Crested Butte, statue in town

Crested Butte and Mount Crested Butte (the ski resort area) welcome the USA Pro Cycling Challenge (UPCC) for the finish of stage 2 on August 21^st. A town that grew up around mining, the Crested Butte area yielded significant amounts of coal by 1882. At that time Crested Butte’s population of 1,000 could visit or feel crowded by several saloons and restaurants, five hotels, a bank, three livery stables, sawmills, doctors, lawyers and the Union Congregational Church.

Today Crested Butte is a dirt-loving playfellow under a cloak of historic charm.

Dirt-loving

Mount Crested Butte trails map

Crested Butte’s roads didn’t get paved until 1983, about three years after its first Fat Tire Bike Week, now called the Crested Butte Bike Week.

This celebration of tires on trails is the longest running mountain bike festival, which makes it just one of the many hallmarks setting Crested Butte apart from other mountain towns. This year Crested Butte Bike Week will take place from June 21st to 24th.

Playfellow

During Crested Butte’s townie criterium event last year on the morning of the UPCC’s arrival in town, contestants rode part of each lap through the Talk of the Town Bar – yes, entering through the back door, cruising past the bar, and exiting to a roaring crowd outside of the front door.

What a way to play above the dirt: the Crested Butte Zip Line Tour takes guests along five zip lines and a series of suspension bridges.

Historic charmer

Crested Butte became a Registered National Historic District in 1972 and is Colorado’s eighth largest historic district. Stroll down Elk Avenue through the historic district in the middle of town and admire original buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Until recently the largest elk antlers ever measured, these antlers from an elk a Crested Butte resident took down in 1899 in the Dark Canyon of Anthracite Creek west of Crested Butte hang on a wall at the Chamber of Commerce Visitor’s Center in downtown Crested Butte when not on loan or tour. The owners shipped the antlers to the Boone and Crocket Club in New York for measurement in 1960 to establish world record status.

Along the road from Mount Crested Butte to the town of Gothic (photo by Mary Topping)

The former mining town of Gothic lies about five miles north of Mount Crested Butte, at 9,500 feet elevation among blue lupine on Gothic Road. More than 1,000 people lived in Gothic until it became deserted by 1893 when silver mining had played out. The town is home to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. An easy hike to Judd Falls begins at a trailhead just past Gothic.

See also:

USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Durango: facts and fables

USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Telluride: facts and fables

USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Montrose: facts and fables

Craig Lewis, (photo courtesy of Champion System Pro Cycling Team)

The Tour de Langkawi marks the debut of Craig Lewis for the Champion System Pro Cycling Team, which will be on the hunt for stage wins during the 10-day race in Malaysia.

“Training camp was really solid and I’m excited to see how the first race goes,” Lewis said. “My training has really progressed but it’s hard to say how that will show here with all of the travel and heat. But I am hoping to get 10 solid days of racing in the legs to form a base for the rest of the year.

“My only real expectation is to finish stronger than when I’ve started. If I can offer help to the guys and we win a stage, that would be huge.”

Joining Lewis on the six-rider Champion System roster is American Chris Butler, Australian Aaron Kemps, Jaan Kirsipuu of Estonia and Malaysians Anuar Manan and Adiq Othman. The more than 1,400-kilometer race begins Friday [2/24/2012] with a 20.3-kilometer individual time trial.

Champion System Pro Cycling Team General Manager Ed Beamon said Kemps, Kirsipuu and Manan offer a formidable lineup to contest the sprints, while Butler will look to the overall.

“Our first objective will be to get Anuar a victory,” Beamon said. “Butler will be our man for Genting (Stage 6′s mountain-top finish), but this will be a very tough race for the general classification. So we’ll concentrate on stages.”

Beamon said Asia’s first pro continental squad has learned a lot in a short time. In addition to competing at the Tours of Qatar and Oman the past  month, Champion System is also fielding a team for Saturday’s opening Belgian classic, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

“The races in the Middle East were a big learning experience, and I think especially the Chinese guys grew a lot,” Beamon said.

Tour de Langkawi Roster (Feb. 24-March 4):
Chris Butler (USA), Aaron Kemps (AUS), Jaan Kirsipuu (EST), Craig Lewis (USA), Anuar Manan (MAS), Adiq Othman (MAS).

