4 Hours of Tuscarora

After all the hype about the toughness of this race, I can now say first hand that it lived up to all expectations. Early season races always mean mud, cold, wet, and gnarly. Tuscarora was all this plus. Three solid climbs and two super fast fire road decents all mixed up with gnarly rock gardens and multiple hike a bike sections. As for me, I rode a strong race holding the third spot for the first five laps. The course took its toll and eliminated the leader and defending champ with a double flat, launching me into second headed into the last lap. I was confident I could hold this spot but was nursing a couple cracked ribs from a fall on the second lap. The Scott Spark and trusty Continental Xkings guided me safely through the race and final lap to hold my podium spot and second place finish. Awesome race and hats off to the promoters for going above and beyond with trail prep, food and killer awards.

Ross

Southern Virginia Shootout 2014

This past Sunday I went down to Danville Virginia for the Southern Virginia Shootout. This has been the opening race of the season for me and many mid Atlantic and southeastern xc racers for a number of years now and it is always a great time with a high level of competition. This year a recent snow melt left the race course sopping wet testing racers skills and their bikes. This was also my first ride aboard my new Scott Spark 900 and this race would certainly be a test of the bike's ability.

At the start I found myself in 10th place going into the woods. I quickly picked off 5 riders in the first lap and then found myself alone for most of the race. This gave me time to really get a feel for the new bike. This year the bike came equipped with a fox 32 Float 29er fork and Float rear shock hooked up to Scott's twinloc system which provides full lockout, mid travel, and full travel settings. I already loved the twinloc and the new Fox suspension only made it better. Even in the extremely muddy conditioned the bike tracked extremely well and I felt extremely confident in downhill root sections. On climbs I easily locked out the front and rear suspension and was able to accelerate the bike like it was a hard tail.   

I had so much fun riding the new bike and trying to push it to it's limits on the muddy coarse that I almost wished we could have raced another lap. I crossed the finish line in 5th place which was a good result for such and early season race given the level of competition. As always the Southern Virginia Shootout proved to be a great season opener even in the wet.  

Scott Spark 900: http://www.scott-sports.com/us/en/products/233978008/SCOTT-Spark-900-SL-Bike/ 

Fox 32 Float 29 fork: http://www.ridefox.com/product.php?m=bike&t=forks&p=32603&ref=filter

Fox Float shock: http://www.ridefox.com/product.php?m=bike&t=shocks&p=99103&ref=filter

Updated UCI CX Rankings

The UCI just posted its updated world cyclocross rankings on November 26, 2013.  With his great fall season of CX, Cam has moved up to 126th in the world and is currently the 18th best in the US on UCI points.

You can find the full list here.

Unlike many of the others on the list, Cam is both working a full time job and started with zero points at the beginning of this season.  Zero points meant he started at the back of the field at the big races and fight his way to the front:

UCI CX Win!

Congratulations to Cam on his first UCI win on Sunday at the HPCX cyclocross event in New Jersey on Sunday.

Results are available here:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/hpcx-2013/elite-men/results

From Velonews, here's how it went down:

"Cameron Dodge (Scott Racing) and Laura Van Gilder (Mellow Mushroom) won Sunday’s HPCX cyclocross race in Highland Park, N.J.

Dodge was part of a group that stayed in front for the entire men’s race, and when the pack shattered near the end of the final lap, he made his move and darted ahead. Dodge expertly made his way through the final section of the course, which featured a twisty downhill section, a sharp left, a punchy climb, and another downhill before turning to the finish.

Jerome Townsend (Bikereg-Joe’s Garage) managed to sneak in ahead of Anthony Clark (Jam Fund-NCC) for second. The two crossed the finish line at nearly the same instant but Townsend was able to throw his bike across first."
Sunday's win was following another CX win on Saturday at the Fair Hill MAC event (where Cam is the current series leader).

