2010 Cross Season - Day 1 - Cross Clinic Wrap Up

Well, the 2010 cross season is upon us and I am ready and willing to go. So far this year, in preparation, I have upgraded by Redline Conquest Pro to a Cannondale CAAD9 and have tricked it out with Mavic Reflex tubulars with Challenge Gripos mounted up. I have a few more additions that I am going to add but that will be for a later blog. For now, it is about my first weekend of cross, the 2010 Fulcrum Coaching and JBV Coaching Cross Clinic with Jeremy Powers, Dan Tille, Chris Mayhew, and Fatmarc Vanderbacon.

Day one, or I should say night one, was a social. Read all about it here on Bill’s Cyclocross Website In the Cross Hairs.

A little back ground, this begins my third season racing cross and my second Fulcrum Coaching and JBV Coaching Cyclocross Clinic. So I have enough knowledge to know what I am supposed to do but not the skill to put it all together yet. I should have been ready for the initial question given to all campers, “What do you expect to get out of the camp?”, but instead I attempted to be witty and said a few words about where I was from and how much cross I had raced. In retrospect, I should have simply stated that I wanted to have someone critique what I was doing. For me that would have been the honest answer, just watch me and dime me out for the stupid stuff that I am doing.

The day started out with introductions, as I alluded to up front, then we went on the skills. The remount, by far, is the hardest thing for me, either I don’t have faith in myself or I am just to lazy to do it, I don’t have the leap, all I got is a little hop. For those who have raced cross, you know what I am talking about. It is the half ass commitment of going airborne onto the saddle, instead I do a slow walk or just a leg straddle over the saddle and mount, not efficient at all.

After that we went on to additional skills like dismounting, barriers, off cambers, and starts. Each of these have its own challenges. The one thing that I always hate to hear, at the beginner levels is the term “personal preference”. What is always good about this camp is that JPow (and the rest) do not hesitate to say, “Do it this way”. I think this attitude is great, “personal preferences” come in long after the beginner and intermediate stage. I could not imagine going to my first guitar lesson and the instructor say, well finger positions are a personal preference. Yes, Jimi Hendrix later developed his own way of thumbing the G Chord but to start with, here is what you do. Experience allows you to make your own changes, but for now, this is step one. Hey, isn’t that what I am paying the money for, I can figure out personal preference in the local park. Enough of that, bottom-line this clinic tells you the things that work both at the amateur and professional level, and I like that.

For me, the clinic was a great success, I got to work out a few bugs on the Cannondale, got some great tips for the guys, some evaluation, though I would have liked a little more, and the basis for this years season. Now I am looking forward to two things, 2010 Cross and 2011 JBV Clinic. Thanks guys for a great weekend and best of luck to JPow in his upcoming year.