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Roster (Feb. 25):
Riders: Clinton Avery (NZL), Joris Boillat (SUI), William Clarke (AUS), Gorik Gardeyn (BEL), Kun Jiang (CHN), Biao Liu (CHN), Pengda Jiao (CHN), Gang XU (CHN).

VeloNation interview (with video) with Craig Lewis the day before the Tour de Langkawi started.

View toward Teva Mountain Games village from snow crit start line

On February 11, 2012 the Teva Winter Mountain Games hosted a snow crit race in Vail with cash prizes for mountain bike and snow bike categories. Women and men in both categories touched only snow after they sped off at 5 p.m. in soft but cold post-sunset light.

They circled a 1.0 kilometer loop with 170 feet of elevation gain. The highest male finishers completed nine to ten laps in about 35 to 40 minutes.

2012 Teva Winter Mt. Games, Vail, Snow Crit map

Experience a course-side view of the start, the treacherous downhill, demanding uphill, and finish in this video which features the Team CLIF Bar riders, Brady Kappius and Mitch Hoke.

Race results

Male, MTB: 1. Tim Allen, 2. Greg Krause, 3. Brady Kappius

Female, MTB: 1. Tamara Donelson, 2. Amy Hermes, 3. Cait Boyd

Male, snow bike: 1. Mitch Hoke, 2. Jake Wells, 3. Jay Henry

Female, snow bike: 1. Judy Freeman, 2. Gretchen Reeves, 3. Eszter Horanyi

Brady Kappius & Mitch Hoke (l - r) at snow crit finish, Teva Winter Mt. Games (photo by Mary Topping)

San Juan Mountains, view from Ridgeway just south of Montrose (photo by Mary Topping)

Montrose’s allure hinges on its location in the Uncompahgre Valley. Its place in southwestern Colorado gifts the city with rich Ute Native American history, abundant agriculture and consumables, and breath-taking nearby scenery and towns. Montrose will host the start of stage 2 of the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge on August 21^st.

Pomona, Dad’s Town, and Uncompahgre Town all stood-in as names for the city before it became Montrose after the name of a character in Sir Walter Scott’s novel, The Legend of Montrose.

Ute Native American influence

The Ute Native Americans lived for hundreds of years in the areas of the Uncompahgre Valley and Plateau. “Uncompahgre” is a Ute word with several translations, including hot springs, red lake, and the place where water makes the rocks red.

One of Montrose’s treasures is the Ute Indian Museum. Situated on the original 8.65 acre homestead of Chief Ouray and his wife, Chipeta, the museum is said to showcase “one of the most complete collections of Ute Indian artifacts.” The grounds also include Chipeta’s crypt as well as a native plants garden. According to one blogger, visitors claim to have seen Chipeta wandering the museum grounds, and to have heard the sound of drumbeats echo in a rear exhibit room even though the ceremonial drum in that room rests under glass.

Friends, near Ridgway, Colorado (photo by Mary Topping)

Agriculture and consumables (beer, actually)

Thanks to irrigation provided by the Gunnison River via the Gunnison Tunnel, agriculture occupies an important place around Montrose. At the time of the race you should find farm stands along Highway 50 full of corn from Olathe, fresh cut that day.

Race fans might appreciate the result of harvesting another sort of grain: local beer.

• In town, the Horsefly Brewing Company offers a selection of micro-brews.  If you get to Montrose on Monday night, that’s $1 taco night at the Horsefly.
• About a 30 minute drive south of Montrose – and on the way from Telluride to Montrose if you come via the Dallas Divide and Highway 62, Colorado Boy serves its ales in a pub in downtown Ridgway. Colorado Boy says it sources all of its electricity from wind power and its hot water from solar collectors on the roof. Local cattle (Ridgway is ranching territory) feed on the grain and yeast left over from the brewing process. The brewery’s Irish Ale won a bronze medal at the 2011 Great American Beer Festival. The pub is closed on Mondays, but perhaps Colorado Boy will make an exception on August 20^th.

Breath-taking scenery and towns

Pick a direction – from the Grand Mesa to the north, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison to the east, the town of Ouray (whose nickname is the Switzerland of America) to the south, and the Uncompahgre National Forest to the west, it’s all stunning.

