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.