Though we're already one month into the North American cyclocross season - in the better late than never category - here's a little primer to keep track of the racers. (btw found out that primer in this case pronounced pr-ee-mer and not pr-i-mer because that's the stuff on the wall before you pain... but I digress)

The big story at the start of the season was the expected crossclash between Jeremy Powers and Tim Johnson. After years of racing on Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com team and simply dominating the last couple of years,  Powers moved to headline the Rapha-Focus squad, and it's a big deal. Last year, we saw an inkling of what the racing could be like when the two really battled for the win, a  nail-biting, on the edge of your seat racing.

Well, that clash hasn't happened – yet - as Johnson is having a very slow start to the season, but another battle did ensue.  To the pleasure of the fans, the Ryan Trebon of old is back. Trebon  who dominated the scene a couple of years ago decided to strike on out his own after many years of racing on KONA, creating his own team LTS/Felt – a team of one at the moment. The eponymous LTS is named for the two principles Dusty Labarr, the team manager & mechanic and Ryan Trebon.

It's been a no holds barred duel between Powers and Trebon with neither dominating. With the European season starting later,  Belgians Bart Wellens and Rob Peeters (Telenet-Fidea) came over to check out the racing  one year ahead of the 2013 World Championships to be held in Louisville, KY. Wellens came away with three wins and new few found respect for the extra hurdle the US racers face with all the traveling.

We still have three more months of racing, and I fully expect the Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com trio to come into their stride and start being players for the wins. And of course, there are a lot more racers, including the working men that often battle for the 5 to 10 positions, so here's brief who's who of North American cross racing, XY edition.

Note: having issue with image formatting - but will be adding some soon! I promise

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We're heading into the meat of the domestic road racing season in the United States with the two NRC races, the SRAM Tour of the Gila and Joe Martin Stage Race leading into the UCI race, the Amgen Tour of California and US Pro National Championships. For those that do not know, the NRC is USA Cycling's National Racing Calendar, a 30-event calendar where points are accrued for both men's and women's teams. Unfortunately, no prize money, no jersey, no other recognition than press releases for the leaders but it's still an important goal for many of the US Continental teams – but not all.

The racing this year should be interesting with multi-year NRC overall winner UnitedHealthcare moving up with Pro Continental level and with (Fly) V Australia losing some of their GC talent. Many have talked about the sometimes negative racing that sometimes happens in the US but I think, or hope, that this year will be different with the team changes.

Read on for my take on the racing so far - the men's side this time.

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Finally. What many have been waiting for. Today, AEG owner and operator of the upcoming 2010 Amgen Tour of California announced the invited teams to the eight-day event on its fifth-year. The 16-team field breakdown is 7 ProTour teams, 2 Pro Continental team and 7 Continental teams:

Bissell (USA), BMC Racing Team (USA), Cervélo TestTeam (SUI), Fly V Australia (AUS), Garmin-Transitions (USA), Jelly Belly Presented by Kenda (USA), Kelly Benefit Strategies (USA), Liquigas-Doimo (ITA), Quick Step (BEL), Rabobank (NED), Spidertech Powered by Planet Energy (CAN), Team HTC-Columbia (USA), Team RadioShack (USA), Team Saxo Bank (DEN), Team Type 1 (USA), UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis (USA)

US teams not invited this year include Jamis/Sutter Home (ex Colavita/Sutter Home) and Bahati Foundation with the winner of the 1st ToC Floyd Landis.

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Congratulations to guidemd (Jen) and patrickbpenguin on their new baby girl: 6lbs 7oz Chloe Jessica (Sai Bo)  born at 10:37am.

Best wishes to all.

edited to add: Yes Jen missed Blockhaus :)

In his Back Pocket Preview of the Astana Team, Chris said: "Brajkovic, meanwhile, is perhaps just coming into his own: 26 years old, coming off his best season with a late-season peak that got him second at Lombardia, arguably the best result of his career. His early glory at the Vuelta, when he briefly took the lead in 2006, got him pegged as a grand tour rider, and his improvement against the watch speaks well of his future in stage racing. But on this team, he can afford to pick his spots. He's got to be gunning for September and October again, if he can excel at Lombardia he'll love Mendrisio."