View of Main Street in Ouray, looking north (photo by Mary Topping)

See also:

USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Durango: facts and fables

USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Telluride: facts and fables

USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Mount / Crested Butte: facts and fables

To say Jacob Rathe rolled on two wheels before he walked on two legs is a bit of an exaggeration — but just a bit. Rathe’s life on a bike began, according to an interview in the Oregonian, ”at age 3, when he taught himself to stay up on two wheels: picture him riding circles on the back deck.” Just 20 years-old at the time he signed his new contract, Jacob Rathe is the youngest rider on Team Garmin-Barracuda’s roster in 2012.

A member of Team Chipotle development squad (now Team Chipotle-First Solar) last year, Rathe ascended to the Garmin-Barracuda World Tour team for the 2012 season with development teammates Raymond Kreder and Alex Howes.

Jacob Rathe (photo by Pat Malach/Oregon.CyclingAction.com)

About Jacob Rathe

A native of Portland, Oregon, Rathe first rode competitively at age 12 or 13, finishing well as a junior in cyclocross, road, and track disciplines. Like his teammate Raymond Kreder, Rathe is a former national track champion; he won the Junior U.S. scratch race in both 2006 and 2007. He also likes to mountain bike.

Rathe first experienced racing in Europe in 2007 as part of the USA Cycling Junior National team, and told BicyclePaper, “Overseas racing has been invaluable to my riding.” In 2007 he won the Junior Orroir Kermesse in Belgium. Also as a junior he competed in the Giro di Basilicata in Italy in 2008 and the 2009 Junior Men’s World Championship Road Race in Moscow.

An all-around rider, Rathe shows strength in sprinting and climbing, as well as finding the breakaways like he did in the 2011 Volta a Portugal and 2011 U23 U.S. road race championships where he finished second just behind his teammate, Rob Squires.

Rathe has named Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders as career objectives. Given Rathe’s 3^rd place in 2011’s Paris-Roubaix Espoirs event, Rathe could be another secret weapon for Team Garmin-Barracuda in the 2012 Spring classics.

Just prior to the Junior Worlds in Moscow, Rathe’s coach, Oliver Martin, said Rathe “always rides to win.” Martin said that in 2009; it still holds true. On February 6th in the 2012 Tour of Qatar, Rathe rode to a team time trial victory with Garmin-Barracuda in his first race of the season.

Career details 

Born: 3/13/1991

Race results highlights:

• 2011 1^st stage 9 of Volta a Portugal, 1^st stage 4 of Rutas de America, 3^rd in Paris-Roubaix Espoirs, 2^nd in U23 US road race championships
• 2010 2^nd Sea Otter Classic Road Race Under 23
• 2009 1^st stage 1 of Rothaus Regio Tour and a slew of domestic race victories
• 2008 1^st Tour of Red River Gorge
• 2007 and 2006 US Junior National Track champion in scratch race.

Teams: 2004 – 2007 Beaverton Bicycle Club; 2008 -2009 CMG Racing; 2010 Jelly Belly p/b Kenda; 2011 Chipotle Development Team. 2006 – 2010 USA Cycling Development program junior and U23 national teams.

[With gratitude to Pat Malach/Oregon.CyclingAction.com for use of his excellent photo of Jacob Rathe. Oregon.CyclingAction.com offers regular coverage of Rathe and other Oregonian cyclists.]

Road into Telluride (photo by Mary Topping)

On August 20th Stage 1 of the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge ends in Telluride, a town possibly named after tellurium, an element associated with gold. The town beckons race spectators with its mélange of hippy vibe, outdoor nirvana, and understated opulence.

Hippy ambiance

Telluride Free Box

On a corner of main street, in about the middle of the 12 block long town, a row of bins called “The Free Box” lines the side of a building. Shoes, shirts, and other used soft goods wait for new owners to take them away and shower them with love.

Early race fans can enjoy the annual Shroomfest which will take place in Telluride from August 16th to 19th. Activities still to be confirmed include mushroom identification and exhibits, educational lectures, films, cooking workshops, and a parade on August 18th. Mushroom shaped hats are de rigueur for the parade; several Tour de France polka-dot hats sewn together might pass for something fungi-like.

