SHANGHAI CYCLOCROSS #2 - RESULTS

PHOTOS!!!!
http://www.fotop.net/TANG/090315
http://bbs.bikehome.net/diz/thread-73598-1-1.html
http://bbs.bikehome.net/diz/thread-73573-1-1.html
http://bbs.bikehome.net/diz/thread-73589-1-1.html
http://bbs.bikehome.net/diz/viewthread.php?tid=73620&extra
http://mogu8.net/bbs/redirect.php?tid=690&goto=lastpost#lastpost

Points Race 2 Points Race 1 Total

William Neijssen 15 12 27
Eric Koh 12 15 27
ED Coew 10 0 10
Thomas Lecoq 8 0 8
Chia Kung 7 10 17
崔尹浩 6 7 13
Christian goesker 5 4 9
Kai Yan 4 7 11
Rob Lamb 3 8 11

Well done to all racers - this was some great prep PRIOR to the start of next weekends Huangshan race as well as the upcoming Crit and road racing season!

Well done and stay classy!

RACE REPORT: Shanghai Cyclocross #2

"The forest of pain"

Yesterdays race was held under sunny skies with a light wind. A beautiful day for a race, and a course that was tacky, but not overly muddy (mostly. . . .).

A new record 42 racers started with celebrity rider, and Cyclocross promoter, Paul Toohey lining up for the 10am start. Special thanks again to our volunteers again who did a brilliant job keeping everyone organised.

As the starting gun (well, actually we didn't have a gun so we just yelled GO! really loud. . . ) went off it was a blistering start with Specialised leading the charge to the turnaround. As the race charged towards the holeshot, there was a crash at the start of the trail by a number of riders at 'bunny-hop-curb'. This crash also took down Chia Kung who was favoured to place highly.

As the race entered the dirt it was very strung out with many riders pushing to get to the front. At the end of the first straight there was another crash as the pack cornered left towards the 'River'. Unfortunately your "author' went down here and a good 15 people went past! Up we got, and back on the run towards the 'River'. Upon arrival I could see that someone had politely changed my course, moved the tape, and placed some neatly positioned large rocks across the water. THANK YOU ASSISTANT COURSE DESIGNER WHOMEVER YOU ARE. . . . .

Just after the rocks on the remount there was another crash (you are seeing a theme) which your 'Author' went down in with one other rider. I can tell you I am a little tender this morning. . . . once again another 7-8 riders went past as I tried to work out how my chain got wrapped around my crankarm. . . . .?

From here the mayhem seems to have let up some, and Specialized was back on the front going hard with Eric Koh and William going hard on the front. Not too far behind them was Cui Yinhao of TREK, and Chia Kung (Specialized). There were a few more minor crashes, also some road rash and sun burn, but the race went smoothly from here. Your 'author' went into 'don't panic' mode as he tried to make his way back up to the front from the back.

A beautiful sunny day saw another dominant day for Team Specialized in Shanghai Cross. There was a little bit of movement on placings towards the end with a last minute charge by Kaiyuan Wang (TCR), resulting in a bad flat, but overall a consistent finish by the favourites.

Full results to come soon!

CYCLOCROSS SHANGHAI

(start humming the theme for JAWS in your head. . . . got it? O.K. now hold that tune). IT'S COMING. . . . .JUST WHEN YOU WEREN'T EXPECTING IT. . . . . (and you haven't been training). . . . .IT'S BIGGER THAN YOU REMEMBER. . . . . . .AND IT'S RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER . . . .

SHANGHAI CYCLOCROSS #2 MARCH 15TH AT 10AM!!!!!!!!

BE THERE SO YOU CAN TELL YOUR FRIENDS YOU RACE CROSS.

Racing will start at 10am please disregard the error on the poster. .

Kaiyuan sent us this link a while back - sign up and watch the pros race for some good tips:

http://ccx.nathanspear.com/

YOU MUST RACE. . . . .

MATT FILE

Hey.

My name is Matthew O’Hagan and I’m an amateur cyclist trying to make it to the professional level on the road and a friend thought some of you might be interested in following the trip, so I’m going to give this blogging thing a shot.

I’m currently based out of Revelstoke BC, Canada, admittedly not your typical cycling destination, but some of the training around here is top notch once, and a key once at that, the snow has retreated up the mountains a bit. Winter training came down to a mix of skate skiing, pushing weights in the gym, and a couple times a week on the trainer/rollers. The last week of January and the first week of February I spent in Victoria getting in some solid base rides up to 6 hours in length in and now am back in Revelstoke working and putting in some quality trainer time.

ITT in the Velocity Stage Race, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Racing sits just around the corner (and hopefully summer weather too as it snowed outside again today), I have a couple training races coming up later this month and then I’m moving into stage races of stage races in April, Walla Walla being the the first, pretty excited for it, 3 days, 4 stages and full rolling enclosures for the road stages. Also in April is one of my favorite BC courses in Race the Ridge which has a pretty significant climb every lap. Later in the year I should be getting to a number of other stage races including Banff, Tour de White Rock, and the Cascade Classic in Oregon, as well as an assortment of crits and one day races.

Matt (the blur in silver far left) going fast at the Banff Criterium 08'. You have to go pretty fast to become a blur. . . .

A bit of background on my athletics. I grew up playing the traditional Canadian sport of hockey, was decent but was forced to retire due to a shoulder injury late in high school. Decided to try my hand at cross country mountain bike racing, really wanted to try down hill racing, but couldn’t afford the bike so cross country was what I did, raced for a year and was able to move up from Junior Sport to Junior Expert where I got soundly beat for the rest of the season (didn’t quite get caught by all the elite women at nationals with a 3 minute head start). From there I moved onto some rowing with the University of Victoria, found that didn’t work so well outside of school so bought a used road bike and started learning. Was super excited about that bike and loved it. It was the GT team Lotto-Mobistar replica frame in the super obnoxious florescent lime green.

