Vegas

World Champ Julien Absalon with the Hutchinson crew including Marc Gullikson (right)

My trip to Vegas was what it needed to be, short. Despite my disappointment in the show, which I felt was well overrated and lacked any appeal, business there was good for me. Being part of the Hutchinson Test Tribe, it was great to spend some time with Marc and others from Hutchinson at their booth. I am excited at racing on the new Tubeless Ready Bulldog's, finally a real answer for tubulars. Marc, experienced cross veteran and Marketing Guru at Hutchinson, has been a champion for this product development. It has the makings of a real revolution in the sport of cross, and makes a lot of sense to me. I have been running Tubeless Ready on stock rims for mtb for some time with zero issues, I expect the same for cross. Plus, with clincher carbons like that of the new DT Swiss road wheels coming in at around 1200g's for the set, and tires at around 350g's, weight is not an issue. Not too mention the even lower pressures one can run with tubeless and even better flat protection.

Julien says he will finish out his season with a MegaAvalanche (think really big Super-D) that his brother has won for the last couple of years and some cyclocross. He equated the Beijing Olympic course to a cyclocross course, while physically demanding, lacked any technical riding skills. Maybe we will see a Sven Nijs afterall...


My new race steed on display at Reynolds UK booth

I also got to hang with Matty B and Joe from IF at the show, who were proudly displaying their first 953 stainless cross bike, which also happened to be my new bike. Be looking for a test ride in the MountainFlyer soon. While Indy was absent with an official booth, they had a couple of bikes sprinkled through the show. IF will be in full force at NAHBS show in Portland.

CrossVegas was pretty sick to see first hand, hats off to Chris and Brooke for their efforts in producing a top notch event. The venue was great and the racing even better. I was kind of glad my sense of direction failed me in my efforts to join the the race - I went south looking for the race instead of west...

No sooner after the races ended, I found myself back in Colorado by day break, and not a moment too soon. Vegas is a land that perplexes me, a city built on greed and consumption beyond my comprehension. Why would we place a tradeshow for an industry that should promote healthy, active outdoor lifestyles in a city that promotes just the opposite? Next year I will be at EuroBike, once again in a different capacity...