A free year-round gondola transports people from Telluride up to Mountain Village and the ski area. According to visittelluride.com, all of the electricity that runs the gondola originates from wind power generated along the Colorado/Wyoming border. A hiking trail underneath the gondola offers a work-out alternative for visiting Mountain Village.

Telluride provides puppy parking stations, hitching posts with loops for securing a dog’s leash.

Natural places

A rock formation called “Lizard Head” rises on the west side of Colorado Highway 145 between Durango and Telluride. While the head formation itself measures only about 400 feet tall, the elevation at the top is 13,113 feet. The unstable quality of the Lizard Head rock discourages climbers, but hikers can approach the formation by two trails accessed from Highway 145. Sheep ranchers have grazed sheep in the meadows that slope up to the rock formation.

A 1.2 mile hike on a dirt road that begins at the end of Telluride’s main street leads uphill to the base of Bridal Veil Falls, a 365 foot long waterfall. When frozen in the winter, some call the falls “the most difficult waterfall ice climb in North America.”

Bridal Veil Falls in Telluride (photo by Mary Topping)

Celebrity hide-out

Those “in the know” say Telluride has replaced the allure of Aspen for celebrities who just want to melt into the scene. Reported celebrity sightings include Oprah, Ralph Lauren, Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, and Jerry Seinfeld.

As of September 2011, the median home cost in Telluride is $683,000.

Males make up 55% of Telluride’s 2,400 inhabitants (2009 data), who in total number about one-half of the town’s largest population when mining activity flourished nearby.

Does the fact that Butch Cassidy (born Robert Leroy Parker) committed his first bank robbery in town in 1889 attract more men to Telluride, a town, however refined, that might prefer to be called rugged like the mountains that surround it?

————–

See also:

Facts and fables about Durango, CO

Facts and fables about Montrose, CO

USA Pro Cycling Challenge host city, Mount / Crested Butte: facts and fables

Team Chipotle-First Solar is the latest incarnation of Jonathan Vaughters’ dedication to the development of under-23 cyclists, a program he launched in 2003 with Team 5280-Subaru. In 2012 Raymond Kreder, Alex Howes and Jacob Rathe moved up from this development team to the Garmin-Barracuda World Tour team.

Raymond Kreder, 2010 Redlands Classic (photo via Slipstreamsports.com)

About Raymond Kreder

Raymond Kreder was born in Zevenhuizen in the Netherlands. He began riding with the Chipotle Development Team in 2009 at 19 years-old. Prior to joining the Slipstream Sports program, he rode for the Belgian Davo Cycling Team. During the 2010 season he raced with the World Tour team as a stagiaire and achieved top 15 results in the Circuit Franco-Belge and a seventh place in the Memorial Frank Vandenbroucke.

In 2010 Raymond Kreder once again demonstrated his skill on the track by winning first place in the Dutch track championships points competition.

He likes the cobblestones, previously naming Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders as his favorite races. And with good reason. In 2006 Raymond Kreder won the juniors version of Paris-Roubaix. In a 2011 interview, Raymond Kreder said he regards that as his biggest win and remembers it as if it happened yesterday.

Raymond Kreder has learned a lot from and still trains with his brother, Michel, who is two years older.

Raymond Kreder sprints well. A tweet by Vaughters in late 2011 indicated he will be called upon together with Koldo Fernandez, Murilo Fischer, and Robbie Hunter to provide a strong lead-out for Tyler Farrar.

Will Raymond Kreder tackle Paris-Roubaix in 2012 to help Vansummeren defend his 2011 title? In late 2011, that might have seemed too much to expect from a 2006 winner of the shorter juniors Paris-Roubaix. Now given his and the team’s performance last week, it might not be.

Regardless, it sounds from his tweet during the Tour Méditerranéen that Raymond Kreder is already living his dream season: “I love my brother @michelkreder ! Its really really nice to ride in the same team and same race! Thnxs garmin-barracuda!”

Follow Raymond Kreder on Twitter, @krederRaymond.

