Beer me!

Cathy Rowell and Doug Kennedy are the series Champions! Congrats and thank you both for supporting the series!

7 races, 3 months of fast and furious racing. So many great venues, so many super cool and talented racers. And guess what? We did it! We showed you can have a singlespeed series in New England and have fun! And you don't have to be Portland or SF (not that there is anything wrong with that!) or any other region. This is the NECX that will never change. You could get people on uni-cycles or big wheels (well we are on big wheels but you know what I mean) and they would be taking each other into the tape and throwing elbows. Because we race. But the racing can be fun. It does not have to be one huge stress bomb.

Last year at the drunkenweasel...err Ice Weasel 2010 we hatched up this idea. The idea was holy shit there are 60 racers shredding on singlespeeds, drinking beer, hanging out and having a great time. Why can't we do this all season long. Will we get fined? Banned for life? We didn't care. Zank, Jerry, Matt Aumiller, Cathy, Mike, Dougie, Matt Myette and a ton of other people were the inspiration and perspiration behind this.

When we hatched this idea and decided to go for it I was blown away by all the promoters, sponsors and racers who were just as stoked about it as we were. A HUGE thanks to all of you! And we will be back in 2012. In technocolour. Think of the comments section of this post as the Zank suggestion box. We are doing this series for YOU. For real. Throw some ideas at us. Who knows we might get too crunked on eggnogg at the Zank CXmas party and announce to the whole world that we will add 'X' to the series next year. Then its over. Cause once you say it on the internet it has to happen ; )

But seriously. Zank and I want your feedback. Email us, call us, speak with us in person, we are here for you. We LOVED the series. I personally am hooked on singlespeeding. It is NOT a gearing choice or what ever the buzz phrase the haters throw around. It is so different than racing with gears. So different. And it can improve your geared racing big time. You can't use the brakes in ss cx. Its all about momentum. Frankly cross period is all about momentum and you should never use your brakes racing. But with gears you can cheat and learn bad habits. It took me one lap preriding at dahweasel to realize this was gonna be all about carving good turns and not losing any speed.

I finally got to race the HUP Honey as Odin and the cx gods intended as a sscx killing machine. Thanks to The Wilcox and Aaron Ross over at Landrys in Norwood for building it up and making it a Berm shredding white ball of radness. When I got rear ended so hahd my rear brake got disconnected and driven under the rim of the loaner R-SYS that David loaned me I thought oh shit this is going to be an expensive race. But those carbon spokes did NOT explode! Impressed the hell out of me. So this is a thank you to everyone involved and a shout out to our sponsors. Its the holiday season. You will be asked what you might want as a thoughtful gift or you may be giving a thoughtful gift to someone. I ask you to remember those who made this happen this year. We had a LOT of sponsors. All of them jumped in 100%. I was blown away by their support.

Mike Zanconato is the title sponsor of the series. And the mastermind behind it. At 24 hours of great glen last August he said let's do this. I was yeah man great. But he kept pushing it. And he added a sweet prize to the pot. As most all of you know part of the series was a raffle at the end of the season. The Grand Prize was a Zank Team TIG frame! A lot of people were lighting votive candles, crossing their fingers and praying to win that frame! The lucky winner was MIT rider Zach Labry! He was beyond stoked. So I know you can't order up a Zank frame in time for the holidays but Mikey has 8 sets of FMB Supermuds just waiting to shred the gnar. They are amazing tires. I rode one on the front at dahweasel so I could get rad in Bermingham (the new technical section Kevin Sweeny built this year). Zank also has some of the coolest beenies, caps and assorted swag. Give him a call he would love to hear from you.

Newbury Comics. What can I even say about these guys? I LOVE them. Roger Cadman has been so supportive of the NECX. From the first race at QUAD, to Night Weasels to the finals. All season long Newbury Comics and its riders have been out just showing the love. They really are one of those teams that you just love to be around. True friends. Guys I want to hangout with all day long. Newbury Comics is awesome. Go into one of their retail stores and pick up some cds or go online and order some crazy punk rock clothing. And if you see one of them tell them thank you because they do SO much to make the NECX what it is.

