[Erik Tonkin] Sometimes, you just gotta wait for it. Here’s the situation… When I was out of town racing the other weekend, I heard that back home my pal Jeffrey was sick and couldn’t race. He’d trained well at our Thursday early morning ‘cross practice, and he was excited for the weekend’s two races, neither … Read more
[Erik Tonkin] Here I am at 4am Wednesday morning, finally sitting down to work on what I started a week ago, an article well overdue at this point. The clichés “better late than never” and “something is better than nothing” come to mind. Of course, those tired old sayings cut more than a slice of … Read more
[Editor’s note: This is the first contribution from local cyclocross racer and co-owner of Sellwood Cycle, Erik Tonkin (it was actually written a few weeks ago). Stay tuned for more articles and race recaps from him throughout the season.]
During Euro ‘Cross Camp, Geoff Proctor and I concluded that he (with USA Cycling) really nailed it when they made a top-30 finish at a world cup tantamount to discretionary selection to our world championship team: it is, in fact, really tough to finish in the top-30 at a WC. Consider the American results at … Read more
What would I do without my friends? Last year and this year, they’ve helped me stage a pseudo but otherwise full-on ‘cross race, so Rhonda and I could get in a serious training effort as we prepare for ‘cross worlds. Yes, life in general is easy with such willing (and clearly none too bright!) pals, … Read more
It just wouldn’t be a Euro ‘cross camp without learning some lessons the hard way. Well, on Sunday I paid the price for being too greedy and overconfident. But first, let me offer some background info. This year I came to camp focused on the first 4 races because they would effect team selection for … Read more
Be very careful what you wish for. I prayed for a good old slogger, but somebody upstairs took me a little too literally. After Loenhout’s 1 in 1,000 high-speed ‘crosses (easily the fastest I’ve done), the pendulum swung way back to make Hooglede the 1 in 1,000 slow-speed ‘cross (easily the slowest I’ve done). Consider … Read more
We just got back from the Loenhout GVA, and all our guys in the elite race finished it up. The course was spectacularly short and fast due to the cold (-1C = 30F) and dry conditions today. ‘Twas a 5min. lap, and we did 12 of ‘em, averaging I think over 20mph. There was a … Read more
Oh my god that was hard. Thankfully, even the top guys consider it one of the toughest. The sand is long and deep and then wet and mucky, and the course is short. We did 10 laps, the leaders doing just around 6min. per lap. I’m happy to say that I survived on the lead … Read more
Hey there from Belgium. So, as some know, I was shitty sick just after Nats, and left for Belge in its throes. I have improved but don’t feel like I usually do when I get here. Mostly, the trouble comes from taking over a week off the bike. I tried to train here on Wed … Read more