Career details

Born: 11/26/1989

Near one of the two Zevenhuizens in the Netherlands (photo by J. Knol, a.k.a. BrotherJohn, on Panoramio)

Race results highlights:

• 2011 three top-5 results in the Rutas de America, two 4^th places in the Tour de l’Avenir
• 2010 Dutch Track Champion, 1st in points competition, 1^st stage 3 of Cascade Classic
• 2009 3^rd in the Noordwijkerhout and additional races in the Netherlands
• 2007 three victories in the Vuelta a les Comarces de Castello Juniors races
• 2006 1st in Paris-Roubaix Juniors
• 2005 Dutch Junior Track Champion, 1^st in points race

Teams: 2008 Davo Cycling Team, 2009 Felt-Holowesko Partners U-23 team, 2010 Team Holowesko Partners and stagiaire on Garmin-Transitions, 2011 Chipotle Development team (team history prior to 2008 not identified).

[Many thanks to J. Knol for permission to use his lovely photo of Zevenhuizen, the Netherlands.]

Food and more from Durango.org

Honeybee at work

• “The name Durango comes from the Basque word “Urango”, which means “water town.” This name is fitting for Durango, as the Animas River runs through town.
• “The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad uses approximately 10,000 gallons of water per round-trip and 12,000 pounds of coal, which is shoveled one shovelful at a time.
• “The honeybees at Honeyville live for 6 weeks and work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They can also fly at speeds as fast as 14 mph.
• “Durango is the hometown of the original Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
• “Several well-known movies were made in Durango, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, City Slickers, Cliffhanger, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Night Passage, Ticket to Tomahawk, Around the World in Eighty Days, How the West Was Won, and Tracker.”
• Be an agricultural tourist in Durango. According to Durango.org, the Durango area has over 25 farmers or ranchers, some organic, who produce fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, grass fed and organic beef, pork, lamb, chicken, eggs, churro wool, yarn, flowers, and artesian and goat cheeses. People can visit a working ranch, an organic farm, a local brewery, or a honey maker. The tourism office (at 1-800-463-8726) provides information; you may need to contact the farmers and ranchers yourself to schedule a tour and tasting on the days of the week they welcome visitors.

View along the Million Dollar Highway (photo by Mary Topping)

Motorcycle adventure

Route 550 from Durango to Ouray, also known as the “Million Dollar Highway,” earned 4th best motorcycling road in the U.S. from the American Motorcyclist Association. Red streaked mountains, the remains of mines, and a fast-moving roadside creek elicit “ohs” and “ahs” whether viewed by bike or car.

Some have mentioned this road as a possible USA Pro Cycling Challenge route from Durango to Telluride; the consensus is the race will travel over Lizard Head Pass instead.

Build karma

The Durango Dharma Center (DDC) offers a Monday evening “sitting group” from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Meditate for 40 minutes and listen to a Dharma talk from one of the center’s leaders or a guest. The DDC is Vipassana (Insight) focused.

2012 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross Nationals podium, Dylan McNicholas Masters 30 - 34 national champion (photo by Roxanne King, flickr)

When the jackets peel off and the game faces set seconds before an elite men’s cyclo-cross field takes off, who’s got the advantage? Is it the guy that has stared down start lines since his teens, or Dylan McNicholas who began racing cyclo-cross at age 28 and straddled his first real bike a year before?

Now 31 years-old, McNicholas claimed a national championship, seven victories, and fourteen podiums while competing predominantly in the northeast in his fourth cyclo-cross season. McNicholas trains hard from his home in Stratham, New Hampshire. And natural talent must have contributed to his progression from cat 5 to cat 1 in a little over one season. But a few extra years in the game of life have helped too; he’s spun that experience together with support from family and team to achieve rapid results.

McNicholas is proving the path to bike racing success doesn’t have to begin with a racing license at age thirteen.

Bicycle beginnings

McNicholas skate-boarded and roller-bladed as a kid. He also rode BMX bikes a lot, “just like every kid has a 20 inch bike and rallies around,” he said.

He took up motocross, a sport that has supplied him with important skills. “I’m pretty strong at starts,” he said. “They can be intimidating, but a cyclo-cross start is tame compared to motocross, which is very aggressive with elbows and bumping, and I enjoy that.” At the 2012 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships he won the hole shot in the men’s elite race ahead of Jeremy Powers and Ryan Trebon. Other motocross skills like reading lines and surfing mud and ruts in ever-changing course conditions also enhance his cyclo-cross performance.

