The title says its all. I’ve been training like its goin outta style. Sometimes I wish it would go outta style so I could chillax a little bit. (yeh right…) It’s been gooiinnn DOWN, my coach, Rick Crawford – AKA: The crawfeeze 
was out for a training camp here in Massachusetts two weeks back and we unfogged the spark plugs…. I was feelin pretty good last weekend in Long Island, New York and I’m hopin for those hard days to catch up with my legs in the coming weeks. Besides that I’ve been a little MIA doin house projects and also gettin’ in the 8’s at night. If you race bikes and you don’t get in 8 at night. Your just shooting yourself in the foot. Remember that if you’re a new rider coming up. Kevin Monohan told me when I was 20yrs old on a training ride that when he stopped being a ‘night owl’ (hah) he started winning nat’l titles. 3 of em for the record. Get familiar with Kevin Monohan if your not already- I raced in Sterling, Massachusetts this weekend, I got wins both days and I’m feeling great heading into this trip west as the most important two weeks of the US cyclocross season loom in the horizon. On Thursday I’ll head out for the 12day trip. If your anywhere near Portland or Bend these next two weekends, you better be there. It’s going to be crazy.
On a totally different note, I recently tweeted / facebook’d 
about a topic of having the US cyclo-cross season run into January. I think at this point it’s essential for the USA to have races up into the world championships. I had a 100 emails, tweets, comments etc. on the subject, which I’ve saved and I’m gonna put to good use in making a case for it. I think around 75% of the people who replied to me were in favor of having the season continue on through January. A lot of people asked me WHY I wouldn’t want to go to Europe December through February? I DO want to go to Europe, I love Europe and I want to keep doing trips there! But wouldn’t it be awesome to spend the holidays home and do some racing there in maybe November instead of January? It would continue to grow the US cross’ scene, help venues that don’t have dates, get a date on the calendar and create new venues for cross’ in say a little bit warmer places in January… We’re lucky to have a HUGE country and I’m certain we can find somewhere amazing to put on good races in January. A lot of feedback also said they wouldn’t ride in the nasty weather. I disagree’d with that, because this is cyclo-cross. Cross’ is the bad ass discipline of cycling that is raced in all conditions. Cyclo-cross races continue on in whatever conditions mother nature decides. Warm, cold, snow or sun, when its cross’ season we throw our rationality out the window and get to it. My last thought on this that I think is important. Wouldn’t extending the season help promoters respect the current venue dates? If we extend no one would have to step on each others races. Which is two-fold, not only does that suck for the promoter, but it’s something that keeps the top talent from racing against each other every weekend and again hurts the development of being the best cross’ country! Not to mention, What spectator wants to see races where only 3 of the top 10 show up? No one. We all want it, head to head, every weekend September until February.
Alright, I wish you all a safe holiday season and if hope to see many of you before that. Seeya!
December 2nd, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Let’s keep racing through January! Our country’s cross momentum is in high gear so lets get off the side streets and onto the autobahn. Not every cycling discipline is blessed with our growth right now, so if we dont take advantage, we may lose out. Opportunities like this dont happen every year. Cross rocks!
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Man I wish the season lasted longer in the US, my season is over already! Can’t wait to read about the races this weekend. I am rooting for you Powers!!
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:28 am
More ammo for the battle. It’s already starting in some places. Like Cleveland and the rest of Ohio ?!?!? (you’d think it would be MAC territory that would do this). They’ve got USAC races til December 19th already, and then some homegrown races through January.
That said making the drive to Cleveland through the snowbelt and into the Lake Effect snow region for a small race could be treacherous…
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:52 am
Thanks for bringing up this subject!
I think one concern, at least based on local numbers, is that very few people who race cross are actually full-on ‘cross racers.
There were well over 500 people who attended one or more of the Cross on the Rock series here on Vancouver Island, BC, and the series ran three month (Sept thru Nov), with 7 events (1 was SS).
In BC (and presumably the rest of Canada) the racing ends at the end of November, due in great part to the snow..
But of the 500+ people, i would guess that maybe a dozen of them are full-on ‘cross racers, who specialize in this event (and still have a race or two in their targets). The rest are bike racers (road, mtb, etc) who enjoy the sport, or fairly casual riders who like the competition, etc.. We’re all done for the season now!
For those who race, we’ve been going at it since as early as Feb or Mar…. For those who focus on ‘cross, they’re coming into it pretty fresh, and can carry through until January. But for the rest, it means that racing would be 11 months of the year!
The flip side of this is that if there were a longer ‘cross season, then more people would specialize, and train accordingly.. If people knew they would have 4-5 months of a ‘cross racing season, people would devote themselves to this more..
How do you crack that nut?
Anyway, all the best to ya Jeremy! =)