Really amazing to see what xXx Racing did today. As a race director for 14 years, I understand the planning, details, property/course/municipal issues, etc. This, without a last minute unforeseen change is tough enough – they should be applauded routinely for their races. Now exponentially increase that level of stress with a new venue 2 days before. Wow. The whole CCC is appreciative & proud of your efforts. It was talked about all over today. You should be proud. Thank You!
Wow. Huge thanks to xXx Racing for putting this race together after so many last minute changes! It was a perfect opening to the Chicago Cross Cup and awesome to race again at the legendary Indian Lakes Resort. Also thanks to everyone who made this possible: the series organizers, Kenny, and all the racers who showed up on a super muddy and perfect CX racing day!
Totally didn’t enjoy commentator’s insults during the cat4 race today. Get your fat ass on the start line and let’s see what you could do in a 5” mud. Ass…
Shout out to XxX for pulling this off. We all thank you and your team, as well as all the officials, for the efforts you put in.
Also, I left my Franco vest with yellow Zipp water bottle in it by the start grid. Be kind, please return it to me. At least the vest. You can keep the bottle. Or LMK if there’s a L&F I can check next weekend. 🤙🏻
Not sure what “Racer” is talking about. All my years with CCC Kenny has been an absolute pro and does a superb job with his commentary. This is cross and Cat 4. Heckling is allowed and encouraged here. I got my share of it when doing cat 4 and 5 races. Thanks XXX for pulling this off and not giving up! So happy cross is back.
All things considered, great race today! Super awesome that it was able to be put together in such short notice with the loss of not one but two venues!!
Racer, this doesn’t have anything to do with how fast you can ride your bike. Anyone can heckle whether they are fast or slow, young or old, etc. It’s a part of cross (a fun part, most people would say). It’s true that there’s a big difference between good natured heckling and simply tossing insults/being mean spirited. The vast majority of spectators at ccc know the difference, and our announcer Kenny certainly knows the difference. While he can can toss off a heckle here or there I’ve never heard him do it in a mean spirited way. In my opinion he does an amazing job encouraging all riders, fast or slow. He takes his job as an announcer seriously, and I know he’d feel very bad if he knew that a rider thought he was insulting him or her (in a non-heckling sort of way). I think Rob Curtis has a blog post somewhere that does a nice job explaining the difference between heckling and non-heckling.
Speed on a bike has absolutely no relevance when it comes to mean spiritedness of commentary. I’m not sure why its even being brought up.
And I second what some of the other posters here have said…I’ve never heard Kenny say anything even the least bit inappropriate or unsupportive of riders.
I’d be curious if Racer could actually recount what was said.
I don’t think I know anyone more universally supportive than Kenny. Frankly, I’m not sure I’ve ever even heard his say something in poor taste nevertheless mean spirited. This guy’s announces hundred of races a year, meets thousands of riders, and still funds the time to ask about the teams, their background, and name pronunciations (which for a team full of latinx racers, truly means a lot).
As for challenging Kenny to jump in, just look up his results,Racer. He’s got nothing to prove.
Whoooooo boy. The xXx crew really knocked it out of the park on this one. Not only did they save the race by pulling off two venue changes, but they built an amazing course in no time flat. Hats off. Thank you. You guys are awesome.
And Racer, I was standing by the PA during the start of the cat4 race and didn’t hear an unkind word. Kenny, of all people, knows where the fine line lies in heckling. We do like to joke a lot and poke fun at each other, but it’s not just a cat4 and cat5 thing, it goes all the way up. Especially when it’s muddy, it makes things a bit more bearable. This sport is personal. If you want to talk about it, find me at a race. I use my name so you know who I am.
I raced Cat4 and didn’t hear anything that was aimed at any specific rider but on the other hand I was more focused on not leaving my shoes in the mud then listening to the commentator. There was some heckling at the end of 1st lap. Could it be it?
And now for some AV to soothe the Monday Cross hangover and hopefully lighten up the discussion board a bit.
xXx and the entire crew did a really solid job finding not only a suitable location for us, but also a really fun course in plow around in the mud. I came to the track thinking it was just going to be a bunch of flat out and backs but thoroughly enjoyed the up/downs and features of the course. Thank you to everyone’s efforts.
