Cycling Blogs - Colt From Cyclingdirt

Happy New Year Everybody! I hope you all enjoyed a great holiday break with family, friends, and lots of riding! I'm in the airport now on the way back from a great week of rock walls, mountain roads, and desert single track out west. With the start of the new year, Cyclingdirt will begin the next chapter of our off-road coverage. We'll be looking at training, tech reviews, behind the scenes tours, riding spots, and of course the Cyclocross season is still rolling over in Europe! So enjoy the start to the new year and get ready for some excitement!… more »

I hope you're all having a great Christmas and holiday season! The weather reports look good for a Christmas day MTB ride for most of you. Take advantage of this break to get some fun rides in before those brain numbing base miles take over. If Santa was good to you, there should be some upgrades to make to your ride before heading out. Ten months ago today we went on the air with our first video. Now, a few thousand videos, 40-some weekends of coverage, and countless hours later we've come a long way. To help celebrate the new… more »

This week's Cyclocross National Championships are shaping up to be something special. The snow is falling in Bend and a few thousand of the nations best 'cross riders are on their way to Oregon. Cyclingdirt is going to be on-site all week bringing you what we hope will be the best coverage you've ever seen. To help us reach that goal, and in turn help the sport you love, we're going to need a little help. One of the best things about Cyclingirt is the ability it gives you, the user, to contribute content. As one person, I'm still confident… more »

I've been dreading this day for a long time. Mountain Bike season on Cyclingdirt is inching closer and closer to an end. This weekend's coverage of the Schladming World Cup in Austria will mark the 40th and final race coverage of the season. Is it just me, or did that go by way too fast? So many things left to do; just one more trip, one more race, one more interview... That's all I keep thinking. Ten months ago I was at a Cyclocross race on Long Island. Saturday's race had gone well enough but the recovery left a lot… more »

What a day! Great races for both Men and Women. Catherine Pendrel took her second WC win and by a huge margin. Looks like that Canada Champs win was no fluke. (Marie Helen was 10th today...) After Catherine, North American women cleaned up the top 20. Katerina Nash (ok, not technically from North America) Had a career day to finish 3rd. Willow Koerber was top from USA in 5th. Gould was 7th. Lea Davison 13th. Finally some technical/muddy trails for Lea to show that VT bike handling. Emily Batty had an ok day to end up 15th and second U23.… more »

I've used a lot of porta potties this year. I've seen a lot of snowless ski hills, stolon a lot of WiFi, and eaten a lot of Chef Boyardee to cover mountain bike racing in North America. By the time I wake up on the floor of Logan International Airport tomorrow morning, I will have spent more nights on floors, couches, and in the back of cars then I have in my bed at "home." Sometimes, it starts to drag on you. Usually, the races are so exciting that nothing else matters. This weekend was the most exciting yet.The 2009… more »

Can't say where I came across this "VelEau installation," but I thought it was worth sharing. The hydration system is being tested by a few riders in training and you may catch a few of them in action at the upcoming BC Bike race. I'd look in Sue's direction... The seat pack supposedly can hold up to 40 oz. The mouthpiece is on a retractable cord that will pull it back into place when finished drinking. The rest is up to you to try and decipher... more »

My last race in Canada was a Junior World Cup stage race in Val-d'Or. Teams from across the globe gathered in literally the middle of nowhere to race road bikes on long, boring roads 4,000 miles North of the equator. Yet, the town shut down, spectators flocked to the road sides, and TV helicopters hovered above for nearly two weeks. In Canada, they see something in cycling that Americans don't. This weekend was my first hands-on encounter with the Canadian MTB scene, and it was (to quote an American expression) "totally rad!" For starters, the course was great. I love… more »

No video tonight, sorry guys. Long travel day. I'm up in Baie Saint Paul, Quebec, Canada right now for round number one of the Canada Cup series. For those who are not familiar with the Canada Cup, it is their national mountain bike series. So, (US Cup - US) + Canada = Canada Cup. Got it? Last year, Geoff Kabush won the NMBS series overall for the third year in a row. Before him, names like Roland, Ryder, Seamus, and Shep occupied the number one spot in the rankings. Canada's mountain bike elite have been making the trip South for… more »

The 2009 Escape From Granogue is now in the books. The weather was about as miserable as you could hope for mountain bike racing, but people seemed to find some joy in it. Leave it to mountain bike racers to find pleasure in 2 hours of pushing your bike uphill in the rain. Turnout was good regardless. I think I heard 450? Good turnout in the Pro Men's Race, too. Wes Schempf crushed it from the gun to take the win. Kyle Hammaker went with him for the first half lap then faded. Good day for Jeff Bahnson as well.… more »

