Product Review: Thomson Posts and Stems

Thomson is probably the single brand I've been using the longest. I won some coupons for their products at the Knoxiecross Race series a few years ago I have had Thomson products on my bikes ever since. First I had an Elite seatpost and stem on a mountain bike. The posts and things have migrated to other bikes and I now don't trust anything else for 'cross. The seatpost's dual bolt system is easy to adjust and never slips, unlike a lot of one-bolt seatposts. The posts and stems have tiny little rings engraved around them for extra friction keep them from slipping. Plus, the Masterpiece posts weigh about the same as carbon but are a lot more reliable. I like the way the stem feels when you pull on the bars and churn out mad watts because the stems are so strong. Their customer service is top notch, too. Early this season I was anxious for a 31.8 Masterpiece post that was running a little behind schedule and called them.  They informed me they were backordered but they sent one overnight to help. It's also nice to buy something made in the USA, as few bikes stuff is today. 

Product Review: Van Dessel Full Tilt Boogie

I chose the Full Tilt Boogie as a race specific CX bike. It has some things that I really like and I'll highlight those first.

1. The FTB has a huge fork. It's massive and holds up incredibly well to hard braking and cornering with no brake chatter.
2. The low bottom bracket makes it corner more like a road bike in a crit. It's low enough, though, that after riding my Redline I sometimes scrape the FTB's pedals.
3. While the front end is super rigid, the rear has just enough flex to keep the rider from skittering around corners and comfortable for an hour.
4. The bike accelerates super fast, which is really important in a cross bike.
5. The bike is designed for durability and has a lot of extra carbon in it to make it stronger. The bike isn't the lightest but I'd take it over a more fragile bike any day.

The only things I wish the bike had are bottle mounts, so I could do some longer rides on it in the summer.
Another characteristic of the bike is that it has a steep seat tube angle so I have to run a 15mm setback Thomson seatpost with the saddle slammed all the way back to get the proper dimensions for my build.

 

The bike in action.

CX Nationals!

            This year my family and I flew back to Bend, OR for CX nationals. Thanks to Harper’s Bike Shop for last minute maintenance on my bikes and Jon Crowson for loaning me a SRAM shifter the day before we had to leave. Also thanks to Dirk Pohlman for lending me a double bike box to use.

            We left our house in Knoxville at 4:00 am. We got lucky at the airport as they only charged us $25 for the bikes. We’ve been charged $175 a bike before and it’s no fun. The flights to Bend were uneventful but when we arrived the car rental had run out of vans so we had to cram everything into an SUV, which was jam-packed.

We went to the hotel and unpacked the bikes then headed out on course, which was really cold and wet.

            The next morning I pre-rode the TT course. It was covered in sheer ice and in one section I thought it was clear and got up to maybe 20 mph then ate it and bruised my hip on some kind of ice rock. Luckily, my mom came prepared and we had ibuprofen back at the hotel. We went to the hotel for some breakfast then relaxed. We drove back to the TT course and I did a quick warm up then did a cross TT which was a little bit weird. I rode pretty conservatively but I got stuck behind another kid on a section with no passing so that cost me a little bit of time but I could pass him on the icy run-up. I rode the whole rutted, icy descent off the hill with one foot clipped out to prevent crashing but even so I had a close call when I hit a patch of black ice at the bottom.  My rear wheel fish-tailed but it put me going in the right direction. I think I ended up placing 6^th, which was what I wanted because it meant that I could start second row without having spent too much energy. After this, we hopped back into the car and zipped over to the race course so that I could pre-ride it for an hour. I rode it with my friends Drew Dillman and Luke Haley, both of whom I’m very excited to race with on Turner Prochain cycling come road season. We dialed in most of the tricky corners and rode the run/ride up maybe 15 times, but for me in the race it was a run-up. After this, my family cleaned bikes and we ate Chinese food then later had IHOP for dinner. Pancakes have carbs, right?