Lazer Helmets. The best fitting helmets in the world. There I said it. And they are Belgian. Do you really need another reason to love them? Ok they are safe. Have great features for dialing in the perfect fit. Look badass. And they took great care of us this year. Each time I would email Smithers and beg errr ask him nicely for a prize for one of the races he didn't even hesitate. Chris is also a badass on a cx bike and one of my HUP brothers in arms. Lazer and Chris support cx a ton. If you are looking for a new helmet or eyewear check out Lazer.

High & Mighty. Every race series should have beer as prizes. Seriously. Racing for money is stupid. Racing for beer is rad. I owe Roger Cadman big time. He brought High & Mighty to the series in a big way. High & Mighty was so great giving us enough beer to keep the podium and the racers happy! They are a great company based in Noho. Their beer is awesome. And they are HUGE supporters of the sport. In Boston Marty's has a great selection. Or so I hear.

The Ride Studio Cafe. Patria and Rob and the whole staff have been such HUGE supporters of HUP and cross and the NECX. This season they went in big time. Sponsoring both Night Weasels/Ice Weasels and the Zank series. Their support means so much to me. I can't even begin to tell you. Doesn't hurt that my HUP Honey came through those doors. Built by Seven, put together by Rob and the crew at the Studio. That bike is amazing. Oh and did I mention that their mechanic is Andrea Smith? Stop and think about that for a second. One of the fastest cyclo-cross racers in the United States is the wrench at the RSC. How is that even possible? So this Holiday go in say hi. Say thank you for being such huge supporters of not just cross but cycling and have a cup of pour over coffee check out the awesome bikes and clothing and show them the love they showed us all season long

The list of sponsors is huge. I can't even begin to thank them enough but here you go 12 days of CXmas style:

1. Cyclocrossworld.com

2. Castelli

3. Belwether

4. Feedback Sports

5. Velocity

6. Bikereg

7. Chrome

8. Squirt Lube

9. All Hail The Black Market

10. New England Athletic

And to all the promoters, racers and friends THANK YOU!!! We will be back in 2012. Gonna kick it to 11...I already know one race we will be adding into the mix. Its a good one. Will be perfect for singlespeed cx. Again thank you all for making the series so incredible. If you have any ideas, suggestions just leave some comments or track me or Zank down.

12 days of CXmas

Ok apologies to Matt and Mo for ripping off 12 days of CXmas...but its too good a concept to not be a part of. I have a feeling what Matt and Mo are cooking up for CXmas is wayyy cooler than what I have in mind. But here we go! So this weekend. Saturday specifically is the finals of the Zanconato singlespeed cx series! HUGE thanks to all our sponsors, the promoters, the racers and the entire NECX for rocking so hard and supporting the series this season. It was so much fun. We are already talking about next year. But first we are gonna close this thing out with the Raffle to End All Raffles! Right after the singlespeed race we will get our winners on the podium, crown the overall series winners. Award them their trophies and start the raffle. Its going to as Colin likes to say "Full Auto ADD Chip" So be prepared. And yes I may have a megaphone..

The biggest prize on the line is the Zank Team Tig frame! But we have sooo many amazing prizes. Below is the list. But first a few "Rules". To win you need to be present at Ice Weasels. And you need to pre-reg. So get on it asap! And stick around for the raffle. No getting in the cars and heading home. Winning things is cool. Winning cool stuff like this will make you freak out. I guarantee it. Ok so repeat after me: Pre-reg and be present. Onto the list:

1. Zank team tig frame
2. Feedback sports bicycle work stand
3. Lazer Helmets (2)
4. Wii
5 Ipods (3)
6. Ride Studio Cafe gift cards (12)
7 Velocity rims (1 set)
8. Chrome Sherman CX race day bag
9. Castelli CW 6.0 cross gloves (3)
10. Ryders Eyewear Sunglasses (5)
11. Bellwether winter gloves (3)
12. Cyclocrossworld.com gift certs
13. Bikereg swag (hats, mugs, bags)
14. Squirt lube
15. Yankee swap....ie bunch of t-shirts and random swag items. May or may not include canned Unicorn Meat. I wish I was joking but I am not...