One August day in 2007, friends who owned a motorcycle shop in Portsmouth, NH asked him to join them on a non-motorized bike ride. Pedaling to build fitness for motorsports seemed like a good idea to a guy who had won some novice motocross races but hadn’t won events yet as an intermediate.

He said “yes” and it changed his life.

He borrowed a bike that he described as six or seven sizes too big. Wearing tennis shoes, he rode about forty miles. “I was blown away. Forty miles now seems like not that big of a deal but at the time it was monumental,” McNicholas said. He borrowed a bike once or twice more.

Dylan McNicholas at 2012 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross Nationals, elite race (photo by Roxanne King, flickr)

Then he bought his first road bike, a Fuji, which he rolled out a few times a week. He worked for a high-end landscape construction company at that time and built massive boulder and stone walls that took shape over a year. McNicholas learned masonry as a union apprentice when he was twenty years-old. He described the physical work of the profession: “It’s similar in a way to some of the feelings you get from bike racing. You’ll work really hard and then you have that kind of exhausted, tired feeling at the end of the day that’s kind of nice.”

The next spring he bought a mountain bike and entered a local mountain bike race. In his first road race that April, the Turtle Pond Circuit Race in Loudon, NH, it seemed to McNicholas that the field set off on the first lap uphill at a leisurely pace. “So I rode away,” he said. “I think they caught me at the bottom of the hill on the final lap and I managed to still take the sprint up the hill. That sort of is what got everything rolling. I was eager to go to the next race.”

McNicholas won that next road race, and the one after that. He stopped motocross racing. His results inspired him to train harder while continuing to work forty hours or more a week. But his only objective at the time was to progress through the categories. “I didn’t know anything – I just did the races and tried to win or do the best that I could. I was asking questions and reading a lot of stuff and just trying to figure out what it is you do when you’re a bike racer.” He just rode hard, like he does now.

Success in cyclo-cross arrived as easily as it appeared on the road. At his first cyclo-cross event, day 1 of the Gran Prix of Gloucester in the cat 2/3 race, he rode on a collage of a ‘cross bike he assembled with an old frame purchased from a training friend and the cheapest parts he could find. He started at the back of a field of over 100 and pulled out a tenth place finish. The next day he came in sixth.

Since that initiation year in 2008, McNicholas has consistently upped both the number of ‘cross races and his results, according to crossresults.com:  from twelve races in 2009 to twenty-two this season, from one win and three podiums to seven wins and fourteen podiums in the 2011 season. He’s progressed from local to bigger teams and now rides ‘cross for Cyclocrossworld.com and with CCB International on the road.

Support for strong performance

Leaping across racing categories as an amateur and chasing down a salary from bike racing require a bottomless well of focus and commitment on the athlete’s part. It takes time, which becomes a scarce resource while balancing racing with raising a child and making a living. His Cyclocrossworld.com team supplies bikes and equipment; McNicholas pays out-of-pocket for many expenses such as travel, and still does some masonry work.

Dylan McNicholas in the 2012 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross Nationals elite race (photo by Roxanne King, flickr)

Progressing in competitive cycling also requires a lot of support, and McNicholas can count on his family and friends for droves of it. McNicholas’ family enjoys spectating at bike races; they travel to watch them, even if he’s not riding. He said, “They’ll do anything to help me out really. They’ll help out with my daughter which is massive.” Just before 2012 ‘cross national championships, his step-father was heading to Chicago. He drove all of McNicholas’ equipment to Wisconsin, which freed McNicholas to fly to the event alongside his daughter Maeve without hauling any equipment.

Maeve, who is three and half years-old, always takes first priority. “I guess everything is sort of based around my relationship with her,” he said.

“Sometimes I’ll travel to a race and the head’s just not in it. But that’s time spent away from Maeve, so sometimes I use that as my motivation to try and do the best that I possibly can.” Forfeiting a chance to race well when he’s already forfeited time with Maeve would be wasting “the opportunity times two,” he said. But once it was the right thing to do. McNicholas has drawn strength from the challenges of balancing parenthood and daily life with racing, which can mean making difficult choices.

