No CX World Cups, But …

Last week’s disappointing news from the UCI was a bitter reminder to American cyclocross fans that we love a very Euro-centric, niche sport. Having no World Cup races on this side of the Atlantic in 2024-2025 will reduce fan engagement. But today’s announcement from the USCX series takes away some of the sting. Trek has stepped up as title sponsor for the upcoming season, ensuring its Trek CXC Cup will continue as a top domestic event. So, we’ll continue to have a UCI race here in Wisconsin, and plenty of Americans and Canadians will be on hand to fight for points that will qualify them for the world championships. However, don’t expect the big European stars at these C1/C2 races, as the cost-versus-benefit equation simply won’t make sense to them.

It will be interesting to see whether the revamped USCX can grow even further in the 2025-2026 season. This year’s schedule misses some regions of the country that traditionally have supported cyclocross well. I’m thinking particularly about New England, the Ohio Valley, Colorado, and the Pacific Northwest. And then there’s Jingle Cross in Iowa, with its rich history. And would you bring back a night race in Las Vegas, even if it weren’t tied to a bicycle industry expo? CrossVegas was always a good show. Is that only because it had the star power of prominent European riders? Well, maybe, but we can’t count on that anymore. Let’s see if USCX can tell a story that keeps us wanting another chapter.

Mountain Bike Trails At Regner?

Local mountain bikers will present a proposal for new trails at Regner Park in West Bend when the Park & Recreation Commission meets at City Hall this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. CDT. The plan would create a 2.2-mile trail in the woods at the west end of the park. According to the proposal, this would be “an easy course with no high risk features” and an ideal alternative for new riders who may be unprepared for the more challenging trails of Glacial Blue Hills. The proposal is a joint effort of GEARS and the local chapter of NICA, whose middle school and high school riders need a practice area that is safe and easily supervised by their coaches. GEARS and NICA would create and maintain the trails, providing a new recreation amenity without cost to the city. (This is very similar to the idea I had for Park Site O back in 2014.) Not mentioned in the proposal, but certainly obvious to the local cycling community, is the potential for fat bikes when these trails are covered by snow. It’s easy to imagine Regner Park as an annual destination for the Hugh Jass Fat Bike Series. If your schedule allows, then come to City Hall on Thursday to support the proposal.

From Aigle, With Love (Part II)

You could see this coming last year, and here it is: the UCI Cyclocross World Cup has abandoned North America with the release of its 2024-2025 schedule. Never mind that the United States is the biggest economy in the world. Never mind that North Americans supported past World Cup events on this continent both by racing in large numbers and by attending in large numbers. Tell me again how American cyclocross is supposed to grow when we don’t have a coherent national series and all of our best riders are forced to base themselves in Europe. There will be UCI cyclocross in America this fall, but it will be the C1/C2 variety, which lacks the prestige of the World Cup series. Domestic pros will battle for points in the hope of qualifying for the world championships, where the lucky few will be crushed mercilessly by the top international pros who had the benefit of competing at the highest level all season. So much for the “internationalization of cycling” that the UCI likes to congratulate itself for promoting.

Happy 91st, Mom!

Today is my mother’s 91st birthday and I am privileged to be with her in southeastern Pennsylvania. I don’t need to remind myself how fortunate I am or what’s really important about my time here. But as a “spring training” destination for my cycling season, the Philadelphia suburbs have been a bust. Since I arrived on March 26, a typical day has been wet, windy, and 10° colder than average. Last Friday we felt an earthquake centered in New Jersey, only 42 miles away. Today we had a solar eclipse. A superstitious man would wonder whether an angry god were out to get him. Seems like wherever I go, bad conditions follow.

Things look like they are finally turning around. Yesterday and today were the first back-to-back >60° days here since March 14-15. Tomorrow will be the first 70° day here since March 15. There’s mostly 60s in the forecast for the week to come, then the promise of 70s again next week. I will try to make the most of better weather. Today’s ride was just my fifth on this visit. I have ridden only 118 miles since arriving in Pennsylvania. Yesterday’s ride was my first 2-hour ride this year. That’s not getting the job done.

Home (Gym) Away From Home (Gym)

It’s the first week of my four-week visit to Pennsylvania, and so far the weather hasn’t been appreciably better than the weather in West Bend. I’m feeling a little cheated, as far as that goes, because a combination of cold temperatures, high winds, and rain has greatly limited my time on the bike. I’ve spent more time walking, and for at least the next week I am likely to continue to walk more hours than I ride.

But the weather has been my only source of dissatisfaction. Things are going really well otherwise. I have knocked out a couple of projects at my mother’s house, I’m getting much more sleep than normal, and today I found a corner of Mom’s garage than I can use as a home gym … of sorts. Back in West Bend, my home gym includes not only free weights, but also a collection of fitness bands that connect to wall anchors at four different points. The fitness bands are my go-to tools for back and shoulder exercises. Because they are so lightweight and easy to move from place to place, I brought them with me on this visit. I purchased four heavy duty screw eyes and sunk them into an exposed 2x4 in Mom’s garage. It’s almost a perfect replica of what I have at home, and the workout I completed this afternoon felt very familiar.

I wish I would have thought of this last year, when I was here for a total of 16 weeks and neglected my upper body the entire time! Now I can bring my fitness bands whenever I visit and keep up with a big component of my strength training program.

The Riverfront Parkway’s New Relevance

I made a blog post called “The Split Personality Of The Riverfront Parkway” back in 2016 and, for the most part, my observations still hold up. The parkway is wildly inconsistent in its surface material, its maintenance, and its utility from one section to the next. Most of the parkway is just as it was 8 years ago. The section that passes through downtown West Bend, however, is utterly transformed. In recent years, the city has realized that people like to be close to water … even something so plain as the very narrow, very shallow Milwaukee River. In 2023, the city completed a new “riverwalk” on the west side of the river. It’s not just a complement to the multi-use paths on the east side. In some respects, it’s better.

On the east side of the river, you can take the parkway past the Museum of Wisconsin Art up to Rivershores. You can cover the same ground on the Eisenbahn State Trail. Either way, you have to cross busy Washington Street. The new riverwalk lets you pass under the street, as I have been doing on recent rides like today’s:

And, just as significantly, the new riverwalk connects more things. Some downtown businesses are already pivoting toward the riverwalk, treating the back door as a second front door. West Bend’s newly reconstructed Main Street boasts many improvements, but more parking isn’t one of them. As more people discover the riverwalk, parking on the east side and then walking to downtown businesses should be more common. Outdoor dining will become more common too, not just because of the river, but also because we like to watch people.

I still think very few people will travel the parkway from end to end, and that’s OK. The new riverwalk would be an asset to West Bend even if didn’t connect to anything to the north or south. In the past 10 years we have witnessed the construction of hundreds of new residential units downtown, and more are coming. We’re moving toward a very dense urban core that can thrive because of our recent investment in bike- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure.

2024 Kenosha Velodrome Racing Schedule