In event of a "tie" or we can't find the winners we will resort to traditional singlespeed worlds tie breakers. Push up contests, bike toss, Naked criteriums, quarters. By whatever means necessary to find the winner!

HUGE Thanks!!!

With two weekends and 3 races left in the Zanconato singlespeed series I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to all our great sponsors, racers, supporters and promoters for making the series so rad! This all was dreamt up almost a year ago at Ice Weasels after a few too many beer handups during the 1/2/3 race. Watching 100 singlespeeders get totally rad at White Barn farm made a bunch of us ask the question why can't we do this all cross season? I mean seriously. So we did it. Mike Zanconato put so much into this. And for that I am gonna give him a huge HUP hug at Ice Weasels! He was the mastermind behind this. And to be honest we are just getting started. This was just a test to see if it could work. Next year will be even radder trust me.

For now, again, thank you. Thanks to our great sponsors: Zanconato Custom Cycles who donated the Grand Prize a handbuilt tig welded team frame; High & Mighty who provided beer for every race; Lazer Helmets who donated two gorgeous helmets to the raffle, Bikereg, Cyclocrossworld.com, All Hail the Black Market, Chrome, Castelli, Andy Ewas and New England Athletic, Bellwether, Feedback sports, Mad Alchemy, Squirt Chain Lube, Recycled Sports of NH, Derek Griggs.
Thanks to the racers and promoters who backed us. Huge thanks to all the teams that supported the series. I can't say enough how great it was seeing Newbury Comics, Geekhouse, NEBC, HUP, Zanconato, MRC, Cambridge, Quad, and the entire NECX just get so stoked to try and have fun racing singlespeeds all season long. The series has been amazing. Each race has had its own flavor and that has been so cool. Can't wait to see you all at Ice Weasels and to crown the first ever King and Queen of singlespeed CX in the NECX! And who will win that Zank frame? That is going to be off the charts. Who ever wins it will freak out I guarantee it!

I want to personally thank Roger Cadman for rocking so hard, Pete Smith for making it rain glitter this season, Abel, Derek Griggs, Rob Bauer, Mike Zanconato, Scott Rosenthal, Matt Aumiller, Russ Cambell, Gary David, Colin Reuter, Uri Halevi, Thom Parsons, Sara Bresnick, Katherine Snell, Kurt and Mike and Ted, David Wilcox, Andy Ewas, Chris Smith, Stevil, The crew at Landry's in Norwood, Matt Myette, Jerry Chabot and all you cross freaks out there in the NECX...

VeloCX

Katherine Snell handed me a bunch of these up at Noho. Great trading card! I am sooo stoked for this one! My HUP Honey is being turned into a blingtastic Frankenbike as I type...See you all up there! Some great prizes. And we will have a ton of High & Mighty beer! Huge thanks to NEBC for being such great supporters of the Zank series!

Women's Podium from MRC

Great shot of the women's podium from MRC! From left to right Kerry Litka, Cait Dooley, and Clara Kelly. Congrats ladies! High & Mighty beer, smiles all around. CFR!

And your points leaders are...

After 4 rounds of the Zank SSCX Series your points leaders are for the women:

1. Cathy Rowell 60
2. Cait Dooley 50
3. Kerry Combs 46
4. Michelle Packer 25
5. Teri Carilli 24

The men's points leaders are:

1. Doug Kennedy 91

2. Shawm Mottram 69

3. Cort Cramer 69

4. Mike Rowell 63

5. Matt Aumiller 61

6. Benjamin Stephen 52

7. Jerry Chabot 49

8. Ian Whittle 49

9. Curtis Boivin 47

10. Matt Myette 45

Full results are here:Crossresults.com

Mansfield Hollow report from Matt Aumiller

Matt Aumiller reported in about Mansfield on his was to MRC:

"Let me start by saying that this race is one of the best grass roots races in New England. Thread City Cycles is doing it right! A beautiful and challenging venue, free food, primes for catching the guy in the chicken suit. You name it. The racing is top notch, but much lower stress than the verge series.

