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.