The races were held in the “heart” of LA, if there is one, on December 3rd and 4th. While not USGPs, they attracted a good number of heavy hitters (Tim Johnson, Ben Berden, Chris Jones, etc.) and the extremely windy conditions made for interesting racing.

Tyler and I flew into LA from Salt Lake City and Denver, respectively, and were excited to spend the weekend with our good friend and former teammate Ivan “the Cuban Missile” Dominguez. If you haven’t met him, he’s one of the nicest, funniest, most gregarious people I’ve ever met–any time with him is a good time.

I got Tyler’s Boo cross bikes set up and picked him up the day of the race. We scouted the course, did some fine tuning of tire pressures and derailleurs, and prayed to the God of Cyclocross (Sven Nys) for good luck.

You’ll see from the video that Tyler was in the front group or leading the front group throughout most of the two days. The Enve 1.25/King wheels with Challenge Fangos (26-28psi for the bumpy, dry conditions) simply ripped, and Tyler’s mentioned to me just how much improved the frames are with the FAT 1.5″ straight head tubes, Enve tapered Cross forks, and huge Press Fit 30 BB shells. I felt like a proud father.

Sven came through for us on Day One, when Tyler fought for all 60 minutes to take 6th place, just behind the front group of five. The windy conditions meant the racing looked like a circuit race more than a cyclocross race, and Tyler couldn’t hold onto the train through the tight corners…and fighting a headwind while closing gaps throughout the entire race takes a toll!

I guess Sven punished us on Day Two for not paying him sufficient respect: Tyler had a front tire roll halfway through the race, while he was leading the front group. The legs were there, the luck was not. He came in to pit and raced the second half on the B bike, which is identical to the A bike except for one key piece: wheels/tires. We didn’t have time to get another set of Challenge tubulars glued onto the other set of Enve wheels, so we had been using tubeless Hutchinson Bulldog tires with cheap Ultegra training wheels on the B bike. And, while excellent for training, they are horrible for UCI-level racing. Tyler had no hope of catching the charging front group, which was shattered by Ben Berden shortly after Tyler got onto the B bike.

It was a painful sight, a sad fall from grace, but I got video and photo evidence of the excellent ride he was having before Nys took his pound of flesh.

There are many, MANY more photos from Chris See to post…these will go up later this weekend. There are some great close-up shots of the bikes, and after a full season of ‘cross racing we have them totally dialed and I’m sure you will be interested to see the details.

Until then, enjoy the video!

MOUNTAIN FLYER MAGAZINE TEST REVIEW: BOO 29ER

While the Boo 29er is getting some great recognition, the Boo Cross–specifically, Tyler Wren’s Boos–are in for a serious spanking this weekend in Boulder. The Boulder Cup (Sunday, in the new Valmont Park) is a perennial favorite on the cyclocross circuit, and it’s a veritable who’s-who of professional ‘crossers.

If you’re on the Front Range, come by the Boo tent out on course for one of the best beers you’ll put to your lips (New Belgium) and to check out other customers’ rigs. Beer, bamboo bikes, music, mud, and mayhem.

Check out the Facebook gallery from both of their races. As you can see, we’ve lined up a list of the best sponsors in the entire industry to make sure the Boo bikes drop jaws as quickly as they’re pedaled! Every company we work with makes products which I buy myself, because they’re the best designed and performing pieces available–I’m happy to preach the gospel because I’m a believer

Cane Creek
Clif Bar
Challenge Tires
Chris King
Enve Composites
Fizik
Giro
Pactimo
Ritchey
Shimano
Smith
TRP

Corey Collier and Lara Kroepsch are joining Tyler as the newest Boo Crossers, and while Tyler was shredding Providence, Corey was blowing out the cobwebs at Fort Collins’ own New Belgium Cup. After driving from GRAND JUNCTION on Friday, gluing tubulars and building bikes Friday evening and Saturday, he raced for the first time in over a year on Sunday. In a USGP ‘cross race. At altitude.

Yes, I’m actively searching for a motivated psychiatrist.

Corey is now on a crazy journey to Brazil for a mountain bike stage race, where he’ll be working to raise awareness for Light Gives Heat, a charity very near and dear to him and his fiance Lara. They’re racing for more than results, and I’m proud to have them on Boo.

