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.
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.