            On race day, we arrived at the course and I rode it a little bit then hopped on a LeMond trainer and warmed up some more. Those trainers are a little loud but they feel pretty cool when you’re pedaling. After that I rolled around for a bit then went to staging and took off some extra layers, including the Glacier Gloves my dad bought for me the day before. The DeFeet woolie gloves I ended up wearing are my favorite gloves and moderately warm when wet, but the course included a flooded section which soaked me through and froze my hands. I lined up right behind Jordan Cullen and had a great start, riding in 5^th most of the first lap. By the time we went through the first lap I had moved up to third but then things started to go wrong. I took the outside line through a muddy section but my tires got caught in a rut and I crashed. Two people passed me. Then about thirty seconds later, someone cut into me on an off-camber turn. He ran into my side and I got tangled up between him and the poles. I think about ten people or so went by while we lay there trying to get untangled, but I guess that’s racing. I started messing up some corners after I got shook up like that and that didn’t help either. I finished ninth, which isn’t bad but I was a little disappointed because I thought I could do better. There’s always next year, though.

            Saturday, we returned to see the junior 17-18 race. Due a mistaken official, Luke Haley had been told he would have a good start position because he had UCI points, but in fact he needed to do the TT but didn’t know this, so he started dead last. Drew got off to a great start and finished third. I think Luke was the hero of the race, though, because he fought up from last to eighth then crashed on his face, got back up and battled to 11^th, if you haven’t seen Luke before, he’s the cover picture for the 17-18 race on Velonews. He was unrecognizable underneath the mud. Fighting that battle takes guts.

Actually, Drew's in Belgium racing right now, along with my friend from MTB camp Gunnar Bergney. Good luck guys!

            The U23 race featured a duel between Zach MacDonald and Danny Summerhill. On the first lap about 2/3 of the field went by Danny as he was forced into the pit by another rider. MacDonald had about a 15-second gap before he crashed into a spectator who wandered onto the course. Never do that! Summerhill caught up and they rode together for most of the rest of the race trading attacks. It was interesting to see a super-strong road rider race a smaller mountain bike racer with a pro downhiller’s license as Zach took dramatically different lines to claw back Summerhill. Eventually, Danny’s strength took home the win. Zach, though, deserves extra points for doing a wheelie across the finish straight. Eric Thompson, who I’ve raced a couple times at MSG, took fourth. Now I see why he can ride away from me, he’s among the best in the country. Sunday, Eric was attacking Zach for the collegiate title before a broken derailleur took Eric out of contention for the win. After running half a lap, Eric still took fifth. Now that’s strong.

            We flew home Sunday and I got lucky because we had two snow days in a row in Knoxville so I could catch up on some homework.  Thanks to my parents and everyone who has supported me in my cycling, and my school and my teachers who worked with me to make Nationals a reality.

TT Start

The tundra

Warming up. Check out that sweet Van Dessel.

Almost go time.

The start line

Racin'...

My hands hurt.

Stud Drew

Neeeee-owwwwww... That's the sound of speed.

Drew finishing

That's Luke. Muddy.

Eric Thompson duking it out

Z. MacDonald and D. Summerhill

Eric

First 1/2 win!

