Category Archives: Cyclocross

Barry Wicks: Cyclocross, Mountain Bikes, and the Adventures They’ve Brought, Part 1

Posted on August 23, 2012 by josh| 2 Comments


Tall guys require tall photos. Photo via thebonebell.com

Barry Wicks is a professional mountain biker, cyclocross racer, and, as of last year, Kona’s race team manager. He cut his teeth racing in Oregon as a junior and rose to the highest levels of World Cup cross and mountain bike racing. His palmarés prove he’s a serious racer, but he remains laid back and affable through it all–a fact that’s made him one of the fan favorites in racing. I spoke to Barry while he took a break from his team manager duties, supporting his riders at Crankworx in Whistler, British Columbia. Part one of this two-part interview covers Barry’s introduction to racing as a junior, Erik Tonkin’s mentorship, his recent experiment with endurance mountain bike racing, his Chicago slump, and more.

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Posted in Cyclocross, Interviews, Mountain Biking, Racing

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My First Bike: Yoshi Nishikawa

Posted on August 14, 2012 by josh| Leave a comment

My First Bike explores the life and work of professional frame builders by going back to the start and looking at the first bike they ever built. Today’s My First Bike features Yoshi Nishikawa, a production welder for Seven Cycles who recently launched his own company, Kualis Cycles.

Give me the short rundown of your first frame: when was it built, where, materials, any special details about it, etc.

These two frames were almost built at the same time. One of them is for a C1 racer on the Rapha Japan team. The other one is also for a C1 racer.

I had an order from the customer directly through my blog and website. The customer wanted a bike which made him win in a cross race.

When I design a bike, when I decide what tubes to use for the customer, after checking the customer’s information, I always imagine a frame in my head before it is built. Maybe this way is from my past experience as an architect. I make a little story between the customer and a bike.

I follow all the processes from touching a tube, to adjusting the alignment by feel after welding. I imagine clearly about the tubing character and the stiffness, softness …

This bike was also built through the process for only this customer.  I design and build each bike with each character. Every bike is different even though I use the same tubing.

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Posted in Cyclocross, Frame Builders, My First Bike, Racing

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Amy Dombroski: Colorado’s Young, Leg-Crushing Cross Diva

Posted on May 14, 2012 by josh| 2 Comments


Amy at the 2012 Cyclocross World Championships in Koksijde, Belgium. Photo by Mat Howie

Note: This interview was conducted in May 2012. In October 2013, Amy was hit and killed by a truck while on a training ride in Belgium. It was a tragedy that rippled through the American cyclocross community. I’m just glad I was able to capture this glimpse into her life and career. The Amy D Foundation was launched in the wake of her death to support young women racers.

When Amy Drombroski gave up ski racing for a new found love of bike racing in 2006, she didn’t mess around. She won the U23 Cyclocross National Championship her first full year of racing. In 2009, she took the U23 National title in cross country mountain bikes and then, just a week later, took the title on the road as well. Now, Amy’s spending her cyclocross season in Europe, chasing world cup titles and learning to race in their deep, fast, aggressive fields. We talked about the ups and downs of Amy’s short but full cycling career to-date, how she earned the nickname “Cross Diva,” the growth of women’s cyclocross, and more.
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Posted in Cyclocross, Interviews, Racing

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Colin Reuter: The Cyclocross Obsession Behind Crossresults.com

Posted on February 7, 2012 by josh| Leave a comment


Colin on the run-up at Gloucester. Picture from Colin’s blog, where it was no doubt stolen from someone else.

Colin Reuter loves cyclocross. At a glance, it’s the all-consuming type of relationship that might inspire questions from concerned friends and family. Not only did he create crossresults.com, which has grown to be a central site in American cyclocross. And not only did he spend four years running the site for free in the evenings after his real job (crossresults now is his real job). He also promotes two races in New England every year, runs a cyclocross team, and races elite cross every fall. As you’d probably guess, we talked about cyclocross. More specifically, Colin’s introduction to the sport, the birth and evolution of crossresults, New England’s propensity for producing really-fast pros, and more.

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Posted in Bike Industry, Cyclocross, Interviews, Racing, Uncategorized

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Adam McGrath: Cyclocross’ Wanderlusting, Micro-Farming Homesteader, Part 2

Posted on December 20, 2011 by josh| 3 Comments


Adam and his mandolin in Japan. Photo via flickr.

Like the majority of American’s in their early 20s, Adam McGrath is making big transitions in his life as he finds his path. Granted, his transition is from pro cyclocross racer to rural homesteader, but it’s a transition just the same. More focused on sustainable living than podiums and prize money, Adam’s chosen to settle down on a small piece of land on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula rather than continue traveling the country and world to race cyclocross. In Part one of the interview, we talked about Adam’s rise to the ranks of pro cycling and his formative years of nearly-constant world travel. Part two picks up with Adam’s disenfranchisement with professional racing, the balance he finds living on a farm, and his future as a professional cyclist.

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Posted in Cyclocross, Interviews, Mechanics, Racing

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