Here is a my two laps from the morning Men’s Singlespeed. The rain was coming down on the lens but I tried to keep it as clean as possible. https://youtu.be/nOE_5pFB0q0
It was a really awesome and fun day! I really love our CX family and all the laughs and I may have even loved the mud. It is unfortunate someone felt the need to come on here and dampen the mood a bit.
“Racer” you answer what you determined as insults to you by insulting someone else? It seems like you are totally missing the point of cyclocross by your ugly commentary. Without a specific example of what you think was an insult how do expect someone to learn from your feedback?
Sorry this really has me pissed off. As someone who Kenny literally came up to during the race to do a mid-race interview and poke fun at me while I was walking my non-functiong bike through the mud during the cat 4 race, what the actual hell did he say about you, ‘racer,’ that sticks in your craw? And if you don’t want to say it here, find me at Hopkins and I will walk you over to Kenny and introduce you to him and I guarantee you he would like to know what it is that he said that’s bothering you so he can not only explain and to make amends, but also so he doesn’t let it happen again, because Kenny cares about his craft, he cares about the sport, and he cares about every single damn person who pins a number on and races a bike.
I was so thrilled to see everyone at the course yesterday! I remain especially appreciative of how complimentary and understanding everyone has been about the mad scramble we went through to find our final site after having our permits revoked 45 hours before the starting whistle. We had secondary and tertiary sites planned with FPDCC, but they surprised us by instead cancelling our permits altogether! After seeing what we did to Indian Lakes, that wasn’t the worst call by the FPDCC. 🙂
I’m really proud of everyone at xXx Racing and in the community at-large for what we were able to pull off in 36 hours. To go from zero (and despair!) to a fully contracted, permitted, and set-up race site is just amazing. And to the one guy that didn’t get the word and showed up at Caldwell Woods (there really was one!), we’re sorry you missed a fun day of mucking around in the mud, but your drive train is probably grateful for the respite.
As far as course design goes, it sure was muddy! At 6:30PM on Saturday, after a long day of setting up the course, it was a joy to ride. Lots of neat little features, changes in elevation, and off-camber riding. After an evening of rain, that all went out the window and instead, it felt like I was dragging a cinderblock behind my bike!
Welcome to CX season and the CCC tourney everyone – it’s the best darned CX race series in America!
PS: We are already talking about trying to retain the Indian Lakes site for next year!
Anthony, of course I agree with you about how great Kenny is, and how much he brings to the CCC. I don’t think we need to get too worked up about this though. I think the sympathetic interpretation of what is going on with Racer is that he is new to cyclocross and the CCC and not familiar with the well established tradition of heckling. I can imagine someone who didn’t know about this getting heckled and taking it as some kind of personal insult. The best thing to do in this situation is to inform Racer of this tradition and welcome him to the CCC.
I’d carry my bike next to Anthony, grab a dirty twizler, a tasty beer, entertain a court-side interview with Kenny – any day. Literally my ‘worst’ CX finish ever… but was it? Some would argue my best. 🙂 Cheers to all that came. Cheers to xXx for actually pulling off this magic act.
Great job xXx, must’ve taken a lot of effort to get us a (brutally tough) course to race on.
If anyone picked up a Gore rain jacket, yellow with black sleeves, after the men’s 45+ race I’d appreciate it if you could drop to L&F. I was too exhausted to remember to collect it post race!
I do feel bad about something though… towards the end of the M35+ race I was totally out of gas and someone shouted out to me “hey, how’s the course?” and I responded “awful”. (I was somewhere between walking and running my bike through 6″ deep mud trying to not lose my shoes). They followed up with “are you having fun?” and I yelled back “no!”.
The truth is, it was a ton of fun… just not that exact moment. The proper response should have been “hell yes I’m having fun!”.
A big thank you to xXx racing, CCC crew and especially Kenny Labbe for pulling this all off and making it a great day where we got to act like kids and totally trash a perfectly good grassy field.
I think the best heckle I wa given during Cat 4 race was “how’s the 5k going?!?!” it certainly felt that way – I think I walked more than rode – thanks to the rain and xXx. Damn that combo is tough!
As an out of towner from Montana (in Chicago for work and stayed the weekend to race), I was super impressed with the vibe, the announcing and organizing, the field sizes, the adaptability in finding an alternate course… and the mud. Great day; you all have an awesome CX scene. Thanks to all!
