The One Square Meal Cyclocross Series

Download the Entry Form for snail mail by clicking here or

Action from the 2011 NZ Cyclocross Champs

As part of the 2011 Queenstown Winter Festival, the Club hosted the New Zealand Cyclocross Championship. The event was a test case for Winter Festival organisers, and it was so successful that the Winter Festival have asked the Club to host another race as part of the 2012 Winter Festival (22 June to 1 July). The Winter Festival organisers have indicated that they want to promote the race more, so that it becomes a permanent fixture of every Winter Festival.

Coinciding with this, BikeNZ, New Zealand’s governing body for cycling, has been active in liaising with various clubs around New Zealand to have an official National Cyclocross Series. QMTBC have been asked to kick start the series with its race in Queenstown as part of the Winter Festival.  See: www.nzcyclocross.co.nz for more information on the national series.

The Club are therefore holding local 5 race series (of which race 2 will be a national series race as part of the Winter Festival) at Remarkables Park, Queenstown on the following dates:

Race 1 – Sunday 17th June starting 10am

Race 2 – Sunday 1st July starting 2pm

Race 3 – Sunday 22nd July starting 10am

Race 4 – Sunday 12th August starting 10am

Race 5 – Sunday 26th August starting 10am

Each race will take an hour. So you will be home for lunch most of the days.

One Square Meal …

… are the naming sponsor for the series. When the Club first contacted Michael Mayell about sponsoring the series he had never heard of the sport of cyclocross.  However a few YouTube links later he was hooked and One Square Meal, the most balanced food on earth, confirmed as the naming sponsor.

The Club are very grateful to One Square Meal for their involvement. Not only have they given the Club the financial ability to hold a series, they have also assisted us in promotion and marketing. They have been great to work with, and we hope they will keep supporting cyclocross (as well as other biking pursuits ) into the future.

One thing is for sure, we will be needing a few One Square Meals throughout, before and after the series. Cyclocross is fast and intense. As a sport it is designed to make you suffer. An hour racing cross is both mentally and physically tough. The only way to prove you you are Queenstown best cyclocross rider is to prove it. One thing is for sure, you will be even harder to beat next year after consuming your prize of a years supply of One Square Meals.

 WTF is Cyclocross?

Cyclocross first began in Europe during the 1940’s and was a means by which road cyclists could maintain their fitness through the autumn and winter seasons. The race course is commonly marked with tape, has a length of 1 to 3 km and usually comprises: grass fields, dirt roads, sand, mud / stream crossings, forced dismounts and running sections.

Races involve the rider completing a number of laps over the same short course which typically has a number of obstacles (natural and man made) such as barriers, water features or drains which require the rider to dismount their bike in order to cross. Specific cyclocross bikes are available on the market and are similar to road bikes, however, there are major differences in that cyclocross bikes have wider tyres with knobs, lower gears, cantilever brakes and frames with wider clearances. The uptake of Cyclocross in New Zealand has happened relatively recently and many participants begin their introduction to the sport on mountain bikes.

Most of the major bike brands now make cyclocross bikes. Within Queenstown Element stock Scott and Avanti CX bikes, Outside Sports stock Specialized cx bikes (with disc brakes!), R+R stock Trek and Giant cx bikes and the Bike Fix can get their hands on some very affordable GT cx bikes. Cx bikes don’t need to be expensive, but they do need to be strong.

It is also easy to convert a mountain bike to cross for the series. Any local bike shop will be bale to assist you in converting that old hard tail in the garage. Singlespeed cx bikes are very popular because they are extremely light and lat longer in muddy conditions.

The Course …

… is to be located in the lower terraces of Remarkables Park, right next to the Kawarau River. The course is proposed to include just about everything: steep uphill, steep downhills, hairpin corners, swamp, dirt, ditches … chances are we will even have snow for one of the races. And with Phat Lines involved in the course design – who knows what else will be manufactured from the land. The course is proposed to be built over the next couple of weeks and we will open it for practice before the series starts. Please note that the course is located on privately owned land and we will only have limited times available for practice and racing – so please respect all closures.

Rules of the OSM Cyclocross Series

RACE POINTS: For all races (except Race 2) points will be awarded per race on the following basis: 20 points for first place male and female – graduating down to 5 points for 16th place. 17th place onwards awarded 4 points for participation. For Race 2, the national series race, each rider will be awarded 100 points for participation irrespective of placing. Double points will be awarded for the final series race on 26th August.

OVERALL SERIES WINNER: is the male and female with the greatest number of points from their best four races added together.

BIKES:

1. Tyres must be 42mm or less in width.
2. Handlebars must be conventional drop road bars.
3. Bikes which do not comply with 1) or 2) are permitted to race but the rider will not be awarded any race points and can not qualify as the overall series winner.

CATEGORIES: Male and female only.

OTHER: All riders must comply with the rules set by the race organisers.

 Entry

$75 for the five race series. Or $35 for Race 2. Or $15 each for races 1, 3, 4 and 5. Thanks to One Square Meals involvement, all proceeds go towards Club trails maintenance and development. Entry forms available on line soon.

Specialized Crux Cyclocross Bike Raffle

The Club have been very fortunate to acquire, with assistance from Specialized Bikes NZ and Outside Sports, a brand new Specialized Crux Cyclocross Bike to raffle. The cross bike is fast, solid and stops when you put the brakes on (i.e. it has disc brakes, where as moist cross bike still have cantilever brakes). This bike is on display at Outside Sports at present. Please do not drool over it, we want it to be clean and sanitary when the new owner takes possession of this new steed after that national series race on 1 July . Limited raffle tickets are available from Outside Sports for $10. Here is a link to the crux : http://www.specialized.com/nz/gb/bc/SBCProduct.jsp?spid=62217&scid=1101&scname=Road Big thanks to Specialized Bike and Outside Sports for making this happen.