Question about cross categories. Last year (or maybe even before that), I
remember someone telling me that if you're a 4 on the road then you're also
a 4 in cross. Considering this is my first year (and my license says 5), I
wasn't sure if this was true, or if leapfrogging the 5s was a good idea.


On Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 1:45 PM, jesselash <

Adam Fabian said:

Question about cross categories. Last year (or maybe even before that), I remember someone telling me that if you're a 4 on the road then you're also a 4 in cross. Considering this is my first year (and my license says 5), I wasn't sure if this was true, or if leapfrogging the 5s was a good idea. On Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 1:45 PM, jesselash <

Often it doesn't matter as 5s frequently race with 4s. In some New Jersey, they often have separate Cat 5 races. Regardless, you might as well stay a 5, then you have extra time to sandbag before getting booted to the 3s.

jesselash said:

Just reg'd for Marty. So far I've got Nittany on 9/7 and Marty on 10/26. Need one in between.... hmmm..... 

We've got a whole thread devoted to "Can't Miss CX Races." Lots of options. Cross season is arguably richer and more diverse than road season.

http://kissenacycling.vanillaforums.com/discussion/1152/can-t-miss-cx-races-2014#latest

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Hotlist: Episode 1, 2014

 

The Lion is coming down from Mount Nittany because he’s heard what you have to say about him (too easy, too boring, too few dancing unicorns, whatevs), and he’s not happy.

Lest you forget, this is THE grand opening of the 2014 CX season in what is unquestionably the center of the CX world. I am of course speaking of our New England & Mid-Atlantic regions. Belgium is for drunks and gamblers, the Northwest is for boys and girls who like to play dress-up.

 

Let’s take a look at the players and the player-haters. Hotlist might get a little dirty, so put on your big-boy and big-girl pants & get ready for some sloppy hand-ups, stutter-step remounts and rolled tubulars!

 

Starting w/KCC racers signed up for Nittany.

 

Cat 2/3/4s

Last year in a grab for fame, fortune and low crossresults.com points to help them get better staging in cross races they never did, Ragot and Perlberg decided to play with the big boys in the UCI elites. This year Ragot’s getting his hair trimmed by Dave Somerville while he tells him that his chamois feels funny, and Perlberg is “crossresults predicted” as KCC’s top-crosser expected to finish 28^th in the “B” race. Which sounds about right to Hotlist. Despite the fact that Perlberg reports more structured training/racing later into the season than in years past, since taking a whack at some hot Chicagoland crits, we really haven’t heard much from the dude. But it’s early, and true crossers use July/August for CX specific training.

 

What doesn’t sound right is Todd McLoughlin in 37^th? Todd finished last season with a 10^th place in muddy/snowy MAC series finale, and is every bit as motivated to continue that success. Of course if Perlberg had a quiet mid/late-summer of road racing, then McLoughlin’s road race season was stuck in one of those creepy sensory depriving “everything proof” chambers that Daredevil slept in. I’d be surprised if any other KCC rider beat these two at Nittany. Where they finish in relation to each other? That’s the fun part.

 

Joe Mueller gets crossresulted in 39^th. Tough to predict the future here.  Joe did one cross race last year! Nittany 2013, finished 28^th. Solid finish. But then was gone from the CX scene. This year though, Mueller is SUPER MOTIVATED. Combine that with his engine? Sharpen the skills? No telling what he could do.

 

Joaquin C De Baca, with no fewer than 6 top-10s, 3 podiums, and a win in some BIG races like Providence and CycleSmart International, was arguably one of the teams most successful CX racers last year. He made the jump to Cat 2/3/4 field racing for the end of his season with results that were…well, they were fine. No red flags, but no checkered ones either. Nittany will be a good test for his first full season as a Cat 3.

 

Konrad Ratzmann is my “yes, but…” rider of the week. Yes, dude TORE UP the Cat 4s last year, but…with the exception of his third place at the hilly HPCX (respect yo!), his other results came at smaller, less competitive events. Yes, he’s monster strong, kills it at hard hilly road races, but…will that translate to top cross placings?