Results are available here:

https://www.usacycling.org/results/?permit=2013-3343

Cam Race CX Updates and New Pictures

Cam and Bart (team director) @ Cross Vegas

Starting at the back of the group Cam won both races Sat/Sun at local MAC Series Event (Whirlybird) sending him into the lead in the MAC Cyclocross Series:

http://www.midatlanticcross.com/elite-men/

Next he went to FULL MOON VISTA CYCLOCROSS event in Rochester NY which is a UCI C1 event. He placed 6th on SAT and 2nd on Sunday.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/ellison-park-cyclocross-2013/day-2/results

http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/10/news/results-full-moon-vista-ellison-park-cyclocross-2013_306176/4

Cam is now ranked in 12th place in the USA Cycling Professional Cyclocross Calendar (Pro CX)

http://www.usacycling.org/series/2013-14-procx

Cam is ranked as 21st best US Cyclocross rider and 157th in the world.

Take a look at this video and skip to 5:20 minute mark to see Cam's interview...

http://new.livestream.com/gnarlymonkey/fullmoonvista/videos/32788196



And, in this video, after the advertisement skip to the 3:00 mark..

http://www.behindthebarriers.tv/whos-1/week-6-dr-jekyll-stephen-hyde/

Yet, another interview with Cam.

http://www.cxmagazine.com/cameron-dodge-on-rochester-and-his-cyclocross-season



And more photos of Cam...

http://www.cyclingdirt.org/photo/865276/photoalbum/449324#ad-image11

Plus, another Cyclingdirt interview with Cam...

http://www.cyclingdirt.org/coverage/251158-2013-Cincy3/video/723790-Cameron-Doge-9th-At-Harbin-Park

Watch more video of 2013 Cincy3 on cyclingdirt.org

Mid-Atlantic cyclocross standings - currently ranked #1!

http://www.midatlanticcross.com/elite-men/

Product Testing - Wolftooth Drop-Stop Cyclocross Chainring

Putting the Wolftooth LLC drop-stop cyclocross chainrings through some real world testing.  Set up with a 42T chainring and an Ultegra short cage rear derailleur, even after this bad crash, the chain stayed on the chainring!

I saw a recent article on Velonews about the "new" SRAM cyclocross XX1 style grouppo.  Well, with a Wolftooth chainring on a current crankset and a short cage derailleur, the same exact performance is already available.  Why wait?

Dylan 3rd @ Collegiate XC Nationals - and a Team Win Overall!

Dylan gets 3rd @ Collegiate XC Nationals!

 And a team overall omnium National Championship!

Dylan 8th @ Collegiate Short Track Nationals

Dylan pulls off an 8th place finish today at Collegiate Short Track Nationals! XC is tomorrow!

More Race Updates

Jeff and Zack did the SM 100

 

Cam raced at Cross Vegas and finished 21st ahead of some big hitters. 

Race Updates

 - Zack gets 3rd in Men's open podium from Rattling Creek 50

-Jeff and Mike do The Battle at Burke Farm (part of VAMTBS and VORS). Both made it on the podium (if there was a podium). Fun race!

-Jon and Ross do Mountain Creek H2H race

 

-Fair Hill was the conclusion of the MASS XC series. Cam came away with the win and the overall series win. Nick finished up 4th on the day, with Jeff in 5th, Mike in 10th and Zack in 11th. Jay cleaned up in the 50+ category with a win on the day and second in the overall series. Great turnout for an awesome course. There aren't many 27 mile single lap mtb races to be had, especially ones that are 90% singletrack!

 

-A podium sweep in the Open/Elite race at the D&Q Summer Sizzler with Dylan in 1st, Jeff in 2nd, Nick in 3rd, Zack in 8th and Mike in 9th. 

-Congratulations to Dylan on the overall win at the Wednesday at Wakefield ( Mike came in third)

-Cam finishes 8th,  US Pro XCT short track event in Vermont... http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/pro-xct-catamount-classic-xc-2013/elite-men-short-track/results

-and 20th in the XC Race