"LeBron signs extension worth up to 80M" "It was Gebrselassie's third victory at the Berlin Marathon, and he won €130,000 in prize money and time bonuses (USD 190,000) in addition to an undisclosed appearance fee. He lowered his previous standard of 2:04:26 by nearly half a minute." "Here is the breakdown of the payout from The Masters at Augusta: 1. $1,260,000, 2. $756,000, 3. $476,000, 4. $336,000, 5. $280,000, 6. $252,000, 7. $234,500, 8. $217,000, 9. $203,000, 10. $189,000, ...47. $20,300..." ................................................................................................................. If you follow almost any sport in the world, you read headlines like this on a daily basis.… more »

Hey Guys and Gals, Things are going great here at Cyclingdirt in our first two weeks "on the air!" Thanks to everyone who has told their friends or thrown a link up on their own site. Getting the word out to the community is no small task, and all the help is appreciated. We're nowhere near the finished product, and some of the best features are still yet to come, but I wanted to let you guys know about some of the stuff you can check out right now. Here are 10: 1.Join the revolution! It'll take you 10 seconds… more »

1 Philipp Walsleben GER 52:48 200 200 2 Christoph Pfingsten GER 53:09 150 150 3 Pawel Szczepaniak POL 53:09 120 120 4 Cristian Cominelli ITA 53:09 100 100 5 Sascha Weber GER 53:12 90 90 6 Quentin Bertholet BEL 53:13 80 80 7 Guillaume Perrot FRA 53:17 70 70 8 Ramon Sinkeldam NED 53:18 60 60 9 Clément Bourgouin FRA 53:18 55 55 10 Marek Konwa POL 53:21 50 50 11 Aurélien Duval FRA 53:22 45 45 12 Matteo Trentin ITA 53:29 40 40 13 Matthieu Boulo FRA 53:30 35 35 14 Vincent Baestaens BEL 53:31 30 30 15 Arnaud… more »

1 Tijmen Eising NED 40:06 60 60 2 Corné van Kessel NED 40:31 40 40 3 Alexandre Billon FRA 40:31 30 30 4 Wietse Bosmans BEL 40:31 25 25 5 Lars van der Haar NED 40:31 20 20 6 Luca Braidot ITA 40:32 18 18 7 Jan Nesvadba CZE 40:32 16 16 8 Daniele Braidot ITA 40:32 14 14 9 Sean De Bie BEL 40:32 12 12 10 Michiel van der Heyden NED 40:32 10 10 11 Emilien Viennet FRA 40:33 8 8 12 Vinnie Braet BEL 40:34 6 6 13 Luke Keough USA 40:46 4 4 14 Daniele Dall'Oste… more »

1 Marianne Vos NED 42:39 400 400 2 Hanka Kupfernagel GER 42:40 360 360 3 Katie Compton USA 42:41 320 320 4 Sanne van Paassen NED 43:08 280 280 5 Caroline Mani FRA 43:08 240 240 6 Sanne Cant BEL 43:08 200 200 7 Daphny van den Brand NED 43:09 190 190 8 Mirjam Melchers-van Poppel NED 43:09 180 180 9 Eva Lechner ITA 43:10 170 170 10 Maryline Salvetat FRA 43:10 160 160 11 Rachel Lloyd USA 43:11 150 150 12 Christel Ferrier-Bruneau FRA 43:16 140 140 13 Georgia Gould USA 43:41 130 130 14 Nikki Harris GBR 43:52… more »

1 Niels Albert BEL 1:02:24 400 400 2 Zdenek Štybar CZE 1:02:46 360 360 3 Sven Nys BEL 1:03:02 320 320 4 Bart Wellens BEL 1:03:34 280 280 5 Francis Mourey FRA 1:03:47 240 240 6 Kevin Pauwels BEL 1:03:47 200 200 7 Sven Vanthourenhout BEL 1:03:48 190 190 8 Simon Zahner SUI 1:03:48 180 180 9 Steve Chainel FRA 1:03:48 170 170 10 Klaas Vantornout BEL 1:03:48 160 160 11 Marco Fontana ITA 1:03:48 150 150 12 Thijs Al NED 1:03:48 140 140 13 Enrico Franzoi ITA 1:03:49 130 130 14 Jonathan Lopez FRA 1:03:50 120 120 15 Christian… more »

Alright guys and gals; here it is. CyclingDirt.org. It's your platform to be more involved, educated and informed about everything happening in the world of Mountain Biking and Cyclocross. We'll be traveling around the US and the world covering some of the biggest events in Mountain Biking and Cyclocross along with smaller local events trying to bring you, the loving fans, coverage you normally wouldn't be able to get. Stay with us these next few weeks as we get everything up and running. New videos and features will be going up daily, eventually leading to your new favorite place on… more »

Just kicking things off with a little test! more »

Happy Birthday, Payson! Your new website is now ready for construction thanks to a gift from Mom, Pa and Lily! Email me at Colt@Cyclingdirt.org when you are ready to begin... more »