Two weekends ago my dad and I packed up the car and and I drove to the final MSG race. This was the longest I have driven and the rain was kind of scary. We arrived at the Unicoi Farmhouse safely, though. The course was a lot different than the 90 degree desert it was at the beginning of the season. The conditions for the race were 40 degrees and raining. Luckily I had some warm base layers, gloves, and some fleece shorts that really helped.
I pre-rode one lap of the course with an extra jacket on and crashed in the tricky switchback. The course was really good for applying the techniques I learned from Andy Johnston at MTB camp, namely braking before corners, countersteering, and keeping my weight over the bottom bracket. Feeling pretty confident I toed the start line on my sweet carbon Van Dessel. The gun went off and Eric Wondergem took a pretty big early lead, but he came back when he crashed on a slick off-camber turn. Funny thing though, the next lap I came around the same corner in third place and also crashed, busting the brake lever halfway out of the shifter (Harper's got the company to warranty it though, thanks SRAM). The pit was just on top of the hill but I had a Sven Nys moment while I scrambled around looking for my pit bike (always watch where your dad puts your extra bike). By the time I got going again, Eric Wondergem had about 30 seconds on me but I figured that other people would probably crash too so I kept going hard. I rode a couple people off my wheel through the next thirty minutes including Will Black which seemed like the opposite of every other MSG race. The Mud 2 tires on the Redline hooked up about 10x better than the Challenges I had on the Van Dessel. I finally caught back up to Wondergem who was riding with Noah but by then Eric had broken the paddle off his shifter and had to run up all the hills. If you put mine and Eric's bike together you might even have a working shifter! Around this time I decided to take off my waterproof outer gloves and just wear the liners because the gloves were getting kind of hot. Bad, bad idea. Then I rode with Noah for the last few laps. I led pretty much the entire time because I knew I was pressuring him through the technical parts. I noticed the saddle on my pit bike is super comfy. It's really soft and it has a lot of flex. I think it's some kind of Selle Italia. Anyway, Noah attacked me after the last runup but I caught him and knew I had to lead into the barriers so I passed him and worked pretty hard on the last uphill climb to the finish. I messed up the last corner and had to dab but I clipped in again really fast and took the "W" by a wheel or so. After the race I jumped off my bike and ran to the car. My hands were so numb I couldn't even unzip my jersey. This was by far the muddiest race of the year. I couldn't see any skin on my face and my eyes really hurt. I was very happy to finally accomplish one of my goals for the season. The competition at MSGs is small but super intense. After the race we watched the series awards and Larry C. of the Bike Zoo took home the points win for masters 45+. All right Larry!

Chasing back

Noah, my main competitor

Muddy

Eric Wondergem

Also notable was the nice pass-the-hat collection taken up for series promoter Dwayne Letterman. Without Dwayne there would be very few cross races in TN. A good time was had by all at the last MSG of the year. Don't forget to come to the UCI race in Johnson City in January!

Check back for a race report on CX national championships.

Cincinnati CX

Some pictures from the UCI race in Cincinnati.

A few weeks ago my mom and I went up to race to Cincinnati for three UCI races. My field had 130 people in it and I started in the highly-esteemed 90th or so place every day. The first lap of day one I was up to 12th when I broke a spoke. I kept riding because I'd just passed the pit but I had to unhook my back brake and was kind of sliding the corners a little bit until I got my other bike out of the pit. I ended up in 18th place, so not too bad. The next day I started next to Red Zone rider Drew Dillman, my roommate at the USAC road training camp. He starts crazy fast and passed literally 70 people in about 15 seconds. I need to learn how to do that.. Anyways the rest of the race was mostly passing traffic and I ended up sprinting for 12th. Drew won. After the race I had a chance to talk my friend from mountain bike camp Matt Phillips (aka Skinny Matt). Sunday I had a good start and passed 85 people in the first lap to get to fifth. Then I watched Drew come around me going a good 5mph faster than me. Ouch.. I crashed and lost a spot or two but ended up sprinting a guy for 7th (my mom is pretty sure I was sixth). He was yelling a lot so I stayed away from him after the sprint. Drew won by like a minute. He gave me his fancy Rapha cross jersey prize because he already had one from the day before so that was really nice. We also saw Kim Bishop and Aaron form the Tri-Cities. Oh, we watched the pros on the second day with my cousins and my cousin once-removed Emma (she's 4). She drew a picture of me! She really likes the ringing the cowbell at races.

Funny story

Today I was at school and I drew a picture of me riding my bike and one of my friends said, "Oh, it's like Lance Armstrong except you're not eighty." Then another friend said, "Wait, I thought he was fifty." Haha.