That was me heckling you and I knew exactly how you felt just two short hours later when I was racing. I didn’t take it personally. Bonus: we did determine the later fields weren’t as strong as the 35+ so we shortened the course. 🙂
A big thank you to everyone who solved the “Where is this race?” puzzle and braved the muddy swamp that Indian Lakes turned into after being inundated with rain.
We hope you had as much fun racing, spectating and cheering as we did shooting on Sunday. Our photos from #CaldwellCX / #ILRCX can be found here: https://www.snowymountainphotography.com/Sports/Cyclocross/2019-Cyclocross/CCC1901IndianLakes/
We look forward to spending more time with you this season.
Here is video from the 45+ race. I started near the back and finished there. Incredibly tough conditions that were painful and a total blast. Not sure why I like this sport so much but I do.
What a day and what an event. Thanks to the crew who braved the elements and finally found a home for my very first CX race. Conditions were horrible by the time we 4/5’s got on the course and the wisdom of an experience racer “green is traction” was echoing in my head. Was it hard? YES! But I believe it’s supposed to be hard, correct? Great vibe, great (courteous) riders around me during the race, great course…. Finished 35th and couldn’t be happier! (well……) See you all on Sunday!
Kenny’s got nothing to prove as an ex pro rider and current top cycling announcer. I’m all for supporting the push to get him out there again though. I owe him a few heckles and he’s always too clean every weekend.
Kudos to the xXx people that laid the course out. I stood by the toilet bowl for a good while appreciating how that location was spotted and utilized perfectly. In fact, the whole back section was linked together really well. It was perfect in the mud and it would have been tough in dry conditions. It takes experience to envision a course on empty land. Well done.
Greetings from Cat G. Here in Geezerville—65+—we have a very competitive-minded group of racers. At the beginning of each year we look nervously at the upper end of the 55+ guys to see who is going to age-up and cause problems. It’s those younger guys that have an unfair advantage!
But this year didn’t go by the book. As we were looking out for younger guys, Mike Kurtz, racing age 70, showed up and took the win. Not the way it’s supposed to work!!
Congrats on your win and getting the leaders jersey Mike!
Loved the course, esp “the Toilet Bowl”. I recall a few riders disapproving in the past. Let’s have one once and a while—decelerate-180-accelerate ! Fun & work.
Thanks xXx for putting on a great race and scrambling to get everything together this weekend. It was truly an epic day out there and walking around after I saw so many smiling faces, proof enough that the day was a success.
I would like to say that the ‘toilet bowl’ was not a true ‘toilet bowl’, thankfully(!) and was actually one of the most fun sections of the course and one of the trickiest. Way to go Kirby, you had me scared on Saturday that I would be entering a death spiral and spending 3 minutes there only to turn back around and come back out.
Huge thanks to xXx for putting on this race with short notice as weather forced multiple venue changes. If we have more issues this year with venues, I hope we can return to this course as a back up.
The pics David Price posted, along with Snowy Mountain Photography, capture the spirit of the day. Such an extension from what the pros were racing in at the UCI race in Waterloo the previous weekend.
Let’s keep spirits high and emotions low. It is cross and suppose to be fun.
Thanks XxX for salvaging the race day! I’m sure a lot of people worked like crazy to make this happen, much appreciated.
Really amazing to see what xXx Racing did today. As a race director for 14 years, I understand the planning, details, property/course/municipal issues, etc. This, without a last minute unforeseen change is tough enough – they should be applauded routinely for their races. Now exponentially increase that level of stress with a new venue 2 days before. Wow. The whole CCC is appreciative & proud of your efforts. It was talked about all over today. You should be proud. Thank You!
Wow. Huge thanks to xXx Racing for putting this race together after so many last minute changes! It was a perfect opening to the Chicago Cross Cup and awesome to race again at the legendary Indian Lakes Resort. Also thanks to everyone who made this possible: the series organizers, Kenny, and all the racers who showed up on a super muddy and perfect CX racing day!
Totally didn’t enjoy commentator’s insults during the cat4 race today. Get your fat ass on the start line and let’s see what you could do in a 5” mud. Ass…
Shout out to XxX for pulling this off. We all thank you and your team, as well as all the officials, for the efforts you put in.