 

And then you have a couple of solid cat 4 racers who are jumping into the much more challenging world of the Cat 2/3/4 MAC series.

 

Patrick Grehan is coming off drinking the magic juice from Adam Myerson’s cross camp and Hotlist will be watching to see if he can make his weekend coaches (Al Donahue, Anthony “Sick Whaaat” Clark and Stephen “sometimes I’m awesome, sometimes I hang out on the sidelines watching everyone else race” Hyde) proud.

 

Nelson Martins was one of the club’s most active racers last season and was a major player in most every cat 4/5 race he entered…but…they were mostly of the smaller scale varietal. Racing the 2/3/4s at Nittany is essentially two (or three) steps up from the competition he faced most of last year.

 

Cat 1/2/3/4 45+

Return of the Jedis? Eric Robertson and Eloy Anzola. Back in the day, it was Robertson and Ragot tearing up the Master’s B races. Robertson raced a few cross races last year…and if he’s been training, he could be strong. Anzola has been spotted on many PP rides and a few park races this season. The main problem for both, is they’ve elected to race in one of the toughest race categories of the day. You need both power and skill in the 45+ cat. Still, Hotlist loves that they are making an early season return to the sport!

 

Cat 1/2/3/4 55+

Having found the joy of power meter training last year, cracking the top-10 in CX with alarming frequency last year, David Stokes ought to live up to his crossresults predicted finish and give the legend Richard Sachs a little pat on the tush as he passes him enroute to a 7^th place.

 

Cat 4/5

And then there are these guys. THESE guys. A couple of them, lifer cat 4s. [shakes head with downward gaze]

 

Jules Roazen is predicted by crossresults to lap the field at Nittany…twice. Our fearless leader spent all of 2013 squarely inside the top-10, managed to earn silver at one of the biggest cross races of the year (don’t tell Ragot; he would just start mumbling about that result not counting because it was a “masters park race”). Lining up with points that would place him in the middle of the insanely competitive Gloucester Cat 3 field, Roazen comes into Nittany the hands-down favorite for gold. Of course if he crushes this weekend, then he better start figuring out a way to get his Holy Week Cat 4 starts transferred to the already closed Cat 3 fields. Because, seriously.

 

Bertucco? Has been accused of carrying almost as much sand in his race bag as that other dude. Ugh. Whatevs.

 

Rick Perner. Coming off of a solid 7-race “intro” season where he placed mid-pack in some big races, hard not to believe that he won’t be up there battling for top 1/3 placings this year.

 

Phillip Maronilla. No question, Phillip is one of the team’s nicest, most beloved guys. Unfortunately, cross doesn’t exactly favor nice guys. So he may have to take a few acting classes to fool the CX beast for about 40 minutes if he wants to crack the top 50% of his field.

 

Aaron Blum. He’s young, he’s enthusiastic, and had his share of bumps and bruises this season. Hopefully he’s ready for the rough & tumble world of CX. This will be Blum’s first full season of cross.

 

Bruce Van-Schalkwyk. The Poet of Prospect Park. Hotlist knows one thing and that is he will enjoy reading his race reports from his inaugural CX season.

 

Notable No-Shows?

Registration isn’t technically closed, but there are currently a few conspicuous absences that make Hotlist scratch his head and wonder.

 

Jeffrey White is one of the team’s most consistent crossers. 10 or 11 races year in and year out. He’s already talked about how lame he thinks Nittany is, and Hotlist guesses that he’s putting his money where his mouth his, or isn’t, or something.

 

Jim Feehan is probably the teams most experienced cyclocrosser. And he has the highest ratio of actual cross racing to “forum chattering” of anyone on the team (rumor has it Golden Cheetah will be adding this metric as an info-graphic in the next version). Typically he focuses on the MAC series, filling in the gaps with smaller Jersey Cup races. And since last year’s standings are used for this year’s first staging, he could theoretically wait until the last moment to register without penalty. Here’s hoping. This dude is a study in being silky smooth on a cross bike.