The course is long...canton long. About 9minute lap times. It features some challenging cambers, two beach sections, and up to 6 dismounts per lap. This race is CT's best kept secret.

In round 3 of the Zancontato Single Speed CX series, a lead group of Cort Cramer, Doug Kennedy, and Shawn Mottram led from the start. Mottram broke a spoke bunny hopping a log. Kennedy and Cramer pulled away and Mottram fought his way back through the field to a hard earned third place. Cramer pulled away from Kennedy securing the win, while Kennedy finished second."

Great race report Matt! Can't wait to here about MRC!

Cort FTW!!!!

Cort racing at this years Wheelers Dealers race at CrossVegas photo by Todd Prekaski

Huge congrats to Zanconato Custom Cycles race team rider Cort Cramer for winning round #3 of the Zank SSCX series at Mansfield Hollow on Saturday! Mansfield is one of the coolest grassroots races around and its course is legendary for so many twists and turns.

The results for saturday's race were:

1. Cort Cramer

2. Doug Kennedy

3. Shawn Mottram

4. Matt Aumiller

5. Benjamin Stephens

6. Mark Bernard

7. Chris Borello

8. Seth Davis

9. Paul Penaskovic

10 Raymond Cloutier

11 Michele Packer

Congrats to everyone who raced!

The shot heard round the world!

Photo courtesy of Russ Campbell pictured from left to right Shawn Mottram, Curtis Boivin and CJ Congrove

Round 2 of the Zanconato Single-Speed CX Trophy series went off wednesday night in Lancaster at the MindnightCX put on by MRC! It was one of the best cx races I have ever been to. Huge props to Gary David, Russ Campbell and all of MRC for putting on such a great night race. The single-speed race had 50 racers! And it was fast! Big gears were the call for sure. Curtis Boivin and Cathy Rowell both went home with the win! And custom Lantern Trophies courtesy of MRC and beer courtesy of High & Mighty!

Photo courtesy of Russ Campbell pictured from left to right Terris Carilli, Cathy Rowell and Kerry Combs

Hats off to those who doubled up! It was no easy task lining up right after the 3/4 mens race or doing a race right before the women's 1/2/3/! The series is going great. Each race brings new faces out and the racing has been fast but also sooo much fun. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of it and supported single-speed cx!

Cathy and Curtis with the some members of the MRC circa 1776 photo by Russ Campbell

Next race will be Mansfield Hollow on October 15th! That will be a double weekend that will include a trip back to Lancaster for another MRC race! This one during the day! Good luck to all the racers as they contest Holy Week!

Women's Series Points after 2 races

First Name	Last Name	Team	Quad	MidnightCX		Total
Cathy	Rowell	NEBC p/b Cycle Loft	24	25		49
Teri	Carilli	NEBC p/b Cycle Loft		24		24
Kerry	Combs	Zanconato Racing	23	23		46
Cait	Dooley	Geekhouse	25			25