Also, I left my Franco vest with yellow Zipp water bottle in it by the start grid. Be kind, please return it to me. At least the vest. You can keep the bottle. Or LMK if there’s a L&F I can check next weekend. 🤙🏻
Hmm. I didn’t hear anything from Kenny that was inappropriate. Plus you know he was a pro tour rider, so…..
Not sure what “Racer” is talking about. All my years with CCC Kenny has been an absolute pro and does a superb job with his commentary. This is cross and Cat 4. Heckling is allowed and encouraged here. I got my share of it when doing cat 4 and 5 races. Thanks XXX for pulling this off and not giving up! So happy cross is back.
All things considered, great race today! Super awesome that it was able to be put together in such short notice with the loss of not one but two venues!!
Rad race all, thanks for the huge effort, last minute effort.
If anyone found a blue Garmin 800 on the table at the wash station but the utility building, I would loooove to get it back!
See y’all next weekend
„Was” doesn’t mean jack here and now. Go race 50+ or STFU
Racer, this doesn’t have anything to do with how fast you can ride your bike. Anyone can heckle whether they are fast or slow, young or old, etc. It’s a part of cross (a fun part, most people would say). It’s true that there’s a big difference between good natured heckling and simply tossing insults/being mean spirited. The vast majority of spectators at ccc know the difference, and our announcer Kenny certainly knows the difference. While he can can toss off a heckle here or there I’ve never heard him do it in a mean spirited way. In my opinion he does an amazing job encouraging all riders, fast or slow. He takes his job as an announcer seriously, and I know he’d feel very bad if he knew that a rider thought he was insulting him or her (in a non-heckling sort of way). I think Rob Curtis has a blog post somewhere that does a nice job explaining the difference between heckling and non-heckling.
Speed on a bike has absolutely no relevance when it comes to mean spiritedness of commentary. I’m not sure why its even being brought up.
And I second what some of the other posters here have said…I’ve never heard Kenny say anything even the least bit inappropriate or unsupportive of riders.
I’d be curious if Racer could actually recount what was said.
I don’t think I know anyone more universally supportive than Kenny. Frankly, I’m not sure I’ve ever even heard his say something in poor taste nevertheless mean spirited. This guy’s announces hundred of races a year, meets thousands of riders, and still funds the time to ask about the teams, their background, and name pronunciations (which for a team full of latinx racers, truly means a lot).
As for challenging Kenny to jump in, just look up his results,Racer. He’s got nothing to prove.
Whoooooo boy. The xXx crew really knocked it out of the park on this one. Not only did they save the race by pulling off two venue changes, but they built an amazing course in no time flat. Hats off. Thank you. You guys are awesome.
And Racer, I was standing by the PA during the start of the cat4 race and didn’t hear an unkind word. Kenny, of all people, knows where the fine line lies in heckling. We do like to joke a lot and poke fun at each other, but it’s not just a cat4 and cat5 thing, it goes all the way up. Especially when it’s muddy, it makes things a bit more bearable. This sport is personal. If you want to talk about it, find me at a race. I use my name so you know who I am.
I raced Cat4 and didn’t hear anything that was aimed at any specific rider but on the other hand I was more focused on not leaving my shoes in the mud then listening to the commentator. There was some heckling at the end of 1st lap. Could it be it?
And now for some AV to soothe the Monday Cross hangover and hopefully lighten up the discussion board a bit.
xXx and the entire crew did a really solid job finding not only a suitable location for us, but also a really fun course in plow around in the mud. I came to the track thinking it was just going to be a bunch of flat out and backs but thoroughly enjoyed the up/downs and features of the course. Thank you to everyone’s efforts.
Here is a my two laps from the morning Men’s Singlespeed. The rain was coming down on the lens but I tried to keep it as clean as possible.
https://youtu.be/nOE_5pFB0q0
It was a really awesome and fun day! I really love our CX family and all the laughs and I may have even loved the mud. It is unfortunate someone felt the need to come on here and dampen the mood a bit.
“Racer” you answer what you determined as insults to you by insulting someone else? It seems like you are totally missing the point of cyclocross by your ugly commentary. Without a specific example of what you think was an insult how do expect someone to learn from your feedback?