 

Craig London. Not many people can brag about racing in front of Jeremy Powers, that one time, and certainly no one on KCC. Craig has reported that he’s waiting until Whirlybird to start his build for a run a Master’s Nationals. Still with him selling what appears to be all of his kit, a brand new cyclocross bike, and skipping New England Holy Week where he would face certainly the best competition that the region has to offer? Still dude used to race with J-Pow, and that has to be worth suspending judgment for now. Even if it does make Hotlists’ Spidey-Sense tingle just a little.

Late addition:

JP Partland. JP will suit up for 15 cross races over two days at SuperCross. And not a sec. before...or after. Which is a shame, because with a handful of well-timed weekend races, he could rise to the top of the KCC heap. But if Partland don't wanna play, that's ultimately his loss. Because #CXisBoss.

Good luck to all out there!

Marc, this post is hilarious. 

Hey, Marc, I also got pipped at the line and thus plopped into 4th at my first race as a 3 at Supercross last year (yes, but it was the 3/4 not the 2/3/4). But you're right I am going to be looking at some bigger races. Challenge accepted.

Fucking eh - the Hotlist is back!!!

Christ that was a long wait. Setting my phasers to sandbaggery - but not for long. I just reg'd for Marty in the 3's.

Jules


On Aug 20, 2014, at 9:57 PM, Marc Bertucco wrote:

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Hotlist: Episode 1, 2014




The Lion is coming down from Mount Nittany because he’s heard what you have to say about him (too easy, too boring, too few dancing unicorns, whatevs), and he’s not happy. Now mind you, he’s not “unhappy,” as much as he just might have a few plans in store for ye who dare underestimate the weekend.





Lest you forget, this is THE grand opening of the 2014 CX season in what is unquestionably the center of the cyclocross world. I am of course speaking of our New England & Mid-Atlantic regions. Belgium is for drunks and gamblers, the Northwest is for boys and girls who like to play dress-up.



For the last few years Kissena has fielded strong contingent of racers across most categories and this year is no exception. Let’s take a look at the players and the player-haters. Hotlist might get a little dirty, so put your big-boy and big-girl pants on and get ready for some sloppy hand-ups, stutter-step remounts and rolled tubulars—because you know it’s coming!



Lets start with some KCC racers signed up for Nittany.



Cat 2/3/4s

Last year in a grab for fame, fortune and low crossresults.com points to help them get better staging in cross races they never did, Ragot and Perlberg decided to play with the big boys in the UCI elite races. This year Ragot’s getting his hair trimmed by Dave Sommerville while he tells him that his chamois feels funny, and Perlberg is “crossresults predicted” as KCC’s top-crosser expected to finish the race in 28th place in the “B” race. Which sounds about right to Hotlist. Despite the fact that Perlberg reports more structured training/racing later into the season than in years past, since taking a whack at some hot Chicagoland crits, we really haven’t heard much from the dude. But it’s early, and true crossers use July/August for CX specific training…so?



What doesn’t sound right is Todd McLoughlin in 37th? Todd finished last season with a 10th place in muddy/snowth MAC series finale, and is every bit as motivated to continue that success. Of course if Perlberg had a quiet mid/late-summer of road racing, then McLoughlin’s road race season was stuck in one of those creepy sensory depriving “everything proof” chambers that Ben Affleck’s Daredevil went to sleep in. Will be interesting to see which of these dudes comes out on top. I’d be surprised if any other KCC rider beat these two at Nittany. Where they finish in relation to each other? That’s the fun part.



Joe Mueller gets crossresulted in 39th. And yet, the future with this one difficult to see is. C’mon, dude did one cross race last year! Nittany 2013, finished 28th. Solid finish. But then was poof gone from the CX scene. This year though, Mueller is SUPER MOTIVATED. Combine that with his engine? No telling the terror he could inflict if it all comes together in 2014.