Earlier this year, I had a chance to grab a few minutes with Jani Brajkovic  who kindly answered my questions while fighting a serious case of jetlag.

Go back to 2008, what happened at the beginning of the season?
I had really bad health problems, one after another and then I lost some motivation, just one thing and another, I just I don't know. The second part was really good, I started to feel really good in August and then it just went better, better and better. I was supposed to do the Olympics in August but … basically I got flicked, I just went to other races and that worked out really well.

Wait... there's more on the flip

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This is your chance to plead your case - the man himself will be in San Francisco:

Apr 16, 2009:  Lunch time event with Fausto Pinarello

Lombardi Sports is celebrating the introduction of the Pinarello bicycle, an expression of art and history, as a new product line to our store. In doing so, we are welcoming Fausto Pinarello, head of Cicli Pinarello SpA, with an event in our cycling department, this Thursday, April 16, 1:00PM, Lombardi Sports, 1600 Jackson Street, SF. Refreshments will be served.

Are you ready?

For Team Type 1 co-founder and professional cyclist Phil Southerland was faced with many unknowns  before starting the 2009 Amgen Tour of California. Not only had he never raced at this level but as a Type 1 diabetic, he had never put his body through this high intensity 8-day of racing. 

In our conversation a few weeks prior to the race, the 27-year old Southerland stated that the team was ready for its first participation at the race. "For me, I've never raced at that level and caliber. My teammates that have done the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France have told me how hard of a race this is going to be so I don't know but I feel that I've done the training, I've been smart about... I've made the sacrifices. At least, I'll be able to look back no matter what happens and say I put my one hundred percent effort towards it and that's what we can do."

But it was a tough one. The hard racing and the weather conditions took their toll on a suffering Southerland, when faced with worsening tendonitis, pulled out of the race on stage 4. The next day, under sunny skies  (finally!), we sat down for a quick chat where  he answered my questions about his experience at the big show. One thing to note is that not only is Southerland planning on returning to the race but he is not deterred in his focus of bringing his team to the Tour de France in a few years.

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Redlands is March 26-29

The Merced races (Merco Credit Union cit & road race) are this weekend. And Emilia is going to be racing (startlist)

Just sayin'

[ED] Reposted. Get to know your 2007 2008 2009 Tour of California winner...

The current leader of the Amgen Tour of California  American Levi Leipheimer (Astana)  is hoping to make it a three-peat as he goes into the decisive stage, the 15-mile (24-km) time trial in Solvang.  Last year, Leipheimer put in a blazing result beating second placed David Millar by 20 seconds.

I had a chance to talk to Leipheimer during the Astana team training camp held in his backyard, the city of Santa Rosa and the county of Sonoma.

Getting better with age.  At 35 years old, Leipheimer thinks that he's become stronger not only physically but mentally as he's grown older.  With age has also grown  his appreciation of training and of cycling.

"I really enjoy my training, I enjoy going out and riding for 6 hours and  really kind of suffer on the bike because it makes me feel like I'm alive more so that any other place to be, out there spending five hours on the bike, pushing hard in such a beautiful scenery like Sonoma County. I think that over the years I've just been able to appreciate that more and that's been the positive cycle that helps me train harder and harder and as I get older I'm able to handle more of that. "

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Team Type 1 co-founder  Phil Southerland was diagnosed with  Type 1 diabetes at seven months old and has been racing off and on for the past 12 years. I chatted with 27-year old Southerland at the team training camp in Solvang last weekend.

A bit of background. I first met Southerland at the Redlands Classic last year in March as the team was starting its first NRC race ever and he gave me the lowdown on the creation of the team.  During the college days, Southerland noticed that his friend and Team Type  1 co-founder,  Joe Eldridge was  not taking care of his diabetes and started placing bets on whomever had higher blood sugar paid for dinner.

"He [Eldridge] was a beginning bike racer, like a cat 5, but he was pretty competitive so he started doing things better, we call it the A1C challenge now, so in three weeks he made some drastic changes and all of a sudden he started beating me." said Southerland last year.