Men's Series Points after 2 races

First Name	Last Name	Team	Quad	MidnightCX	Total
Curtis	Boivin	Cyclocrossracing.com	22	25	47
Matthew	Myette	Zanconato Racing	24	21	45
Cj	Congrove	Cycle-Smart	19	23	42
Mike	Rowell	NEBC p/b Cycle Loft	20	22	42
Doug	Kennedy	Minuteman Road Club	23	19	42
Jerry	Chabot	Cyclocrossracing.com	18	15	33
Ian	Whittle	Cambridge Bicycle / Igleheart Frame	17	13	30
Chandler	Delinks	Cyclocrossworld.com	25		25
Shawn	Mottram	Union Velo / NFG Cycles		24	24
Matt	Aumiller	Cambridge Bicycle / Igleheart Frame	8	14	22
David	Wilcox	Cycle-Smart	21		21
Cort	Cramer	ZANCONATO RACING		20	20
Benjamin	Pagano	Quad Cycles		18	18
Benjamin	Stephens	Steel City Endurance	15	3	18
Steve	Witkus	Bikeman.com		17	17
Mark	Bernard	Zanconato Racing	12	5	17
Matt	Giardina	Berkshire Cycling	16		16
Scott	Rosenthal	ZANCONATO RACING		16	16
Seth	Davis	Cambridge Bicycle/ Igleheart Frames	9	6	15
Connor	McKenzie	Geekhouse	14		14
William	Campbell	Newbury Comics	13		13
Gary	Jasdzewski	Wheelworks Racing		12	12
Abel	Tomkinson	Minuteman Road Club	11	1	12
Ian	Odell	Team Gonzo		11	11
Brian	Thiel	SLIJK Velo	10		10
Michael	Good			10	10
Nicholas	Czerula	Cyclocrossracing.com		9	9
Scott	Brooks	NEBC p/b Cycle Loft		8	8
Todd	Prekaski	CYCLOCROSSWORLD.COM	7	1	8
Keith	Reynolds	NEBC p/b Cycle Loft		7	7
Patrick	Twomey	Quad	5		5
Jeremy	Katz	Quad	4		4
Mike	Zanconato	Zanconato Racing		4	4
Thom	Flannagan	Newbury Comics	3		3
Rob	Bauer	MRC	2		2
Matthew	Lolli	Twin 6 METAL / Ghostshipclothing.co		2	2
Nicholas	Baker	Essex County Velo	1	1	2
John	Baker	Paradise Racing		1	1
Christian	Bryan	Bikes Not Bombs/Circle A Cycles		1	1
Jason	Devarennes	NEBC p/b Cycle Loft		1	1
Gles	Gollrad			1	1
Derek	Griggs	Recycled Sports		1	1
Tom	Gumbart	Minuteman Road Club		1	1
Steven	Hopengarten	Wheelworks Cyclocross		1	1
David	Howland	Bikes Not Bombs/Circle A Cycles		1	1
Eli	Levine	Hup United		1	1
Mark	Lovejoy	NEBC p/b Cycle Loft		1	1
Nicholas	Maggiore	Newbury Comics / High&Mighty Beer C		1	1
Michael	Maltais			1	1
Robert	Mayer	Cambridge Bicycle		1	1
John	Morin	The Kidney Project (TKP)		1	1
Brandon	Oniel			1	1
David	Palleiko			1	1
Ethan	Pearl			1	1
Doug	Thorp	Olympia Sports		1	1
Mark	Vautour	BTT		1	1
David	Rioux	BRC	1		1
Bruce	Kaptsten	Cyclocrossworld.com	1		1
Mark	Price		1		1

Series Info

Mike Z at Quad sporting the new kit!

The Zanconato Single-Speed Cyclo-Cross Trophy Series
An eight race single-speed cx series and a chance to win a
Custom Tig Zank frame!

What is the Zanconato Custom Cycles single-speed cx trophy series?

• It is a series made up of 8 of the coolest grassroots races in the NECX with a dedicated single-speed category. Men and women will be scored separately but race at the same time

• Every racer will be in the running to win a custom tig welded frame made by the master himself. To be eligible to win the frame you need to race obviously. For each race you enter you get a "raffle ticket" and a chance at winning the frame that will be raffled off at the end of the series at Ice Weasels. The more you race the more chances you have at winning!

• Rules are simple. Race a ss cx bike. You could use a ss mtn bike as long as you stick to USAC rules ie no bar end. Ice Weasels hack ss conversions are ok. Our technical director will be at the start line with zip ties in hand to help you if you are confused. As long as you make it one speed and aren't shifting its cool with us

• Points and a series leader will be tabulated by crossresults.com.

• And above everything else the series is all about fun!!! Getting muddy and bloody with your friends on ss cx bikes. Is there any greater joy? No I didn't think so.

• The drawing for the frame giveaway will be at the grand finale Ice Weasels! Racers need to be present at Ice Weasel to win.

• Series winners will be awarded custom trophies. Prize lists and beer will be on tap as well.

What races are a part of the Zanconato SSCX Trophy Series?