Joaquin C De Baca, with no fewer than 6 top-10s, 3 podiums, and a win in some BIG races like Providence and CycleSmart International, was arguably one of the teams most successful CX racers last year. Instead of hanging around for more Cat 4 podiums he made the jump to Cat 2/3/4 field racing for the end of his season with results that were…well, they were fine. No red flags, but no checkered flags either. Nittany will be a good first test for his first full season as a Cat 3.



Konrad Ratzmann is my “yes, but…” rider of the week. Yes, dude TORE UP the Cat 4s last year, but…with the exception of his third place at a more challenging, hilly HPCX (respect yo!), his other results came at smaller, less competitive events. Yes, he’s monster strong, kills it at hard hilly road races at the end of the season, but…will that translate to top placings this cross season?



And then you have a couple of solid cat 4 racers who are jumping into the much more challenging world of the Cat 2/3/4 MAC series.



Patrick Grehan is coming off drinking the magic juice from Adam Myerson’s cross camp and Hotlist will be watching to see if he can make his coaches (Al Donahue, Anthony “Sick Whaaat” Clark and Stephen “sometimes I’m awesome, sometimes I hang out on the sidelines watching everyone else race” Hyde.) from the training weekend proud.



Nelson Martins was one of the club’s most active racers last season and yes, he was a major player in most every cat 4/5 race he entered…but…they were mostly of the smaller scale varietal. Racing the 2/3/4s at Nittany is essentially two (or three) steps up from the competition he faced most of last year.



Cat 1/2/3/4 45+

Return of the Jedis? Eric Robertson and Eloy Anzola. A few of you newer members might not remember that back in the day, it was Robertson and Ragot tearing up the Master’s B category. Robertson raced a few cross races last year…and if he’s been training, he could be strong. If Robertson gets it done with power, Eloy is more about the finesse. Anzola has made a more visual return to cycle training as he’s been spotted on many PP rides and a few park races this season. The main problem for both these guys, however, is they’ve elected to race in one of the toughest race categories of the day. You need both power and skill to be successful here. Still, Hotlist loves that they are making an early season return to the sport!



Cat 1/2/3/4 55+

Having found the joy of power meter training last year, cracking the top 10 in cross races with alarming regularity last year, Hotlist would be surprised if David Stokes didn’t live up to his crossresults predicted finish and give the legend Richard Sachs a little pat on the tush as he passes him enroute to a 7th place finish this year.



Cat 4/5

And then there are these guys. THESE guys. A couple of them, lifer cat 4s. [shakes head with downward gaze]



Jules Roazen is predicted by crossresults to lap the field at Nittany…twice. Our fearless leader spent all of 2013 squarely inside the top 10, managed to earn silver at one of the biggest cross races of the year (don’t tell Ragot though, as he would just start mumbling something about that result not counting because it was a “masters park race.”) Lining up with points total that would place him squarely in the middle of, for example, the insanely competitive Gloucester Cat 3 field, Roazen comes into Nittany the hands-down favorite for gold. Of course if he crushes this weekend, then he better start figuring out a way to get his Holy Week Cat 4 starts transferred to the already closed Cat 3 fields. Because, seriously.



Bertucco? That dude? Has been accused of carrying almost as much sand in his race bag as that other dude. Ugh. Whatevs. We’ll see come September 6.



Rick Perner. Coming off of a solid 7-race “introductory” season where he placed mid-pack in some big races, hard not to believe that he won’t be up there battling for top 1/3 placings this year.



Phillip Maronilla. No question, Phillip is one of the team’s nicest, most beloved guys. Unfortunately, cross doesn’t exactly favor nice guys. So he may have to take a few acting classes to fool the CX beast for about 40 minutes if he wants to crack the top 50% of his field.



Aaron Blum. He’s young, he’s enthusiastic, and had his early share of bumps and bruises this road season. Hopefully he’s ready for the rough and tumble world of cross. With just a couple of races at SuperCross last year, this might be Blum’s first full season of cross and we all know how that usually goes.



Bruce Van-Schalkwyk. Ahhh, the Poet of Prospect Park. Hotlist knows one thing and that is he will enjoy reading his race reports from his inaugural CX season.