In between all of that I’ve found a bit of time for snowboarding and more recently I’ve been enjoying rock climbing, which brought a tiny bit of balance to my athletics last season.

I will keep you posted as the season progresses and hopefully you enjoy,

Matthew

MATT FILE

Hi All,

recently while training a few local riders at the gym, one of them asked me "how do I become a pro?" and "If I was a pro, would I be doing the training we are doing now?"

Both good questions! (Of course I wouldn't waste their time with NON-PRO training! What do they take me for. . . . ) This got me to thinking - WHY NOT ASK A PRO!

PLEASE LET ME INTRODUCE YOUNG AND UPCOMING CYCLIST MATTHEW O'HAGAN.

Now, Matt isn't Chinese, doesn't speak a word or Mandarin or Cantonese. . . he's not even Asian. So this doesn't fit too well with Shanghaivelo (but what the hell!). He is VERY close though - he is Canadian (I understand a few of you are scratching your heads. . ).

Matt is a very good friend and aspiring pro (he is right on the cusp!) and I have invited him to write about the trials and tribulations of TRYING to get to the top right here on our blog! Each post will give you some insight into the effort and hard work Matt is putting in to live the dream.


This is Matt. Expect to see his installments soon . . . . we will also have an "ASK MATT" so please emails your questions to rob_w_lamb@hotmail.com

SHANGHAI CROSS #1 (EVER!)

incredible photos here: http://www.fotop.net/TANG/090222

After a lot of organising between deepbluephatboy and Your Author the FIRST EVER SHANGHAI CYCLO CROSS RACE took place this morning at 10:30am sharp.

We arrived at the course at 7am with the plan of having the course ready for everyone to preride at 9am. We were welcomed by the TREK Sponsored Tents already set up! This was a brilliant surprise, and certainly set the scene for a smooth start.

We would like to personally thank TREK for their support.

Let me immediately express our thanks to all the volunteers!!! I must say, we never take volunteers for granted, but with the amount of organization that goes into a cross race our helpers were a blessing. We had volunteers assist with setting tape, Robbie on the tools setting up barriers and the cheerful girls helping take registrations. Once again – this race would not have been half as brilliant without your help – THANKS! The weather was excellent and the organizers set up the course, and laid about 5 kilometers of tape by approximately 9:30am. Another personal thank you to MaxSHracing (http://www.maxshracing.com/company.php) Bikehome (www.bikehome.net) and TREK (www.trekbicycles.com)

The race started at 10:30am with 30 keen racers on the line. The weather decided to transform the race immediately as the clouds opened up to greet the start with rain! We had an excellent range of cyclists and we were very happy to see so many smiles – even if many of them had mud in their teeth!

The course had a fantastic mix of challenges (says he who designed it. . .) but the plan from the start was to string out the group. We started with 700m on the road to line everyone out. Eric Koh from team Specialized entered the single track first with a smooth bunny hop from tarmac to trail (MUD). Eric was followed closely by Your Author, Chia, Cui Yinhao and 2 other Specialized riders. There was a long line from there including Sven Nijs who had a tough start. . . .

Once riders hit the mud it was time to pick your lines as the rain turned the course into a series of deep ruts, puddles and slippery rocks. At the end of the first lap it was a Specialized 1, 2, 3 with Your Author in 4^th followed closely by MaxSHRacing teammate, and perennial strong man, Cui Yinhao.

As the laps went by the course got slower and sucked the energy from all riders. After riders exited the first section of trail they entered onto the second short section of road before jumping back into the trees. By mid race this area had degraded to the point where it was one long run. Throw in some barriers and we kept all riders on their toes! In similar fashion the second set of trail was great on the first lap but turned into pure running after the barriers as the rain continued.

A huge well done to all participants on completing such a demanding and energy sucking Sunday!

Full results will be posted in the next few days, however the final top 5 were:

1. Eric Koh (Specialized China)

2.Tom Simpson (Specialized China)

3. Chia Kung (Specialized China)

4. Robert Lamb (MaxSHRacing)


5. Cui YinHao (MaxSHRacing)

More pics and news to come. . . .

GOING NATIONAL! CYCLOCROSS IN BEIJING

One of the main goals of shanghaivelo is to bring the cycling community in China closer together. I have been speaking with Tom Lanhove at www.cyclosportchina.com and he is doing some amazing things in Beijing - definitely have a look at his website!

Tom has added me to his mailing list to keep me posted on Beijing riding and racing news and to cut to the chase - they have fantastic riding and racing community running. Recently the Beijing winter racing has been written up in INTERNATIONALLY!!!! Please take 5 minutes and have a look at

http://cyclosportschina.com/?p=421

SOOOO COOL! I would once again like to take a line and thank TREK BICYCLES for all the hard work they are doing in China to build racing culture - a big thank you to Todd McKean and all his dealers!!!

CROSS RACE - THE POSTER!

CLICK ON THE POSTER TO ENLARGE!!!

Shanghai Cyclocross!!

It has arrived! I have had numerous emails, calls and general follow-up from riders on how they can help or when "the race" is being held! I have managed to fight you all off but we are now in a position to give you some (but not all) of the details.

CYCLOCROSS IN SHANGHAI! We will give you a sniff. . . . . .the first race will be held February 22nd "The Forest of Pain". . . . . and will be at a familiar location which will be easy to access for all! It is certainly worth mentioning that we have had some awesome help from BIKEHOME! Everyone should have a look at their site bbs.bikehome.net

More details to come. . . . . .