I had one of those.

So do I!!

Damn, they stole my idea... a slice of pizza on the front!

@ Jules – thanks for posting that picture of me from the Tour of the Catskills TT. That front disk was a pain in the ass in the wind.
That 7-11 dude does bear a striking resemblance to me right? I even get that scowl when I'm in the pain zone. Spooky.

I already asked the owner of the Huntington store (Cycles Plus) for that Kissena jersey. It's XXXL - he said no way though. Apparently it's his, and it's VERY special to him!

@ John - you have a very characteristic scowl while in the pain zone.

It's to nice outside to be cramped up inside. I'm going to ride easy in the park at 3 if you want to come out!

Oh, just missed you. Got my first glimpse of the barricade funnel.... uh, what? That thing seems completely pointless. It didn't slow anyone down and it was in a much less dangerous place than where the stick-flexy posts on the very bottom/curve of the hill are. That seems to be where a lot more crossing traffic (pedestrians, horses, etc) and funneling (plus some slightly reduced sight lines) creates more general problems. Not that I have any great ideas on how to improve that area as long as cars are allowed in the park.

But yeah, as to the other task force thread, I saw 4 cars speeding around the park while it was closed. Not parks dept vehicles, just people with their flashers on zooming through everyone. Oh, and running the red lights of course. Did the park cop go-cart dude do anything? Nope.

So, I'm reading about the latest Superprestige race in Gavere, Belgium and I come across this line:

"At no point in the race did the riders have to hop off their bikes, making the race an extremely fast one."

Remember last year when all the Euro-snobs loved to inexplicably complain about cross races in the US being nothing more than "grass criteriums?" I've never thought that was a valid or accurate critique in the first place, but I only really know the New England/Mid Atlantic scene, but I can say with great confidence that every cross promoter in our country designs a course that would force you off your bike at least once.

If you bunnyhopped the barriers today and rode the stairs, you could avoid getting off. Whether this was fastest is debatable.

This one made me laugh out loud:

http://www.comoms.com/images/dr2.jpg

ROFOLCOPTOR

i'm going to try and hit Prospect from 4-5 for some light spinning
any/all are welcome
j

Headed to Prospect today 3-4pm ish for a social spin

The Kissena Hot List

I gotta get something going like Colt from Cyclingdirt, with video and dramatic hand gestures and sound effects, but for now here's an update to the rankings according to crossresults.com.

286.54 Romanow, Myles
308.31 Ragot, Eric
364.83 Partland, JP
371.03 Perlberg, Michael
394.04 McLoughlin, Todd
411.51 Bertucco, Marc
415.24 Feehan, Jim
418.73 DC, William
438.26 Grehan, Patrick
440.24 Anzola, Eloy
445.11 Henning, Rich
446.66 Roazen, Jules
449.05 Stokes, David
451.94 Nelson, James
463.34 Bloome, Christopher
478.77 De Baca, Joaquin
494.18 Chiles, Derek
496.98 Petersen, Richard
514.95 Sanossian, David
515.00 White, Jeffrey
529.35 Reiners, Dan
536.53 Strika, Dusan
539.16 Gironta, James
561.26 Reid, Ben
651.72 Ross, Neil
656.49 Demarist, Emily
660.65 Ceasar, Josh

A few more people joined the list, including the only (?) Kissena woman, Emily Demarist who I saw racing in Staten Island. Welcome Emily to the list! Neil Ross, Eloy Anzola, Patrick Grehan, Richard Petersen, and David Sanossian all have been active in the later season too. There are now 27 different Kissena crossers on the list. I continue to enjoy cross more and more, and while I don't think I'll ever reach Eloy-levels of superfandom, I'm getting closer every year.

Understanding I haven't seen and/or ridden with everyone on this list, I do have a few thoughts about the rankings.

I. Eric Ragot
2. Michael Perlberg

Ragot and Perlberg have been tearing it up all season with Ragot's 10th place at Beacon and 13th places at Super Cross confirming that he's just 1/2 step away from being a regular top 10 performer in the competitive mid-Atlantic Master's A fields. Perlberg earned 4 top-10s in the category 3 races these past few weeks prove that this school teacher is ready to teach some lessons.

Romanow is undoubtedly the cross skills king, but just doesn't have the fitness or recent racing experience to back up crossresults' rank as number one. If only he could make time to train though. He once got 15th at Elite Nationals.

Partland trains with the regularity of a Swiss watch, but his ranking suffers from lack of elbow-to-elbow racing this season and last. Hard to know for sure where he'd wind up in a battle with Ragot and Perlberg, but if pressed, I'd have to give him 3rd on that podium. Of course, he'd have to first fight off Todd Mcloughlin for that bronze. Todd is no stranger to top-15s in this years "B" races. And then there's Jim Feehan. I've seen him race over the last 2 years, and he looks silky smooth and strong. He lines up almost exclusively in the tough Master's 45+ races and always has solid results. Throw all of the above guys in the same race and I think you would see some nice battles.

David Stokes and Dusan Strika have both been racing cross longer than most of the rest of us and is always rock solid in the 50+ category events. They probably don't have all the horsepower needed to truly compete with the team's best crossers, but they are strong and motivated and do a lot of racing every year.