Notable No-Shows?

Registration isn’t technically closed, but usually by now, if you were going to race Nittany you’d be signed up and getting ready to go. However, there are a few conspicuous absences that just make Hotlist scratch his head and wonder.



Jeffrey White is one of the team’s most consistent crossers. 10 or 11 races year in and year out. He’s already talked about how lame he thinks Nittany is, and Hotlist guesses that he’s putting his money where his mouth his, or isn’t, or something.



Jim Feehan is probably the teams most experienced cyclocrosser. And he has the highest ratio of actual cross racing to “forum chattering” of anyone on the team. (Rumor has it Golden Cheetah will be adding this metric as an info-graphic in the next version). Typically he focuses on the Cat 1/2/3/4 45+ MAC series and filling in the gaps with smaller Jersey Cup races. And since last year’s standings are used for this year’s first staging, he could theoretically wait until the last moment to register without penalty. Here’s hoping. This dude is a study in being silky smooth on a cross bike.



Craig London. Not many people can brag about how they were racing in front of Jeremy Powers that one time, and certainly no one on this team. Craig has already reported that he’s waiting until Whirlybird to start his build for a run a Master’s Nationals. Still with him selling what appears to be all of his kit, a brand new cyclocross bike, and skipping New England Holy Week where he would face certainly the best competition that the region has to offer? Still dude used to race with J-Pow, and that has to be worth suspending judgment for now. Even it does make Hotlists’ Spidey-Sense tingle just a little.




Good luck to all out there. Can't wait to see you race!

Read every hotlist word and now motivated to go kick butt

...but?

Brendan Rigby said:

...but?

"butt." I'm sure. So literal. What are you a lawyer or something?

Brendan Rigby said:

...but?

Ha, updated. Brendan like the little brother I never had.

I'm gonna be taking oyster hand ups in Croatia for Nittany. Nobody steal my training idea. See you all for CX Holy Week.

HAWTLIST!
Most on form Bertucco in recent history for the W.

Nittany 4/5s on Saturday are officially closed -- because I was the last one to reg. I can thank @eloy for peer pressuring me this morning to just htfu and do it. Now to finish building the rig and learn how to ride it so I don't finish DFL.

Adam Fabian said:

Nittany 4/5s on Saturday are officially closed -- because I was the last one to reg. I can thank @eloy for peer pressuring me this morning to just htfu and do it. Now to finish building the rig and learn how to ride it so I don't finish DFL.

Eloy Strikes Again. #JediMindTricks.

I'm going to be in Cunningham Park working on CX skills tomorrow at 10am. I plan on spending time working on skills before heading out into the park to ride on the trails. Less experienced cross riders looking for some instruction/feedback or more experienced riders looking for someone to practice with are welcome to join me. Meet at the "usual" spot: Just north of Union Turnpike on 199th street in Queens. 

I'll be there a bit earlier (7:30-8sh). But will look for you before I take off.

Eloy, are you talking about Cunningham?

Joaquin said:

Eloy, are you talking about Cunningham?

Yes.

Westwood is open:

Westwood is a good one. Low key, close to home, and some preview of the terrain Supercross will be raced on.

I'll be away for the weekend and bummed to miss it.

P.s. Patrick is defending champion, no???

re Westwood 

been off of the forum for a bit (having been over in Europe warning the Oysters of @jeffwhite arrival)

Anyone else considering Elliston in Rochester, NY. Sat Oct 11 - Sun Oct 12, 2014?

eloy said:

Anyone else considering Elliston in Rochester, NY?

It's far, kinda a weird field schedule, but should be a good race. 

I am, sort of. But, I hear it's a pure strong-man's climbers course. More than any other on the calendar.

Dan exactly how "pre" did you load? That stuff is meant to be drunk the night before; if it was coming up at race time it could be a case of #doingitwrong
Of course racing till you puke is #doingitright plus #ifyourenotflyingyourenottrying so you're still +1 overall
Welcome back to the dark side!