The second round of the Flatwater Cycling Twilight Cyclocross Series again was a huge sucess, with more attendees than were at the first night. Overnight rains and cool weather made the atmosphere a little more "cros-like" and made some of the corners a bit slippery.
Janna Vavra earned a well-earned second place in the Women’s A race as did Whitney Porn in Women’s B. Jon Downey was fourth in Men’s B 4+.
EVCC had three riders in the opening round of the Flatwater Cycling Team Twilight Cyclocross Series October 5 at Van Dorn Park in Lincoln. In stark contrast to the heavy grass and sand pits at Swanson Park, home of the Omaha Opener and Bellvue GP CX events a few days earlier, the Van Dorn course was worn down to the dirt and fast.
“Its become the ‘go-to’ place for riders to do hot laps in Lincoln” commented Race Director John Lefler Jr, “so it gets a lot of use.”
Jon Downey took fourth in the Men’s B 40+ race and Whitney Porn finished second in the Women’s B race. Janna Vavra took the women’s A race.
The series continues weekly on Wednesday evenings throughout October.
Full results
Michael Dixon photo
The Nebraska cyclocross season opened under clear skies at the popular Swanson Park in Bellvue October 1 with the Omaha Opener followed by the Bellevue Grand Prix the next day. Both days of racing were promoted by veteran ‘cross racer Randy Crist and the Velo Veloce Cycling Club.
Overall, Cole Skiba and Janna Vavra had the best weekend for the team, with Janna scoring a second the frist day and a win the second day in Women 1-2-3. In Mens 4Cole took foruth on Saturday and second on Sunday just ahead of Glen Houts. Next in was Buddy Houts for fourth overall and frist junior.
In contrast to the veteran Rich Anderson, Whitney Porn showed up at Swanson for a Satruday ride and ended up racing, and placing, in her first ever cyclocross race. Troy Leavitt finished the weekend with two solid performances as well.
As a sidebar to this event, check out Glen Houts’ post on his blog Coming Back Better.
It was a productive weekend for Elkhorn Valley Cycling Club on the grass and barrier scene with riders in Iowa at the Capital City Cross and Wisonsin at the USGP of CX Planet Bike Cup.
In Des Moines at the Capital City Cross Rich Anderson had two good days with a 12th in the Cat 3 race on Saturday and 4th in the 35+ race Sunday. Rich gets the “Nerves of Steel” award for replacing two chainring bolts on the starting line Sunday.
Cole and Rob Skiba and Troy Leavitt made the journey along with many other Nebraska ‘crossers to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin for the first two rounds of the US Grand Prix of Cyclocross.
Troy scored mid (huge) pack finishes both days – 48th on day one and 30th on day two. Rob Skiba was 75th on day one.
Cole raced two events on Saturday earning 14th in the Cat 4 and 6th in his Junior age group race. On Sunday Cole raced only the Junior class mudfest and came in 11th.
This weekend, October 1 and 2, mark the opening rounds of the Nebraska cyclocross season with the Omaha CX Weekend at Swanson Park.
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The 2011 race season is almost upon us! The Psycowpath season starts with the Bellevue Bike Ballyhoo weekend April 2 and 3, and the road season fires up officially in Nebraska April 16 and 17 with the Le Tour de Husker.
Here are some notes regarding the season and Elkhorn Valley Cycling – Team Type 1 Nebraska:
1. Join USA Cycling. Even if you are a Cat 5 road racer or a Cat 3 mountain biker, join. The dollars you spend with your membership fees will not only save you money in one-day fees, it comes back to support the sport in many, many ways. And, part of your annual license fee comes back to the Nebraska Cycling Association, which is using it to buy chip timing equipment, making everyone’s life easier. Join.
This same basic procedure applies to USA Triathlon as well, so if you’re going to be a tri guy or gal, buy your membership.
After you join, you will get a license to carry around with you. Make sure you take it with you to the race! You WILL need it when you pick up your number and sign your waiver on-site.
2. Choose your club. When you buy your license with USA Cycling you will be given some options regarding clubs and teams. Everyone who belongs to EVCC, even if you race with Team Type 1-Nebraska and only wear that kit, must pick Elkhorn Valley Cycling as your club.
3. Choose your team(s) carefully. When buying your license you can purchase a road or mountain license, or both. Either one includes a cyclocross license. If you are buying a road license you should pick “Elkhorn Valley Cycling pb Monster” or “Team Type 1-Nebraska” as your team. Planning on doing some cyclocross? We would like to have you wear the EVCC colors when doing it so pick “EVCCX-Monster” as your CX team.
If you are buying a mountain bike license, we would like to see you pick ”EVCCX-Monster” as your mountain team, unless of course you are going to wear your TT1 kit off-road. In that case stick with ”Team Type 1-Nebraska”.
4. Create an account at RaceRegister.net The Psycowpath series is using that registration service for its events again in 2011. Some road events may use it as well. (Others may use the USA Cycling registration system, which is another reason to sign up for a license.)
When creating your account ar raceregister.net you are again given the options to join teams. We would ask you join the appropriate road or mountain teams again, or join them all! There is a verification procedure and one of the team leaders has to approve your admission to the team on that website so don’t wait until the last minute.
5. “Day Of” registration This is more and more becoming a thing of the past but the same rules apply when you register for an event on site. Please make sure you write in the appropriate team.
6. Communication Our goal this year is to coordinate a bit more regarding race tactics, goals, and logistics. Get with your team leader (see below) and let them know if your going, what your goals for a particular race are, and what you can do to help. If you’re going, surely someone else is as well so try to carpool as much as possible to save us all some money and resources.
Team Leaders
Road: Dan Spray
MTB/CX: Jon Downey
Team Type 1: Craig Harding
7. Why do we ask you to do all this? Organization. We want to help you have the best race experience you can have. Being organized early is a key to that. You may be asking why we are so explicit about team selection and such. It is very simple. Your membership fees do not cover all the cost of putting on races and fronting several teams with discount uniforms, free entry fees, web sites, etc etc. We have to rely on outside sponsors to get through the year. Sponsors want to see their name out there. We, as a club, need to be representing ourselves correctly and giving the sponsors and the team their due exposure.
At the end of the year, we have to be able to show our sponsors that we attended this many races, and that each time our names appeared on a race roster, the team sponsors names were right there as well. This underscores the need for each of you to enter all your race results, not just the ones you’re proud of, into the datebase at http://www.nencycling.org/wiki/race_team_results We use that data to pursue and keep sponsors.
Finally, we want to thank you all for being a part of our organization. We value each and every one of you not only for your ability on the bike, but your attitude and demeanor off the bike. Our reputation in the peloton is impeccable and its all because of you. Thank you.
See you soon!