While I’m working on getting a few words from him on Sunday’s New Belgium Cup, Tyler has a bit to say about his Providence trip:

As usual during the labor-intensive ‘cross season, it was a whirlwind of assembly and prep getting all our sponsors’ equipment built up on the two new Boo frames. It all came together just in time for my trip to the UCI C1 & C2 weekend in Providence, and the bikes debuted flawlessly. I was battling for the podium both days, and, despite some crashes caused by pilot error, still managed a great top ten result in the more prestigious C1 event. The Boo ‘cross rigs are evolving phenomenally well. The new head tubes and bottom bracket areas are as stiff and track as well as an oversized aluminum frame, but the bikes retain that amazing bamboo compliance over the rough terrain. The weekend gave me enormous confidence in this year’s bikes and, with the cobwebs blown out, I’m looking forward to battling again for the podiums in Boulder at the end of the month.

The next big race weekend on tap for Boo is October 29/30 in Boulder. Tyler’s flying in, photog-extraordinair Chris See is flying in, and Corey and Lara and I will be the local yocals. It’s going to be real! So stay tuned–same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!
 

I’ll be posting a race schedule soon, and of course a full bike review as soon as possible–likely the end of October, after the Boos have been raced a few times.

Custom details to note on Tyler’s rigs:

1) we’ve moved to the Press Fit 30 bottom bracket standard, utilizing a 46mm ID carbon tube as an internal sleeve.  Around this sleeve, we wrap with unidirectional T700 carbon fiber in our proprietary (i.e. sorry, no pics of that step!) layup.  The PF30 setup shaves almost 100 grams from the frame alone–but the stiffness increase is significant.  We can use larger OD tubing and have a great wrapping area for the carbon fiber.  The crank and BB themselves are stiffer and a cleaner design (without ugly bearing cups sticking from the gorgeous Boo BB), but the best part is the increased heal clearance–in extremely muddy conditions, it’s quite common to see both normal (non-BB30) crankarms completely worn by the inside of the racer’s shoes.  It mars the finish, is quite uncomfortable or even painful, and surely can’t help transfer those watts to the rear wheel.

2) we’ve also used a FULL 1.5″ head tube on Tyler’s Boos.  Yes folks, not a curvy, tapered HT…it’s a full freaking 49.61mm ID from bottom to top!  This means ridiculous stiffness, lots less weight, and lots more fork/headset options.  We’ll run Enve Composites tapered Cross fork, which from our experience is the stiffest, most precise ‘cross fork on the market.  Then a Cane Creek headset composed of a normal external-bearing lower cup and a trick ZeroStack internal top cup.  The headset stack height is reduced, allowing us to run a slightly longer HT–you want that for the stiffest front-end possible–and the top cup disappears into the frame for a very slick look but without the generally crappy feel of “integrated” headsets.  If you’re curious why Chris King has never, and will never, make an “integrated” headset, read it from the horse’s mouth.

3) the stuff you cannot see…James has almost 200 Boo frames under his belt now, and every single one is better than the next.  As we work together to improve the integration of various components into the overall bike design, we’ve also optimized our tube sizes (both outside diameter and wall thickness) and our joint-specific carbon layups.  These details are ours to see and to know, but for our customers and racers to feel–the newest batch of Boo bikes has been getting rave reviews from customers, which I’ll be posting as soon as I get some good looking pictures to go along with!

So check in as we ramp up for a great 2011 cyclocross season and show what Boos are capable of!

Bikes at Outdoor Demo will be in the TRP booth, right across from the Shimano and Trek booths. There will be a Boo CX on display, and a 29er available for test ride, both with carbon belt drives!

At the indoor show, Brad Cole’s bike will be on display at Challenge Tires (booth 9084). Troy Evans’ will be on display at Tektro Technology (parent corp of TRP) at booth 12073.

Come check them out at the Challenge Tires booth at Interbike!

Brad’s Boo 29er SS will be available at the Outdoor Demo in the TRP booth…you can check out the TRP Dash Carbon brakes and ride the most unique, high-performance SS 29er at the show. Talk to Lance Larabee at TRP and Bill Marshall at Challenge.

But one thing we simply take for granted: that there even exist start and finish lines!  The people and work behind those two lines is astounding, actually more impressive than many of the performance between those two lines.  As I’ve been to more and more races as a professional, and become more involved with the business of cycling as a professional sport, I have gotten a glimpse of some of the immense obstacles promoters must tackle to pull it all off.

As I’ve nursed my knee wound, which seems to be coming together (literally) quite well, I have witnessed the Tour do Rio from the sidelines–behind the barriers at the start, in the van during, and behind the podium at the finish.  And I’ve also been seeing how the multitude of race staff, organization, commissaires, medics, and doping controllers work together in concert to keep the show on the road.