• 9/11 Quad CX

• 9/28 Midnight Ride of Cyclo-cross

• 10/15 Mansfield Hollow

• 10/16 MRC CX

• 10/30 Orchard CX

• 11/19 NE Velo CX

• 11/19 Cheshire CX

• 12/10 Ice Weasels

Each race is run by each individual promoter and may be staged according to their discretion.

An open letter to the Women of the NECX

The women's fields in CX are blowing up right now. Its incredible really. I am sooo stoked about it its not even funny. But we only had 3 ladies racing at Quad in the SS division.

The race at Quad was a ton of fun. The series is just a cool way to add in a bit of no pressure racing to what can be a really intense season. But make no mistake the SS series is competitive. And Zank and I are taking it seriously. We have really great prizes planned for each race. We are going to have a HUGE raffle at the end of the series at Ice Weasels. And there is the grand prize a chance to win a custom Zank TIG welded frame! We will be raffling off a frame at Ice Weasels. All you have to do to be eligible is race. For each race you do you get a chance to enter the raffle. The more you race the more your chances of winning!

Each race is being handled by each individual promoter. Zank and I are working close with them but they dictate when and how the race fits into their schedule. The next race is MRC's Midnight Ride Cross http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=14254

It looks like in their reg page it is one open event. We will stage the women separately and score you separate.

What if for this race the women's prize list was bigger than the men's? Would that be a good incentive? At Quad both men and women winners both won Ipods. I could up the ante if it would entice some of you to give it a try.

What if the women got prizes 5 deep as opposed to the men going 3? And what if the top prize for the ladies was a Wii? 2nd an ipod? And I will get creative with the other 3 prizes. We will also have barrier beer primes and a ton of other fun things going on that night.

What if there were say a start contract for all the women who lined up at series race #2 at MRC? What would that contract include? What if each women who registered for Midnight Ride Cross got a jar of Mad Alchemy CrossVegas embrocation. Just for lining up and racing.

You can use the same geared bike you raced on in the other race that evening. Especially if you have sram. Its super easy all you do is zip tie the shift and brake levers together. We helped a lot of people with this right before their race at Quad.

If you have any questions please email me or Zank. We really want to support women's racing any way we can. Please pass this info on to anyone who you think might be interested.

And so it begins

Mark Bernard shredding QUADCX in his new Zank Team kit! Photo by Russ Campbell

QUADCX was the kick off of the Zank Single-Speed CX Trophy Series! We had 40 men and 3 women line up for the first race of the series! Quad and Ted Packard and a whole legion of cross fanatics turned the Maynard Rod and Gun club into a course worthy of a GVA series. Crazy bermy woods sections. An awesome little barrier that everyone was hopping that carried you up a sketchy little up. It had sooo much going for it. Literally one of my favorite courses of all times.

But back to the series. The Zanconato Single-Speed Series is a ss cx race series made up of 6 of the coolest grassroots cross races in New England. The whole idea of this series is to have fun and get rad on ss cx bikes. At the season finale at Ice Weasels a tig welded Zank frame will be raffled off to one lucky winner! To be eligible for the frame you need to race at least one race and you have to be present at Ice Weasels to win.

At Quad we had a super competitive field. So serious firepower lined up. With about half the racers on zip tied modified machines. There were also some really nice dedicated single speeds. Racing was really fast. Chandler Delinks won straight up. With Matt Myette in 2nd and Doug Kennedy in 3rd. In the women's field it was Cait Dooley with the win, Cathy Rowell 2nd and Kerry Combs in 3rd. Fun was had by all. Although the pain faces at the end were pretty awesome. Full results are here

We will be tracking points and crowning champions of SSCX in the NECX at Ice Weasels. Points will go from 25-1. Every racer gets a point after 25th. So 1st gets you 25 points and so on...

Next race up is the Midnight Ride Cross on Weds night on 9/28 right before Gloucester!

Thank you to everyone who came out and raced and to our great sponsors: Zanconato Custom Cycles, High & Might Beer Co, Mad Alchemy, Bikereg, Cyclocrossworld.com and All Hail The Blackmarket.