Phil Maronilla said:

@Remy Forgues, i can keep an eye on him while you race. he can help me take care of the course.

Another SupercrossCup weekend has passed and Kissena was integral to making it happen. Please take a moment to read about your teammates’ efforts and come to the club holiday party on the 15th to celebrate our accomplishments and spend time with each other.

We should all give a BIG THANK YOU to the Kissena members who helped put on a great SupercrossCup this past weekend. The race was a big success and got good press for how well it was run and how professional it looked.

As you can see from the following, Kissena is the main muscle behind this event. Several members put in multiple days including Thierry Bonnaire, Anthony Ott, Phil Maronilla, Todd McLoughlin, and me. New member Andrew Johnsonput in a full day on Saturday followed by a full day officiating the race on Sunday, capped off with working teardown until 8pm. 

Bobby Peras, Rich Freeman and Rob Mullen got in some early races before pitching in. Remy Forgues did the same, while his son Cedric navigated the kids course in his Kissena jersey. Cedric was the only Kissena to "race" with National CX champ Stephen Hyde and the winner of the elite races this weekend, Curtis White. 

Jim Nelson put in a full day for setup, while John Olsson, Dan Reiners, and Matt Budofsky each put in a full day over the weekend. Matt was one of several new members joining us for the first time this year. Brian Stan battled Friday afternoon traffic to help with setup. James Reeder balanced racing twice and volunteering twice. Rich Polk drove up to check out the race and helped marshal. 

One of the most surprising stories to me was Joe Matunis who not only pitched in all day Saturday, but brought three former students and members of his El Puente Cycling Club. Joe and these young men marshaled course crossings for most of the day and one of the boys, Angel Figueroa, won the volunteer raffle prize of an electric power washer that he promptly donated to their bike club. If you aren't familiar with Joe's work with this bike club for underprivileged kids, you should ask him about it. It sounds like a worthwhile cause that many a Kissena member would want to get behind. 

Sunday afternoon teardown is often the most difficult time to get volunteers to pitch in. It gets dark and cold and everybody just wants to go home. Huge props to Thomas Chen, Matt, Andrew, Anthony, and Todd who stayed past dark to make sure the course was back to normal so that we could get invited back to this venue. 

Several members were involved behind the scenes in the days and weeks leading up to race weekend including Marcos Girado and John Malcolmson with graphics, Dave Yang with the website as well as JP Partland and Eloy Anzola with media. JP pitched in on site after jumping into three (yes 3) races and Eloy took photos of the elite fields after his races. 

I can't forget to mention race promoter and long time Kissena Myles Romanow, who is the mad genius and energy behind the race. For my part, I joined Myles on several pre race weekends to help get the course ready and kept things running smoothly until teardown was complete. 

The course was flowy and fun with tons of climbing. Anthony, Phil, JP, Rich andI lined up for the Kissena Cyclocross championships. Anthony and I duked it out for honors but he easily dispatched me on the long climb and earned bragging rights as club champ for the year. Check out all the videos for the NECX series and Kerry Werner's vlog that showcase the course and this weekend's races. 

I hope to see you all at the holiday party Sunday December 15th from 6-9pm at Strong Rope. Volunteers will surely have stories to share with those who were not able to attend. We will have raffle prizes for SupercrossCup volunteers, but the party is for all members. It is a good time to celebrate the whole year with your team mates without their silly orange helmets.