Oak Ridge Velo

This weekend was the Oak Ridge Velo Classic. I was really excited about this race because it’s close to my house and it’s very hilly. I prerode the course with Tim Tidwell and co (Larry, Greg Millar, etc.) twice so I had the course dialed in. The weather looked ominous before the start with clouds of fog rolling off the lake. I put on my kit (my mom calls it a “bike costume”) and rolled up to the start line. Lucky for me, my friend Greg Casteel was the lead motorcycle. We started neutral so there was a nice warm up riding to the course. Just about the point we started on the loop the skies opened up. The wet course must’ve messed up some break pads because too guys slid right by the first turn and had to turn around. It was kind of nervous riding in the pouring rain but it wasn’t too cold. Everything stayed together until the first climb. I had just put on new Swisstop pads but I hadn’t stood on the pedals hard yet and it was a bad feeling realizing they were rubbing when I stood. So I attacked in the saddle to start wearing everyone out. I spun out on the descent so then went into an aero tuck. I mostly just kept an eye on things from the back the next lap. Nick Nichols took off and was out of sight until the climb and I just remembered to adjust the brakes so the first part of the climb I used the barrel adjusters until everything worked better and our group narrowed after some attacks. I spent most of the next lap waiting for the climb. I went to the front with an 18 year old junior from Hincapie and ramped up the pace so that by the bottom of the descent my group was down to five. Everyone worked pretty well together so we extended our lead and stayed together until the fourth time over the climb, when the Hincapie junior and I attacked on the climb, dropping two of our breakaway companions. We mostly just waited until the final kilometer which was an uphill sprint. The Hincapie junior attacked and then blew up while the rider from Memphis tried to drop me but I hung onto his wheel until about 150 meters to go when I came around to take the win. I was very happy because this was my hometown race. After the event, Greg Casteel told me he had been riding sidesaddle on his scooter to watch the race play out.
TT. The time trial was a nice, rolling course of 7.5 miles. I felt pretty good riding my normal bike but my aerodynamics couldn’t match a TT bike and I finished tenth but I was content because I gave the race a good effort. After the race I talked to Jesse Stidham and then went home to eat Thai food and rest for the crit.
Crit. We arrived at the crit early to watch the 10-14 juniors. Max Hansett took home a strong third place despite taking a month off his bike while in Belgium. The handcyclist race was very interesting to watch. There were two national champions in the race and everyone was going really fast. It was really cool. In the 15-18 race Alex animated the race even after he was sick yesterday and quickly made it a three-man race. Alex proceeded to drop the other riders in the break to take the win. After his race, Alex was nice to show me the fastest lines through the corners. I had a good cheering section because my parents were there along with my mom’s friend Sandra and my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Our race started in the heat of the day but I had a supreme pit crew in my mom. She supplied me with fresh ice water and dumped ice and water down Alex’s, Phillipe’s, and my skinsuits. The race started fast. Alex and I took turns attacking the field. About 20 minutes into the race I made a move and started a group of four. We had a TCRC rider in Alex and a Memphis rider along with one other guy and me so all the major teams were represented. As soon as the break took off we started working well together and Phillipe used his strength and wits to hold back the field. One Nashville Cyclist rider bridged up and worked as well. At four to go I tried to go it alone with the encouragement of masters speedster Ron Wilson and made it to two to go before I got swept up. I still felt strong so I sat in on the last lap waiting for someone to go. On the roller before the big hill the Nashville Cyclist rider attacked up the gutter on the opposite side of the road and I wouldn’t have had any idea except for Ron Wilson telling me to “Go, now!” I was able to jump onto his wheel putting me in a good position for the sprint. On the final tricky corner, the Nashville Cyclist rider left the inside line open so I jumped and held off the rest of the riders by about a bike length. This result placed me third in the omnium because the TT was given double points. After two wins in the weekend, claims of sandbagging were flying fast but I think I will finish the season as a cat 3. Thanks for reading.

Knoxiecross video

Video of the 2010 Knoxiecross race series. It's pretty artsy.

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

Fitchburg

       A couple of weeks ago Alex Dayton, my dad, and I went up to race in Fitchburg, MA. As soon as we left our house the skies opened up and dumped rain, people were sliding off the road and hiding under overpasses.  We stopped to borrow some equipment and the rain died down so we kept driving. After a little confusion on the location of our first hotel on the way to pick up Alex my dad and I finally found the hotel. In the morning Alex met us and we loaded up the five bikes on the car, threw a bunch of wheels in the back, and drove off looking real pro. We stopped at James Madison University and tried out our borrowed TT bikes. A graduate student there named Kevin took us on a ride. We showered at the University then kept driving to Pennsylvania for our next stop where we drove by the hotel two or three times before we finally made it in. We watched Last Comic Standing for a while then had Reese’s cups and Cheetos.  

