The official crossresults.com Nationals Race Predictor is out! Free cookies to the first enterprising individual who does a post-race comparison between our predictions and the USAC ones!
Cross Clash Grand Prize!
12/26/12
Dudes! It's over! We decided to wrap up another successful season of cross clashing and draw some winners. I know, I know, you still have scores to settle at Nationals (or in California!), but let's face it, about 98% of #cxclashes are SETTLED.
So it's time to kick out Rapha Swag to our lucky winner and get back to the all-important business of sitting on the couch, eating cookies, and talking about how "next season is totally gonna be different, maaaaaaan.
Crossresults.com: After running up the score on Matt with a 9-0 record this season, do you feel bad? At this point, does he even talk to you, or mumble angrily when you’re around?
TS: Matt's been great! He's always ready with a smile and advice (like "start at the back of the pack, it's better for your kill ratio..."). In fact, I've noticed that as the season progressed he's became more and more helpful. He routinely offers to pump up my tires, adjust my derailleurs, and tell me where the registration tent can be found. Some competitors leave friendship at the start line but not Matt. Unfortunately he's been very busy lately, arriving just before the race, warming up solo, and leaving immediately afterwards. At the end of the season Matt also started racing in the non-Masters races so that he could ride with his up-and-coming Junior racer. I was sorry to see him go. When I found out about winning CROSSCLASH, Matt was the first person I emailed.
CR: I see you let him win the first two races of the season, THEN challenged him to a Cross Clash and never looked back. Was this intentional? Did he get totally played, or what?
TS: No, no! Matt's a sensitive guy and I would never take advantage like that. Last year he trounced me and it really seemed to lift his spirits. He started wearing Euro-cool roadie jackets and aviator glasses in the registration lines. I really didn't want to take all that away. After I started winning our head-to-heads I thought about backing out but I'm not very techy and was having computer issues. I probably should have asked for Matt's advice on the matter but things got hectic and I didn't want to bother him.
CR: Looks like you guys had some close battles early in the season before you got your act together. What changed? Did someone learn to steer a bike? Or have a kid?
TS:I had a few rough races at the beginning: missed the staging at the season opener, and at the second race, ripped off a derailleur during practice laps and raced on a borrowed bike. I also came into the season a bit fried from a long MTB season. It took about a month or so to recover and then every race I was moving up. I owe a lot to my team, Adventures for the Cure, and to the comradierie in the Masters Squad. Matt is right at the heart of our squad and was one of the guys who taught me the sport. There's a case of Allagash White sitting by my door for Matt. . . if he ever starts returning my emails.
CR: Sure, your best finish was a 19th place in the 3/4 Masters, but that won’t stop people from thinking you’re sandbagging when you go 9-0 on some poor dude in a Cross Clash. What are your plans for next year? Have you considered see if Matt would pay you to upgrade?
TS:Actually I scored a 5th place in the season ending race! Matt missed that one, unfortunately--something about being busy at work.... Next year? I think I'll take 9 months off the bike so that I come into the 2013 season feeling fresh. Matt, if you're reading this, I've given up training, have started eating and drinking before bed, and will probably downgrade the bike in the off-season. Wanna go head-to-head in CrossClash2013?
Matt Lear
Crossresults.com: I think we can all agree that when a guy lets you beat him twice, you start a Cross Clash, and then he goes 9-0 – he’s a jerk. Are you guys still friends?
ML: Yes, but if he doesn't share the prize with me I'm never speaking to him again.
CR: Looks like you guys had some close battles early in the season before the gap, er, uh, widened. What changed? Did someone learn to steer a bike? Or have a kid?
ML: Tony trained a *lot* through the middle of the season and improved a lot. I also made a lot of technical mistakes and lost lots of time. My remounts basically suck, too.
CR: What’s Tony’s greatest weakness? On a bike, or hell, off it? I feel like next year’s Cross Clash opponents need an edge on this guy.
ML: Climbing because he's heavier than me but when he loses weight I'm totally boned.
CR: Do you have plans for revenge in 2013? You could try one of those down-tube motors, or just keep mailing cookies to his house this winter.
ML: I'm going to beat him next year or die trying. I'm not above a little sabotage either so if you have any ideas let me know.
CR: Is Tony a huge sandbagger who definitely needs to upgrade next year?
ML: No upgrading until I have another shot at him!
Employment Opportunity!
12/5/12
Hey cross racers, are you a .NET web programmer, near Northampton, MA (or willing to move there!), looking to switch from a job that sucks to a JOB THAT ROCKS??
Our parent company BikeReg is hiring a developer. Don't worry, we won't make you deal with the coding disaster that is crossresults (much), you can spend your whole day helping BikeReg.com take over the world via enterprisey .NET programming!