The Tour do Rio has been one of my most memorable races for this reason.  I cannot remember ever as a rider experiencing a stage race without racing in it, and it’s been an eye opener.  The course design, figuring out how to pass through towns with spectators lining the avenues, take in the incredible climbs around Rio de Janeiro, descend safely through some wicked mountain peaks, and come together for a grand finale–these are some of the key ingredients that make a race grow and prosper and create incredible drama and marketing value for its sponsors.

The Tour do Rio has it in spades.  Often riders declare courses unsafe, sometimes even unridable, but the race must seek out incredible challenges to allow the cream to rise over the course of the tour.  Rio provides an epic backdrop for the drama, and navigating its back roads has been hair raising for sure, but the event has calmed down as all tours do throughout their stages.

We can only hope for more coverage in the future, including video, to capture this spectacle as it happens.  Hearing from the guys after each stage, there are more opportunities for attacks, regrouping, chases, and various tactics between teams to play out than almost any races we do in the US.  The roads are so demanding that it’s simply not possible to have a boring stage with a lone break that is slowly reeled in before a bunch sprint.  The Tour do Rio has taken a cue from the Tour de France in using middle mountains throughout the stages to make the race a fascinating battle between strong rolleurs and grimpiers, with teams required to constantly react to changing conditions.

I cannot lie: it’s been very tough spectating at the Tour do Rio, made all the more difficult by the epic courses and challenges and tactics that I’ve seen.  As a racer, we look for the start and finish lines to determine success and failure–to what races are we invited and how do we perform at them?  But what comes between them, oh, that’s the good stuff, the beauty–what keeps us coming back for more.

I can only hope we are so lucky to come back to the Tour do Rio in 2012, their third year running.  I’ll know what to expect, I’ll be ready for the considerable challenges, and I’ll look forward to the good stuff.

But to race for 80 miles, up over 10,000ft of vert, with just a single gear?  I was getting ready to call up Nurse Ratchet when Brad told me this plan.  Maybe some old-school therapy would help dissuade him.

It turns out Nurse isn’t really practicing anymore, so Brad had his way–and with great success!  He took a dominant win in the Crusher’s singlespeed category (yes, apparently there were others who had fallen off the deep end), coming in top-15 in the overall top men’s division to boot!

So, what steed helped him perform this masochistic, sadistic, demented, tormented act?  A fully-rigid, belt-driven bamboo-carbon mountain bike with 29″ road bike wheels and tubulars.

At least he had brakes!

Now feast your eyes on the gallery of a madman’s bicycle.  And reflect on the famous words (many times the *last* words): “If you’re gonna go, go all in!”

That’s how one of the most epic events in recent memory began: Bruce Bilodeau sang his warning chant while clanging three Coors longnecks connected to his fingers.

And how could a self-proclaimed 80 mile “roadirt” event with over 10,000 feet of climbing begin any other way?

all star line-up

An event dreamt by Burke Swindlehurst, notorious for his masochistic tendencies as a professional roadie, the Crusher in the Tushar was a perfect test for Boo Bicycles and a target of Tyler Wren’s since Burke ran the idea by him almost a year prior. As Utah natives, both Burke and Tyler have a penchant for extreme challenges, probably one of the reasons they’ve enjoyed such long careers and still love the bike.

“Since my move to Salt Lake two years ago, I’ve been becoming more confident in my abilities on climbs at altitude and off-road proficiency, so I was focusing in on this race ever since Burke described it to me last fall. Also, since I’ve moved here, I’ve come to know Burke and his penchant for extremely difficult terrain, so I knew that this race would be an immense challenge and therefore something I wanted to be a part of.”

So Tyler drew a big red circle around July 16th, 2011…

Before the pain

As a small frame builder, Boo Bicycles has made a name for itself by showing up at select races and really hitting it out of the park. We’ve raced some of the biggest cross events on the calendar and demonstrated that a bamboo bike can compete heads-up with all the carbon Ridleys and Stevens and Konas and other dominant brands in the discipline.

For the Crusher in the Tushar, we had another couple ingredients: Brad Cole on a Boo 29er (fully rigid and belt drive singlespeed, no less!) and yours truly. Brad had just gotten his Boo set up properly and raced well to 7th overall at Forty in the Fort the previous weekend, and I’d just won the Iowa State Criterium championship and taken third in the road race. With Tyler’s motivation to win, we knew we we’d be three of the strongest guys in the field.

