Until the Snow Ends

Hey American Cyclocross Fans!  Are you HYPED to get up at 7AM on January 28th and watch the women's U23 world championship?  YES YOU ARE! This thing has only been around for two years, but Ellen Noble won the U23 World Cup and Emma White was the youngest woman to ever win a UCI race (take that, Marianne Vos), so you better believe that #MERICA is gonna show up guns a-blazin, sweep the podium,  and you're gonna spill your coffee when you post up in your living room watching a pirated feed early Saturday morning!  We've got the best women in the world!  We're getting our first rainbow jersey this weekend! ... ... Actually, let's be honest.  You have no idea who is racing the U23 women's world champs except for "Emma and Ellen." It's not your fault.  U23 women don't get their own race at World Cups, so you know exactly one U23 woman in those races -- whomever is leading the U23 World Cup (thanks to the leader's jersey).  And that...

I haven't raced 'cross nationals in five years.   Last time  I went, I drove to Madison and had what could charitably be described as a "bland" experience.  Most notably, I spent the season getting hyped for what would surely be the sickest snow/ice cx race ever, only to show up and race a 40 degree tractor pull. So when 2017 Nationals were announced in Hartford, I knew I had to race (being an hour from home and all) but I also knew that getting myself amped with dreams of snowy CX radness was a good way to end up disappointed.  After all, it's Hartford in January. Even before global warming, Hartford wasn't exactly a hotbed of skiing. And on the first two days of Nationals, it was mid 40s and raining and awful: "It's like the storming of Normandy out there" #cxnats pic.twitter.com/EQFiXlc72V — Hunter Pronovost (@hunterpronovost) January 3, 2017 This video looks "rad" but every part of the course that wasn't straight do...

It's hard to believe, but the 10th anniversary of crossresults  passed this year.   (Apparently I started Dec 2nd, 2006 according  to this blog post ).  One of the cool things is that now I have ten years of data to analyze.  One of the less cool things is that now I am ten years older, so I've started thinking about things like "when will I get slow(er)?" When a rider slows down/retires is, of course, a highly personal thing.  Sven Nys won a World Cup at 40.  Laura van Gilder had her best season at 47.  Ryan Trebon just retired at 35.  Zach McDonald retired (?) at 25.  So clearly professional careers have some pretty significant variability to them -- but let's see what we can find out if we look at some numbers -- after all, the crossresults database has 1.3 million results in it by now! And since it's January, I'm hyped out of my mind for Nationals and  I actually have a little bit of free time for once.  Let's not talk ...