Avid cyclists Eldridge and Sutherland created Team Type 1 in 2004.  In 2006 and 2007, the duo  captained Team Type 1 to back-to-back victories in the eight-person team division of the Race Across America (RAAM).  After being able to use the best technology in the diabetes world, Southerland and Eldrige put forth a goal: to take Team Type 1 to professional cycling’s greatest race, the Tour de France, by the year 2012.

"That's the goal of the team so we can get that, try to have a worldwide, global impact on people with diabetes, similar to what Lance did for people with cancer." said Southerland.

Now onto the present.  Team Type 1 is growing again to  include a triathlon team, a development team, a women's professional squad and a second team for RAAM: "Team Type 2"; all in addition to the Men's UCI Professional team.

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In the first part of the interview, Bissell's Andy Jacques-Maynes talked about his return to the pro ranks after years of a 9-5 job, a horrendous racing accident in 2007 and his return to full-time, albeit amateur, racing in 2008. 

At the end of the 2008 season, Andy, his wife and fellow racer Josie Jacques-Maynes packed up the RV and went on a cross roadtrip.

At the end of 2008, you went on your road trip with the  RV. (laughs) Why?
AJM: The whole 2007 cross season, we were racing every single weekend just locally, just doing local races and it was every weekend. And then we went to Nationals, I had a couple of minor placings and so  I was able to get a fourth-row callup and that was pretty harsh and I ended up, I don't know, sixth or something and was called up twenty-something. It really wasn't indicative of where I should have been so I was motivated to go try  get called up and get the ranking and placing where I was actually kind of placed in the National Championships. So if I'm racing every single event anyway, might as well go do the UCI events so I can amass as many points as possible so I can have that  top ranking. And then I get a lot of exposure for my sponsors and  I get to travel the country and have a fun time doing all the races that I love to do.  I didn't have anything else to do, it's my job to race my bike, so I just said  'let's go for it'.

Originally, my plan was to rent an apartment in Massachusetts and just drive from race to race to race, and then Josie said 'I want to go too', and because we have our RV, it made financial sense for us to just bring it along and  drive out there instead of flying out there and renting an apartment. So we just went for that. 12,000 miles later and 10 straight UCI double weekends, we were both ranked in the top 10 nationally, I was in the top 50 internationally, Josie was too actually. I think we represented our sponsors very well, we did a good job, we had a good time, we met tons of people. All the other motivations that were there, to go travel the country, we got to see the sights, we saw lots of places we'd never seen before. It a big adventure that we could go do together and that was a lot of fun, on top of just going to bike races and kicking ass.

It sounded like fun.
AJM: Yeah. it was 3-month road trip.

In an RV.
AJM: yeah.

That had mechanical problems if I remember correctly.
AJM: No the truck broke down, the RV was fine the whole time. Except for when it froze up when it was 10 below. We got a hotel room that night. (chuckles)

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The name Jacques-Maynes is well known to the North American cycling scene with  30-year old Ben Jacques-Maynes  being a force to be reckoned with, but twin brother Andy took a different road to the pro ranks.

Andy followed on the weekend warrior working a 'desk' job as a product manager with Specialized and racing with the top amateur team, California Giant/Specialized team. Following a horrific crash on the last corner in a race on Memorial Day 2007 where he went straight into a lamp poll, Andy decided to rejoin the pro ranks.  And he did, he is ready to kick ass with brother Ben on the Bissell Pro Cycling Team.

I talked to Andy the day before he was flying out to the San de San Luis in Argentina to get some racing legs under him and to learn to race with a new team.

You came up through the collegiate ranks racing with Ben, you started off in the pro ranks and then you basically decided to give up pro racing to go into a 9-5 job. Why did you make that decision?
AJM: What it really was is that I just had such a good offer from Specialized, that you just can't say no to. I had studied mechanical engineering in college and I wanted to use my degree at some point and just not pedal hard. Specialized is a big company and they offered a pretty high up position so it's just one of those things where just comes along and you can't say no.