Behind those guys, you have the rest of us "C" racers. I finally got to race head-to-head against a bunch of them at Super Cross and that was a blast. I'm not totally convinced that crossresults has us in the proper order. Of course, I have limited racing experience with these guys so feel free to call BS on any of my opinions. (which goes for this entire post, by the way)

For one, I think I'm up a little higher than I should be. I've had some good results, but also some pretty weak ones. Conversely, James Nelson can drive a bike through the twisties, and his 3rd place at day 2 of Super Cross in the Cat 4 race is no joke--or fluke. He's the real deal. Jules Roazen has two top 20s at the supremely tricky Granogue courses and on day 1 of Super Cross he was the last Kissena racing for the podium before he ripped the cleat out of his shoe to finish the race in "limp-home" mode. Similar to Jules, Patrick Grehan had a top 20 at Granogue and 4th place on day two of Super Cross, which, like James' result, was super. Finally, I've been racing with Ben Reid a bunch in the New England-based Verge series and I believe his crossresults score grossly undervalues his skills and strengths. Derek Chilies made some headlines on the forum with a 5th place at the Oregon State Champs, and most of his racing the insanely popular Cross Crusade series out there, making it harder to compare.

Of course, we could settle all this, this coming weekend in Warwick, RI at the Verge Series Finale. I'll be there!

5 Stars Mark, nice summery!

I think what this calls for is hosting a new event next year, with a kissena only field to battle it out for glory.

Nice work Marc.
Myles isn't actually ranked for lack of racing.
I'M TOP DOG BABY!!!

KCC CX Championships? Can we find a place and organize one quickly? I say at Cunningham. Do it all unofficial like?

let's do it in eric's basement!

call-ups in the foyer

holeshot down the stairs

CX Trainer Championships!

New Rankings:
1382 1452 69 Eric Ragot Kissena Cycling Club 304.22 7
2904 2889 16 J.p. Partland Kissena Cycling Club 364.85 4
2922 3077 154 Michael Perlberg Kissena Cycling Club 365.42 8
3855 3862 6 Todd Mcloughlin Kissena 394.04 6
4513 4517 3 Marc Bertucco Kissena Cycling Club 411.51 8
4659 4646 14 Jim Feehan Kissena 415.24 8
4794 4778 17 William Doyle-capitman Kissena Cycling Club 418.74 4
5552 5561 8 Patrick Grehan Kissena Cycling Club 438.26 3
5843 5840 4 Richard Henning Kissena Cycling Club 445.11 4
5907 5906 2 Jules Roazen Kissena Cycling Club 446.65 4
5986 5988 1 David Stokes Kissena 449.04 4
6093 6098 4 James Nelson Kissena Cycling Club 451.93 8
7505 7697 191 Derek Chiles Kissena Cycling Club 488.6 8
8347 8340 8 David Sanossian Kissena CyclingClub 514.95 3
8352 8343 10 Jeffrey White Kissena Cycling Club 515 5
8994 8992 3 James Gironta kissena 539.14 4
9010 8926 85 Dusan Strika Kissena Cycling Team 539.62 8
9240 9248 7 Cosme Del rosario-bell Colby College/Kissena Cycling Club 548.87 3
9558 9514 45 Benjamin Reid Kissena 563.08 7
11050 10965 86 Joshua Caesar Kissena Cycling Club 657.68 8
11108 10980 129 Neil Ross Kissena 662.71

Ah, and so it is. King Ragot ascends to the throne in the eyes of not only his minions, but those of the great overlords of crossresults.com. And too Lord Perlberg, with category 3 battle scars, comes within a half a point of the Duke Partland of Harlem who only raises his fists in anger against the elite warriors.

And then we must wonder, what will happen this weekend when quiet knights Sir Grehan and Nelson rage against foes in the 40+ Cat 4 field at the Horseshoe Scramble. Will they live up to the expectations of the court's see-er, and finish in 2nd and 3rd respectively? Or will they disregard such magically folly and climb to the top of the podium because that is where they belong? No doubt yes, for Sir Ross will set the course, laying traps and giving full scouting reports after his own epic battle on Saturday in the same category.

Damn, I was only planning on racing Sunday, but if I want some breathing room from the Perl and a chance to vanquish the Ragot, I need to be out there both days.

Herman Cain suspended his campaign an hour or so ago. He will be missed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE5xZKszXMQ

And I was just starting to get behind him:
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/4ecfd3a85f/herman-cains-campaign-promises-with-mike-tyson

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/armstrong-lawyers-ready-for-federal-battle

Man Lance put together a legal team that rivals his old tour teams...I wonder if all his lawyers are getting blood spinners for Christmas?
yacks

I know we're killing it in 'cross. It would be great to get an accounting.

Click on this spreadsheet and enter your results
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tyc0h-2x4RLfcis2P74hu6w&authkey=CMDEg9cK#gid=0

It's pretty simple. We want all 2011 results. Road, Track, CX, MTB, Tri', Endurance, Alley Cat, etc. Any competition. Results are defined by any time you placed in the top ten of a race, with or without prize money. If you finished lower than 10th, but received a prize, we want that as well. Like if you're 15th and got $10 for it, put that in. If you were 3rd, but got no prize, put that in as well.

We only have 120 results listed for the year. I know we have more than that.

Freaky google docs...Jim Nelson and I are typing in results at the same time...weird. Jim, how'd the weekend racing go?

i updated it to include my stage wins at this years world championship of the universe

Hey, is it just me...or does the Kissena forum site seem slow/glitchy these days?

Also, of more importance, I recently got asked a question I don't fully know the best answer to by a couple of friends who will be attending their first cross race tomorrow.

"What is the point of heckling?"

And allow me to rephrase/ask another question:

"What is the anatomy of a good heckle?"

So far, what I can come up with is that a good heckle must be shared in good spirit. Heckles that sound angry aren't fun or motivating. It should sound like the person heckling really just wants you to go faster for YOUR own sake. One of my favorite hecklers always has a hint of sadness in his voice. "Why are you such a loner?!" he said to a back marker in the Elite race at NBX.

Please share your thoughts on the heckle so I can bring the joy of the cross experience to others.