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The morning of Sunday, November 23rd, 203 racers descended into the bowl of  to take on the Ontario Provincial Championships of Cyclocross.

The racers and several thousand interested onlookers were treated to some epic racing, seasoned by a spectator-friendly course, live-polka-band, beer-tent, kielbasa-BBQ and industry expo area.

The morning started off frosty, and well below freezing, but by mid-day the sunshine came out the temperature hovered just over the 0 degree Celsius mark, so the day's main event at 1 o'clock turned into a muddy and slushy affair.

Pre-race favourite Mike Garrigan opened up an early lead and steadily opened up a commanding gap to take the Championship Crown. 

OCTTO-sponsored Jet-Fuel Cycling rider Peter Morse took the bronze-dais of the podium. 

Pete used OCTTO bars, stems, seatpost, bar-tape and some prototype parts on his 'cross bikes.

Full results and more photos at the OCA's pages.

After the race, a muddied and bloodied Morse said that this was the best race of the Ontario calender, citing the epic challenge of the course and the great atmosphere surrounding the event.


OCTTO exhibited at the race, showing off our parts and some prototypes.  Thanks to all the people who stopped by to check us out.  Also, thanks to RAAM contender Peter Oyler, Rob 'The Count' West and Gianni Fornasier for manning the booth and helping to prep, set-up and tear-down.

Reminder, it's almost here, November 23rd is the date for the Ontario Provincial Cyclocross Championships.

The race is being held by Véloo Media in downtown Toronto at Riverdale Park.  Visual prize-list here.

OCTTO will have a booth there, so drop by.

Some cool photography from the local Cyclocross season by Flickr user Shapelike Mike Clark.

Natasha Elliot
- here, here.

Peter Morse in axtion
- here.

The OCTTO-sponsored self-proclaimed Dynamic Duo of Ms. Natasha Elliott and Mr. Derrick St. John have been ripping up courses and legs over the past few weeks of the Cyclocross calendar.

You might think that with all the double-consonants in their names, they are a Finnish snow-tire, but that guess would be a little too far North in Europe from their cyclocross final aspirations in Belgium.

In their European preparations, you can read their reports from all over the East Coast of N.A. :

New Jersey (USGP #3,4) - photo

Toronto (International Cyclocross #1,2) - photo, photo

New Jersey (Cycle Smart #1,2) - photo, photo

Kentucky (USGP #1,2) - photo, photo

Current UCI Cyclocross world-rankings include two OCTTO-sponsored riders, the "Dynamic Duo" of Derrick St.John and Natasha Elliot.

Ms. Elliot is the 2nd-ranked individual Canadian among the Elite Women at 16th spot, behind Wendy Simms who is also ranked 1st worldwide.  Canada is ranked 3rd in the Elite Women's Nation standings, thanks to these ladies.

DSJ is the 3rd ranked Canadian man and 33rd overall among Elite Men.  In the men's Nation's rankings, Canada is ranked a remarkable 5th, ahead of traditional 'cross powerhouses of Switzerland, France and Italy.

DSJ mentioned tto OCTTO-News:
"Tasha says she loves the OCTTO bar tape...it is good luck.  I love it cause it washes easy and she gets it dirty all the time."

Derrick St. John, riding OCTTO Components, placed 3rd at the Canadian National Cyclocross Championships in Edmonton, Alberta.

Geoff Kabush, the 2-time Olympian, took the gold and the national champ's red-and-white jersey.

DSJ finished a meagre 47 seconds behind the veteran Kabush.  While Kabush and the second-place finisher worked together at the head of the race, DSJ chased solo after one of his trademark-starts and almost reigned the pair in.

As DSJ remarked to OCTTO-News prior to the race:
"Today is going to be M-E-N-T-A-L!  The course is like a circuit race/crit/cross race....my specialty!"

DSJ's race-report is on his blog.

October 11/08 - Cyclo-cross Nationals
Edmonton , Alberta
 
Elite Men - 21.7km (7 laps)
 1. Geoff Kabush (BC) TEAM MAXXIS 0:54:59
 2. Mike Garrigan (ON) JET POWER / epicride 0:55:40
 3. Derrick St John (ON) Stevens Cross 0:55:46

Photos at CanadianCyclist.com
 Podium
 DSJ riding
 DSJ hiking

Official web-page for the Ontario Provincial Cyclocross Championships is up at Veloomedia.

There is a course-map posted along with a POV course-ride-thru-video.

The organizers are holding open CX training at the course at Riverdale park every Thursday evening, with barriers set up and everything. 

Click the image of Peter 'Cobra' Morse for a slamming race-poster.

After winning 4 of 5 UCI races in the past couple of weeks, OCTTO-sponsored cyclocrosser Natasha Elliott is currently ranked #1 in the 2008 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Calendar standings.

Women's Standings (as of September 29)

1. Natasha Elliott (CAN) 80
2. Amy Dombrowski (Durango, Colo.) 52
3. Devon Haskell (Chicago, Ill.) 47
4. Sarah Kerlin (Capitola, Calif.) 41
5. Sue Butler (Portland, Ore.) 40

Derrick St. John (DSJ)and Natasha Elliot hit the desert outside of Las Vegas for the "CrossVegas" race held concurrently with the Interbike industry trade-show.  It most certainly draws the strongest cyclocross field of any race in North America, including surprise starter Lance Armstrong in his first UCI event since announcing his comeback.

An excerpt from DSJ's blog about the race:
"You can win a race, you can have a good ride, but really when do you ever...and I say ever get to put the hurt on Lance Armstrong. Granted he's not a Cross racer, I'll give him that but he looked fit,not ultra ripped or anything, but not slouchy either.
So Cross Vegas was the place. 15000 people, poured onto the reservoir bowl to watch this race that was light up, true Vegas style. The place reeked of booze and there was more silicone and fake and bake in the VIP section can you can ever imagine...." (Read more...)

Cross Vegas - C1
Las Vegas, USA, September 24, 2008
Results
Elite Men
1 Ryan Trebon (USA) Kona
2 Tim Johnson (USA) Cannondale/Cyclocrossworld.com
3 Adam Craig (USA) Giant Mountain Bike Team
4 Jonathan Page (USA) Planet Bike
5 Thomas Frischknecht (Swi) Scott-Swisspower Team
6 Geoff Kabush (Can) Team Maxxis
...
20 Derrick St John (Can) Stevens Cross
21 Antonio Cruz (USA) BMC Bikes
22 Lance Armstrong (USA)

Photos

DSJ (with the Bright-Yellow OCTTO handlebar-tape) in the chase group with LA and Antonio Cruz, among others:

- From CrossVegas site: here, here, here, here, here.
- From VeloNews: here

...while Natasha penses on the start-line.

Quick report from Derrick St John from the first day (September 20th) of the "Double-Cross" UCI cyclocross races near Flint, Michigan, U.S.A.:

"Tasha rode away today and won by 2 minutes.  I had some derailer issues at the start , then clipped a barrier, was in 5th place..but crawled back to the chase group, finished up 5th..not bad....[our new OCTTO] Tape looks sweet, I'll send you some pics...Bars are great."

This was actually Natasha's first ever UCI race victory, and she proved it was no fluke by winning again on the second day of the 2-race series, leading from wire-to-wire on both days.  Derrick just missed another top-ten finish on Sunday, but earned a hard-fought 11th after chasing back from a double-flat.  But both days, the men's race was simply dominated by former World's Silver Medalist, Jonathon Page of the U.S.A.

Results are posted at cyclingnews.com