       The next day we drove by NYC and went on a road that you had to pay to drive on, which was kind of weird. Finally after 15 hours in the car we made it to the hotel in Fitchburg. We rode the road race course which had a pretty steep climb. Back at the hotel Alex and I snuck into the water park and went down all the slides. For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant called Il Ricordi for some fantastic pizza. We spent most of the next day chillin’ and getting lost riding around the circuit race course around the Fitchburg State College. We carbo-loaded at the Italian restaurant again.

        Friday meant race time so we woke up way too early and headed to the race. We warmed up then ditched some leg warmers and lined up first row next to my bud from road camp, Thomas Wrona. There was a pretty serious sprint from staging to the start line but we held our positions and the race started. I missed my pedal but got it the second time. The next 7 laps hurt so bad. We lapped the Cat 4’s on our first lap even though they started only two minutes behind us. I was in a break with Ben Gabardi for about 30 seconds. Then I mostly sat in and moved up each time on the steep climb to the finish. On the last lap there were two guys a couple of seconds up the road, so the sprint for third was on. I finished eighth overall and was the top 15-16 yr-old. Our average speed was over 28 mph.

Me and Alex

Start Line

Lawson Craddock

Day 2. I had a pretty nasty stomach bug after the first race so I was pretty nervous about my condition. On the bright side I got a call-up. The race started fast but none of the breakaways stayed away till about the second time over the big hill and finish. 3 guys got away and spread their advantage on the 55 mph descent. One guy from Mesa Cycles bridged up. The break had Anders Newbury from Hot Tubes plus the yellow jersey from Turner so it held about 20 seconds to our group. On the final uphill sprint Thomas took off but a little too early. I stayed on Lawson Craddock’s wheel and one guy came around me so I finished seventh and top 15-16 again. My Aunt Helen and my cousin Adam met me and Alex after rollout and she brought us lunch once we went back to the hotel. Now we set up our TT bikes for junior gearing and rode the course then slept some more. Italian again for dinner.

Feed Zone

    Day 3. By now I had the stomach bug for two days and was pretty wiped out. I could never get comfortable on the TT bike and after feeling the muscles I strained in a TT last March crying for mercy, I just had to ease it home at about 80-90%. This made for a poor 38^th place which threw my previous 6^th on GC right out the window. Another bummer was that in the last hundred meters I hit a big bump that made the aero bar pad tear open a scab on my elbow from MTB camp. It bled a lot so this was a double whammy. Thomas rode awesome and moved up to 10^th on GC. Good work. Alex put in a good effort as well. We ate our fourth and final dinner at the same Italian restaurant. Their garlic bread was amazing…

Alex TT start

    Day 4. By now I was mostly recovered from my stomach bug so we rode the six miles to the crit course around downtown Fitchburg. The crit started so fast and with Lawson in second on GC by hundredths of a second Hot Tubes was determined to get him a time bonus. The first 16 laps were mostly just pain and on the last lap someone must have liked my rear wheel cause they put their front right into it and caused a big crash. I held it up though I might’ve dragging someone’s bike for a few feet. I was pretty much spent and in the second-to-last corner I tried to move up in the group and accidently bumped into Alex but he held it up despite bouncing off a hay bale (sorry, Alex). I finished 13^th in the sprint, right behind Thomas so second 15-16. Lawson got second so he won the GC and also points jersey (he just got third at the Junior World’s TT, so I don’t feel as slow). We picked up some medals and t-shirts and rode back to the hotel and headed out. 

The race had 90+ juniors that started the stage race.

Speedy speedy

Vroom vroom..

      We stayed in Boston at my Aunt Helen’s house the next day and went on the Codzilla speed boat in Boston Harbor with my cousin Justin. Later we had cake for my dad’s birthday and watched the Tour on Versus.

     The next day was all driving so nothing exciting except a stop at Dunkin Donuts and when we stopped at a hotel Alex was singing a song about “When you love a woman, tell her how you feel” and some people came around the corner to the elevator and were listening, but we forgot to push the button so we waited for five minutes before Alex remembered. This was the funniest part of the trip. We dropped off Alex at his house the next morning then my dad drove us home.