If this sounds like something you're qualified for, check out the full job posting!
I also might have talked some trashed in the office about how "tons of supernerds love crossresults and I bet the person we hire ends up coming from there," so, uh... prove me right, please.
Facebookery
11/7/12
Hey, if your Facebook site login stopped working recently, that's fixed now. Facebook likes to change things and not really tell you about it... I'd complain, but that's our business model over here, too!
Now With More Points
10/11/12
After years of steadfastly refusing to update the points list more than once a week (because that's how the FIS does it, and dammit, WE ARE JUST IMITATING THEM, we do not have independent thought around here!), the points list has been changed to update nightly.
We will still only "save" the points list once a week, so there will not be 365 points lists per year for you to go back and look at.
As with every change around here, drop up a line if it wackifies your data in some way.
The Gloucestering
9/21/12
Apologies to the non-New England crowd on this one.
With New England World Champs a week away, staging amateur fields by crossresults.com points, the question everyone wants to know is WHAT IS MY START POSITION?
So, we have published the current start list here. There will be one final revision to it next Wednesday when we run points from the weekend, but, you should look NOW to see if your staging is somehow totally screwed up. Because that is the kind of thing we would like to fix for you, but we cannot fix it if you don't tell us until the day before the race.
#CXClash: The Return
9/17/12
That's right, kids, the Rapha-Focus #CXClash is back. Time to pick those THREE SPECIAL PEOPLE in your life who you're totally gonna beat this season, but they're just barely close enough to you that they think they have a chance!
Ha!
Show those fools what's up by challenging them to a Cross Clash. Reap the bountiful harvest that is their self-esteem, bragging rights, and a chance to get baller Rapha schwag. Rinse, repeat.
What the people didn't know, of course, is that some "minor" changes to how the points list works were being made. The system had gotten more and more complicated over the last six years (oh wow, we're getting OLD), and more importantly, was starting to cause straight-up SHENANIGANS in the world. As in, people were dropping out of races to save their crossresults.com points. And while we like (no, love) that you're making mid-race decisions based on our website, we don't like the idea that we're encouraging anyone to quit. Dudes, it's just bike racing! Get a pit wheel and roll on! Your Monday will be so much FULLER, if you race onward in mediocrity instead of pulling ole' drop-out-and-hope-they-don't-list-DNFs.
MEDIOCRITY! EMBRACE IT!
So with that in mind, the NEW points list only considers your top 5 results out of your last 10 races for any ranking/prediction purposes. Which means you can RIDE SLOW AND DRINK BEERS a full 50% of the time without affecting your points. Yeah baby!
(We still have a hidden value stored that is your "old" points, and we do some backend stuff with that, but shhhhhh, I'm trying to keep this simple)
So, if there is any fresh wackness with your points, you should definitely let us know. Stale wackness we probably already know about.
Cross Clash COMPLETE!
2/2/12
The Rapha/Focus Cross Clash is over! We had a bunch of fun running it, and *especially* a lot of fun talking trash about it around here. How else can you justify dive-bombing your roommate one corner before getting pulled from a UCI race?
We kept the season open for as long as possible because you guys out in California apparently never quit... but now it's February and we're calling it! Our season-long winner is Erin Faccone, who defeated her alleged "friend" Carrie Mosher by a score of 6-2. She gets the ALL THE RAPHA SCHWAG and an interview about her racing prowess here.
Crossresults.com: If you wrote a book called “How to beat Carrie Mosher,” what would the title of the first chapter be?
Erin Faccone: CAFFEINATE. Seriously, espresso is like a pre-race drug. It should probably be restricted by now.
Chapter 2 would be: AVOID FLAT COURSES. She’s way more powerful than I.
Cr.com: You’re hooked up to a lie detector and the FBI wants to know what happened the two times Carrie beat you this year. What’s the best excuse you can make that won’t set off the machine?
EF: The two losses came before I discovered my secret to racing well: lots of drinking and m&ms the night before. Also, Carrie goes full skinsuit. Aerodynamics for the win.
(Full Disclosure: Carrie actually beat me a third time at our first-ever race, but my result never made it online)
Cr.com: Carrie will undoubtedly be looking for revenge in 2012. What steps are you going to take (legal or otherwise) next season to maintain your dominance?
EF: I could let air out of her tires, but this is ‘cross… that’s kind of the point. So I guess I’ll have to get some WATTS.
Cross Nationals Race Predictor!
1/2/12
While waiting for The Pony Shop to resurrect a devastated bike (thanks, Chicago Cross Cup!), we cooked up a sweet 2012 Cyclocross Nationals Race Predictor page for those of you who are joining us in the slightly-less-frozen-than-expected-but-still-pretty-cold-tundra of Madison next weekend.