That’s when Tyler threw a wrench into the plan. “Dude, you need to ride your road bike.” WHAT?! It specifically says on Crusher’s site: “Definitely not recommended….there will most definitely be dismounts and snow field crossings.”

Of course I was skeptical, but as Tyler described the race tactics to me–very similar to our epic win at the penultimate Queen Stage of the Vuelta Chile in February this year–I was on board. I rolled the Boo 29er back into the basement, a tear swelling in my eye, and saddled up the trusty Jamis for a new, harrowing adventure.

Brad and I, both Fort Collins dwellers, loaded up the turbo Volvo and rolled out on Friday (the day before the race) for a beautiful-but-arduous journey to Beaver, Utah. Beaver is the butt of many a joke, some of which we made ourselves, but it’s a nice little town nestled up next to the Tushar mountains about two hours northeast of Las Vegas, three hours south of Salt Lake City. We slept a little, had a good breakfast, and saddled up for a long haul at around 7:15AM the next morning.

Tyler’s and Brad’s Boos were dialed in and ready to rock, each running a very special setup for The Crusher. With the help of some outstanding companies, we were hooked up with the very best from Enve Composites, Chris King, Challenge, TRP, Gates, Pactimo, and Giro…Tyler’s Boo Cross and Brad’s Boo 29er were definitely two of the fastest and most unique rigs at the line. I was surely out of place on 23c road tires and 53/39 SRM crankset, but we followed our plan to a T.

Rigid Boo 29er with Gates belt drive, Niner carbon fork, TRP Dash Carbon brakes, prototype Challenge tubular tires, and the usual Chris King goodies!

At just 2km into the race, after our good friend Alistair from Princeton got the group clipping at a simmering pace, I attacked full-gas with Tyler on my wheel. And I didn’t look back.

Lead Group

After about five minutes at the front, riding around 25mph uphill into a headwind, I decided to assess the situation: ten guys holding on for dear life. Perfect! Tyler wanted me to get the group down to a manageable size and discourage any attacks before the gravel climbing began, so now the mission was to just set a hard tempo to the gravel and then ride my own race.

After throwing up some hash browns and eggs in my mouth for the first half hour of the race, we finally neared the gravel section of climbing and only Ben from Jewi Solar had gone off the front, solo, by a minute. What a move! I hit the gravel first and all the cross bikes and mountain bikes swarmed around me, gave me a few pats on the back, and proceeded to drill it up the washboard and gnarly little stones thrown about the road. I just grinned and tried to bear it.

After some epic scenery and a long climb and then hair-raising descent, I got the first two of my eventual four flats, which would later see me leave the race just halfway in. But I was happy to watch and listen as I got word that Tyler was sitting pretty in a smaller-and-smaller group, while Brad was riding through most of the pro field on a rigid singlespeed!

Louder and Wren climbing to the KOM 100km in

I had a couple of beers and became a cheering spectator, content to watch the others suffer but feeling a twinge of remorse that I hadn’t lined up my own Boo Cross in advance of the race so I could continue with the painful journey.

I hitched a ride to the finish and let out a triumphant holler when I learned of Tyler’s dominant win! We had predicted 4:30 for the epic course, and sure enough he rolled the Boo across the line in just over 4:27.

Ouch!

Tyler told reporters, “Burke did a brilliant job putting together a beautiful race with the Crusher. Not only did fitness, technical skill and tactics matter, but equipment choice as well. I spent a week getting my Boo ready and weighing various bike/tire selections (huge thanks to Troy at SLC Bike Co), eventually deciding on the Boo CX with tubeless semi-slick CX tires and a compact road crank. The competitors made the race challenging as well, with nearly all of the riders who eventually ended up in the top ten putting in serious attacks or accelerations at various times throughout the course.”

Tyler on his way to victory at the Crusher

Tyler wins on Boo Cross!

Shortly thereafter, Brad spun through in a 46/30 just 45 minutes behind Tyler, eventually taking top-15 overall as well as a dominant win in the singlespeed category. Although elated with his victory, Brad’s only discernible quote was “FML!”, understandable after riding the Crusher with just one gear.

Singlespeed podium

Tyler on top of the Crusher's overall podium

The Crusher in the Tushar is now officially on the map, and I’m very proud to see Boo at the top of two of its podiums. While we continue to refine and perfect our frames and spread the word about Boo, it’s nice to take a moment and enjoy some success. Bike racing is a brutal sport and successes are few and far between, so I’m honored to be a part of the Crusher in the Tushar and help to put on a good show both during and after the race.