat 3 results page: the kids took it to the old guys, most of whom have connections with the team!

1	Eckmann	Robin	Clif Bar Development CX Team
2	Barker	Andrew	Clif Bar Development CX Team
3	Mullervy	Conor	Clif Bar Development CX Team
4	Hopper	Tom	part-time CLIF BAR team mechanic this year
5	Opperman	Matthew	part-time CLIF BAR team mechanic the past few years
6	Barclay	John	Unattached
7	LaBarr_Dusty		Georgia Gould's husband, Luna Chix CX mechanic
8	Steposki_Waldek		Luna Chix team manager

In the Open race, Danny Summerhill and Brady Kappius immediately made the lead group of 5, riding with Brandon Dwight (Boulder Cycle Sport), Matt Pacocha (VeloNews) and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher). Danny constantly tried to shed some of the group, and succeeded in getting away with just Dwight and JHK. Brady faded a bit mid-race but held on strong for a 5th place finish, while Danny went to the wire with the other 2 and pulled away through the last barrier section for the win, and his first elite State Championship.

USGP makes BIG difference by going Zero Waste!

Thanks to the US Gran Prix of Cyclo-Cross Series organizers, Crank Brothers, CLIF BAR, and Eco-Cycle, the inaugural Zero Waste effort for the national 'cross series was a big success, and made quite a difference for the environment.

In addition to educating racers and fans about recycling and composting and putting the concept out there that it is possible to organize and participate in major events with a minimal impact on the environment, the statistics clearly show what a difference Zero Waste events can have:

Overall diversion rate: 79.5% --> almost 80% of the total materials collected at all the events was kept out of landfills thanks to reuse, recycling, and composting.

Resources Saved: 4.8 trees, 2,078 kilowatt hours of energy, 1,915 gallons of water and diverted 11,715 pounds of compostable materials from the landfill.

Zero Waste results for Portland USGP

It was a cold, wet, and windy weekend in Portland Dec. 1-2 for the final round of the US Gran Prix Series, but that didn't stop Jen and the team from pulling off another successful Zero Waste event. Special thanks to Robert from 1-800-Got-Junk for taking care of hauling our recyclables to the recycling facility and our compostables to the compost facility.

Thanks to all the eco-friendly folks in Portland, the weekend achieved the highest diversion rate of the USGP Series!

Diversion Rate: 83%
Resources Saved: 1.8 trees, 535.5 kilowatt hours of energy, 493 gallons of water and diverted 1350 pounds of compostable materials from the landfill.

Cody Cox and his School Visit

Today, Tuesday, the third of December 2007, I had the great pleasure of doing my first school visit. I decided to visit my old elementary school of which I have had many great experiences. I met with my old counselor and second grade teacher to discuss what class would be appropriate. It was decided that I would do the 5 grade class. I also arranged with the P.E. teacher, who is amazing, to do a recycling type relay with the kids. Following this activity they met with me in the media center. I put together a great slideshow so the kids could all see what I was talking about. At first I discussed who I was and then progressed into the sport of cyclocross. I also talked about our team as a developing focus and also its strong environmental mission. We discussed the barriers and running sections and shifted into the bike which I brought with me. The kids were fascinated with the bike; half my time there was explaining it and especially the SRAM Double Tap shifters, which they thought were awesome. I then discussed the importance of leaving a “green” world and what they can to do help. I mentioned that Hummers were not a great thing to own and that new great options are being developed such as hybrids. I also discussed the strong importance of recycling and to a good surprise, the school recycles pretty much everything, so the kids were very responsive on that subject. I also talked about composting and how they could do it. They really were fascinated by it. At the end I did some questions and answered them. One question was if I had ever heard of Team Health Net. I was shocked to hear a fifth grader ask me about that. It turns out his dad is the team physician, which was really cool. I told the kid he should start doing this sport, and he already does. He did the junior division at the two local cross races here in town. Looks like our team can add another great member!

Robin Eckmann race report: 11/25 Red Rocks CX

At Sunday's race it was the first time in a while where I was again able to relax before the start. My goal at the race was actually just to watch my pedal frequency and be relaxed on my bike, and to look back and say this race really helped me prepare for the next USGP and Nationals.

I was not even planning to try for the win, I was just thinking to myself that I want to be in the first ten, then I need to make the first selection of the race because it was really windy at the beginning. After two laps about 10-15min into the race, three of our team were in the lead group (Andrew, Kevin, and me) and there was no other team in the front group. We were tying to figure out how the Belgians sometimes do it at Worlds with many in the front group, and we decided to try to ride like the team time trial guys in the Tour de France.

After four laps, Andrew had some bike problems so we were down to two left but then with two laps to go Conor was trying to make the move up. When Conor made it up to the group then I made the last move and I won. I was really happy because that was my first cat.3 win in cyclocross.