Or you can get better and cat the fuck up out of the 4 field, racer.
Kenny is not only a fabulous announcer, he works longer and harder than any of us do on raceday.
Sorry this really has me pissed off. As someone who Kenny literally came up to during the race to do a mid-race interview and poke fun at me while I was walking my non-functiong bike through the mud during the cat 4 race, what the actual hell did he say about you, ‘racer,’ that sticks in your craw? And if you don’t want to say it here, find me at Hopkins and I will walk you over to Kenny and introduce you to him and I guarantee you he would like to know what it is that he said that’s bothering you so he can not only explain and to make amends, but also so he doesn’t let it happen again, because Kenny cares about his craft, he cares about the sport, and he cares about every single damn person who pins a number on and races a bike.
I was so thrilled to see everyone at the course yesterday! I remain especially appreciative of how complimentary and understanding everyone has been about the mad scramble we went through to find our final site after having our permits revoked 45 hours before the starting whistle. We had secondary and tertiary sites planned with FPDCC, but they surprised us by instead cancelling our permits altogether! After seeing what we did to Indian Lakes, that wasn’t the worst call by the FPDCC. 🙂
I’m really proud of everyone at xXx Racing and in the community at-large for what we were able to pull off in 36 hours. To go from zero (and despair!) to a fully contracted, permitted, and set-up race site is just amazing. And to the one guy that didn’t get the word and showed up at Caldwell Woods (there really was one!), we’re sorry you missed a fun day of mucking around in the mud, but your drive train is probably grateful for the respite.
As far as course design goes, it sure was muddy! At 6:30PM on Saturday, after a long day of setting up the course, it was a joy to ride. Lots of neat little features, changes in elevation, and off-camber riding. After an evening of rain, that all went out the window and instead, it felt like I was dragging a cinderblock behind my bike!
Welcome to CX season and the CCC tourney everyone – it’s the best darned CX race series in America!
PS: We are already talking about trying to retain the Indian Lakes site for next year!
Anthony, of course I agree with you about how great Kenny is, and how much he brings to the CCC. I don’t think we need to get too worked up about this though. I think the sympathetic interpretation of what is going on with Racer is that he is new to cyclocross and the CCC and not familiar with the well established tradition of heckling. I can imagine someone who didn’t know about this getting heckled and taking it as some kind of personal insult. The best thing to do in this situation is to inform Racer of this tradition and welcome him to the CCC.
I’d carry my bike next to Anthony, grab a dirty twizler, a tasty beer, entertain a court-side interview with Kenny – any day. Literally my ‘worst’ CX finish ever… but was it? Some would argue my best. 🙂 Cheers to all that came. Cheers to xXx for actually pulling off this magic act.
Great job xXx, must’ve taken a lot of effort to get us a (brutally tough) course to race on.
If anyone picked up a Gore rain jacket, yellow with black sleeves, after the men’s 45+ race I’d appreciate it if you could drop to L&F. I was too exhausted to remember to collect it post race!
Nick Andriano I found the Garmin and left it at the start tent. Not sure where it went after that but I’m sure they’ll have it at Dekalb.
Max, that just made my day. Did you leave it with the officials? Just trying to clarify what you meant by “Start Tent.”
I’d love to buy you some beer or something as a thank you. Swing by the MSB tent next week!
Well, I had a fantastic time.
I do feel bad about something though… towards the end of the M35+ race I was totally out of gas and someone shouted out to me “hey, how’s the course?” and I responded “awful”. (I was somewhere between walking and running my bike through 6″ deep mud trying to not lose my shoes). They followed up with “are you having fun?” and I yelled back “no!”.
The truth is, it was a ton of fun… just not that exact moment. The proper response should have been “hell yes I’m having fun!”.
A big thank you to xXx racing, CCC crew and especially Kenny Labbe for pulling this all off and making it a great day where we got to act like kids and totally trash a perfectly good grassy field.
You can heckle me anytime.
I think the best heckle I wa given during Cat 4 race was “how’s the 5k going?!?!” it certainly felt that way – I think I walked more than rode – thanks to the rain and xXx. Damn that combo is tough!
As an out of towner from Montana (in Chicago for work and stayed the weekend to race), I was super impressed with the vibe, the announcing and organizing, the field sizes, the adaptability in finding an alternate course… and the mud. Great day; you all have an awesome CX scene. Thanks to all!