In 2010, in Sterling, Massachusetts, McNicholas fought to keep his head in the game on day 2 of Bay State Cyclocross, during his best season to date. He and Maeve’s mom had recently broken up. Out of loyalty to his team he started the race, his mind crammed with “the logistical difficulties of having a child, and figuring out how you’re going to manage all that and the repercussions that [the break-up] could have on your child,” he said.

McNicholas rode third wheel or close to it on the second lap. When he caught sight of his car in the parking lot, his mind connected with his wheels.

Dodging course tape, he sped off to his car and drove away. “I realized I was completely done,” he said. “I should have never even went to the race. I was just at a point where I didn’t have anything for it and my priorities were to take care of my situation and my daughter.”

A year later, in what McNicholas described as “somewhat of a personal victory, like a 180 this year from last year,” he won both Bay State day 1 and day 2 UCI races.

McNicholas came into the 2011 season with “a clear head” and better fitness. He also attributed his stellar season to fantastic support from his Cyclocrossworld.com team and sponsors such as Cannondale, Zipp, SRAM, and Lazer.

He rides ‘cross on the Cannondale SuperX and for the first time he’s had two bikes. “To have really good equipment that works great and is in good shape has made a massive difference,” he said. “And we have a mechanic who’s also a good friend and he’s unbelievable; his support has been huge. Every time I’ve had a great result he’s been a pretty big part of it.”

Fast forward

Speaking about longer term goals, McNicholas said he tries not to place any unrealistic expectations on himself. But he’d like to get a contract. He said, “I’ve talked to a couple of people already about next year and so I’ve got some things I’m pretty excited about.” And while he’s grateful to compete in the New England Cyclo-cross Series, he’d like to enter a few more Gran Prixs next year. “I’d even like to get over to Europe for just a handful of races next year. It would just be for the experience; I would set no expectations on myself obviously,” he said.

Dylan McNicholas in the 2012 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross Masters 30 - 34 race (photo by Roxanne King, flickr)

The pitch to a professional team is harder for someone who’s entered the sport at what’s considered a late age. Talking about starting at age 28, he said, “All around it’s a disadvantage. In terms of finding a team and a job it’s a disadvantage. You don’t have the experience that guys who have been racing ten years have – it’s the large base of experience teams want, not just the bike racing but also the travel and preparation.

“But the advantage is physically I’m strong. I’m starting at an age where my body is mature. The biggest thing could be I’m fresh – my head is fresh, I’m still pretty excited and motivated,” he said. McNicholas believes the maturity a few extra years of life brings helps as well. He can shrug off a bad day and move on, unlike younger guys who might get derailed by what he called “bike racing tunnel vision.”

He thinks he can improve in some areas. For example, he’d like brush up his technical skills. He said, “I have five good years of racing in me. I’m looking forward to that and expect to see some progression.”

McNicholas was happy with his season at the time of this interview a week before the 2012 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross Nationals. He subsequently topped off his season there with a national championship victory in the Masters 30 – 34 category and an eighth place in the men’s elite race where only 25 of 85 starters finished. He described his approach to those races before they took place as, “just to ride as hard as I can.” It’s an expectation he meets with honest effort, consistently.

While he calls cyclo-cross his focus, McNicholas will continue road racing. He enjoys it, his CCB International teammates, and the fitness it builds. He also plans on a little mountain bike racing, in between one of his favorite activities – going out to breakfast with Maeve.

2012 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championships course (photo by Roxanne King, flickr)

[Special thanks to Dylan McNicholas for his time while preparing Maeve's dinner, and with gratitude to Roxanne King for permission to use her photos -- find them and more great shots on her flickr account, and to Melissa German for telling me I had to interview McNicholas.]

Here’s a great example of that, with text from a news report on the Team Type 1-Sanofi website:

Javier Megias, Team Type 1-Sanofi at 2012 La Marseillaise (photo by Team Type 1-Sanofi)

“In Aix en Provence, Team Type 1-Sanofi rider Javier Megias met with local diabetologists, patients and family members at an evening roundtable discussion entitled ‘Diabetes and Sports: Une Solution pour Chacun,’ which translates as ‘A Solution for Everyone.’

“Megias said, ‘I am not sick, I don’t consider myself to have an illness. I have diabetes, and as a professional cyclist competing at the highest level of the sport at races here in France and around the world, I look at myself as just an athlete with one more thing to manage in my life.’”