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Holder of multiple Czech cross titles and current U23 Czech Road Champion Ondřej Zelinka has set some clear goals. The 20-year old wants to do well at  the 2010 Cyclocross World Championship which will be held in his hometown of Tábor where he "has an opportunity from Richard Sachs  and I want to be on start in colors of his team."

He also wants to keep on racing on the road in Europe or in the United States which both offer interesting race circuits for Zelinka. "I want to race, where I will like it, where it will suit my sport and personal side."

As for the next three to five years, Zelinka would like to race in the Amgen Tour of California and the Tour de France.

(more on the flip)

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Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter's bikes were  stolen earlier this month from the Carter Center in Atlanta.

In case you were wondering both the former President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Carter and his wife rode Specialized Globe with a rear-wheel hub containing eight gears. retail price: $1K

More at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

After a year of racing as part of one of the best amateur teams in France, Alex Howes is coming back to his roots, rejoining the Slipstream organization, as he will be racing with the U23 team VMG/Felt for the 2009 season. Through it all, Alex has chronicled his adventures through his blog sharing his ups and downs with the world.

The 20-year old (almost 21) Alex Howes was born in Golden, Colorado. He came up through the ranks of the Slipstream organization first as a junior with the 5280 team and then spent a year with the Slipstream squad in 2007. He capped that season with a foray to France racing at the Tour du Limousin and the GP Plouay where he launched the first attack of the ProTour race.

At the end of 2007, he joined one of the best amateur team in France, the VC La Pomme which is based in the Marseille area to continue his to learn to achieve his goal of racing professionally full-time in Europe.

"It was something I’d always wanted to do [I thought] I won’t have too much problems with it. It definitely slapped me in the face a lot harder than I thought it would but you get to hang out by yourself a lot. I don’t know how much I necessarily learned about myself as a person but I definitely learned how to live with myself as a person without any other persons around."

I caught up with Alex right before the US Cyclocross Nationals where he finished fourth in the U23 race.

Read the interview on RoadBikeReview.com

photo courtesy of VC La Pomme

A few minutes ago, the Amgen Tour of California organizers announced the first 8 ProTour teams that will race in February: 

• Ag2r-La Mondiale (FRA)
• Astana (LUX)
• Garmin-Slipstream (USA)
  
• Liquigas (ITA)
  
• Quick Step (BEL)
  
• Rabobank (Netherlands)
  
• Columbia Highroad (USA)
  
• Team Saxo Bank (DEN)

The full list of teams will be announced in January, with final rosters due in February. Several of the ProTour professional cycling teams will hold their pre-season training camps in California.

No major surprise on the list so far:  race-sponsor Rabobank, the 2 US-registered ProTour teams, Columbia High Road (is that their new name for 2009?) and Garmin-Slipstream. Astana with two-time defending champion Levi Leipheimer and of course returning Lance Armstrong. Team Saxo Bank with its new bike sponsor, Specialized. Liquigas and Quick Step are repeat participants. The only minor surprise is the French team, Ag2r-LaMondiale. I guess they heard about the terrific weather we had last year.

note: podium pic is from the 2007 edition of the race

At just 27 years of age, American Mike Creed of the Rock Racing team finished up his ninth year as a professional with his last road race of the season, the Tour of Missouri back in September. While coming through the ranks, Creed was crowned U.S. national champion 20 times and was a member of the world championship team 6 times.

Creed has had ups and downs in his pro career, facing illnesses with relapses of Epstein-Barr disease and back problems while racing for the Prime Alliance, US Postal and Discovery, TIAA-CREF which became Slipstream teams, and now with Rock Racing.

I sat down with a relaxed Mike Creed, the evening after the time trial at the Tour of Missouri where our conversation meandered starting from this year, to his outlook on suffering, his recommendation to USA Cycling for its endurance track selections and finally his goals.

"When I was seventeen and eighteen racing in pro races, it didn’t matter if I failed, I could go out and just lay myself on the ground and no matter what place I got, it was decent so that allowed me to get some really solid results and it took awhile for me to just finally realize that no matter you just need to suffer. It’s okay to suffer, everybody is suffering."

Read complete interview on RoadBikeReview.com