Yes sorry I left it with the officials.
@ Phil H,
That was me heckling you and I knew exactly how you felt just two short hours later when I was racing. I didn’t take it personally. Bonus: we did determine the later fields weren’t as strong as the 35+ so we shortened the course. 🙂
A big thank you to everyone who solved the “Where is this race?” puzzle and braved the muddy swamp that Indian Lakes turned into after being inundated with rain.
We hope you had as much fun racing, spectating and cheering as we did shooting on Sunday. Our photos from #CaldwellCX / #ILRCX can be found here: https://www.snowymountainphotography.com/Sports/Cyclocross/2019-Cyclocross/CCC1901IndianLakes/
We look forward to spending more time with you this season.
All our best,
Nathan and Morleigh
Instagram: @SnowyMountainPhotography
Twitter: @SnowyMtnPhotos
Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/snowymountainphotography
Here is video from the 45+ race. I started near the back and finished there. Incredibly tough conditions that were painful and a total blast. Not sure why I like this sport so much but I do.
https://youtu.be/lSRwjM5Q3hk
My first podium in a Cat 4 mudfest!
https://youtu.be/LhcdE5JnPhY
Cat 4/5
https://youtu.be/1qHkFDp-uuo
What a day and what an event. Thanks to the crew who braved the elements and finally found a home for my very first CX race. Conditions were horrible by the time we 4/5’s got on the course and the wisdom of an experience racer “green is traction” was echoing in my head. Was it hard? YES! But I believe it’s supposed to be hard, correct? Great vibe, great (courteous) riders around me during the race, great course…. Finished 35th and couldn’t be happier! (well……) See you all on Sunday!
Hello all, thanks as always for a great race, great competition, and great fun.
Probably the hardest race I’ve done over the last 3 seasons…
Video with GPS and sensor data from Mid-Field of Men’s Cat 4
https://youtu.be/Gb3NrBZWBCw
Kenny’s got nothing to prove as an ex pro rider and current top cycling announcer. I’m all for supporting the push to get him out there again though. I owe him a few heckles and he’s always too clean every weekend.
Kudos to the xXx people that laid the course out. I stood by the toilet bowl for a good while appreciating how that location was spotted and utilized perfectly. In fact, the whole back section was linked together really well. It was perfect in the mud and it would have been tough in dry conditions. It takes experience to envision a course on empty land. Well done.
Greetings from Cat G. Here in Geezerville—65+—we have a very competitive-minded group of racers. At the beginning of each year we look nervously at the upper end of the 55+ guys to see who is going to age-up and cause problems. It’s those younger guys that have an unfair advantage!
But this year didn’t go by the book. As we were looking out for younger guys, Mike Kurtz, racing age 70, showed up and took the win. Not the way it’s supposed to work!!
Congrats on your win and getting the leaders jersey Mike!
Loved the course, esp “the Toilet Bowl”. I recall a few riders disapproving in the past. Let’s have one once and a while—decelerate-180-accelerate ! Fun & work.
Thanks xXx for putting on a great race and scrambling to get everything together this weekend. It was truly an epic day out there and walking around after I saw so many smiling faces, proof enough that the day was a success.
I would like to say that the ‘toilet bowl’ was not a true ‘toilet bowl’, thankfully(!) and was actually one of the most fun sections of the course and one of the trickiest. Way to go Kirby, you had me scared on Saturday that I would be entering a death spiral and spending 3 minutes there only to turn back around and come back out.
Thanks y’all!
If you were in the men’s 3 race, or the women’s 1234 you might find your photo here: http://bit.ly/chicrosscup2019
If anyone happened across a Stan’s wheel that was left behind at Indian Lakes please let me know. It was leaning against a tree by the F3 tent.
Huge thanks to xXx for putting on this race with short notice as weather forced multiple venue changes. If we have more issues this year with venues, I hope we can return to this course as a back up.
The pics David Price posted, along with Snowy Mountain Photography, capture the spirit of the day. Such an extension from what the pros were racing in at the UCI race in Waterloo the previous weekend.
Let’s keep spirits high and emotions low. It is cross and suppose to be fun.
Sloppy single speed slug fest… ILRcaldwell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3VEkTtxsdg