FIT CITY

Cyclists get down and dirty with Cyclocross racing

By Pamela LeBlanc
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, October 13, 2008

Not all bike racing is as civilized as the Tour de France, where cyclists sip Champagne as they make their final lap on the Champs-Élysées. Just ask Andrew Stackhouse, head of Pirate Race Productions.

He stages the Dirt Derby, a weekly series of short track, cyclocross and velodrome races at the Austin/Del Valle Motocross Park in Del Valle. This year, he also added a separate Lonestar Cyclocross series at different locales around Central Texas.

Don't know what cyclocross is? Think steeplechase on bikes — cyclists tear around a course at high speeds, at times dismounting and carrying their bikes over obstacles and up hills. Stackhouse is on a mission to turn it into the next hot thing here. "I want to make it as big a spectacle in Texas as it is in other parts of the country," says Stackhouse, who works at Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop.

Mellow Johnny's, owned by seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, is the title sponsor for one of the Lonestar Cyclocross races — the Oct. 25 Un-Mellow 'Cross at Richard Moya Park. (Might we see Armstrong at one of the races? Stackhouse isn't saying, but Austin's favorite cyclist competed last month at CrossVegas, a cyclocross race in Las Vegas.)

Stackhouse got his start in the bike racing biz by staging a series of Friday night bike races held illegally on public land. He's legit now, and his Dirt Derby, in its third year, draws about 75 racers a week. Beginners and kids can show up on any knobby-tired bike and try out racing in an unintimidating environment; serious racers pedal it out in fiercely contested battles.

The course is mostly flat, with a couple of hills and some banked turns. There are no trees, no rocks, and it's all lit up with lights.

"There's no one to run over and no pavement to fall on," Stackhouse says. "It's absurd, too — taking a perfectly good bike and picking it up and running over fencing with it."

Dirt Derby gates open at 5:30 p.m. every Tuesday until Jan. 6. Races begin at 6:30 p.m. The lineup includes separate heats for beginners, women and kids as well as intermediates, masters and single-speed riders. Registration is $20, with beginners, women and kids half price. No license required. For more information go to www.DirtDerby.com.

Here's what's left on the Lonestar Cyclocross schedule:

Lonestar Cyclocross Series No. 3 and Texas Short Track race No. 2: Manor Mayhem, Saturday, Travis County East Metro Park, Blake Manor Road in Manor. The short track will be a woodsy romp loaded with technical challenges and the cyclocross course will include a "splash down." "If they're smart and ride their brakes, it won't be a problem at all," Stackhouse says. "If not . . . I'm anxiously awaiting seeing people hit the water."

Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop Presents Lonestar Cyclocross Series No. 4: Un-Mellow 'Cross, Oct. 25, Richard Moya Park, Burleson Road. Thousands of cyclists will be in town for the Livestrong Challenge that weekend, so expect a crowd.

Lonestar Cyclocross Series No. 5: Diablo Del Valle, Nov. 8, Travis County Southeast Metro Park, Texas 71, Del Valle. The season finale — a flat-out speed fest littered with obstacles.

For more information, go to www.PirateRaceProductions.com.

Working up to 26.2

Marathon training is plugging right along. Just like that, my Rogue Running group is up to 12 miles on our long weekend runs.

Those Saturday morning foot-powered odysseys are the meat in the burrito, but the quality workouts — at the mind-fuzzing hour of 5:45 a.m. every Wednesday — cover that burrito in much-needed salsa.

The other day, super coach Cynthia Henges had us tearing around the Anderson High School track like hamsters on a wheel, pausing every 100 meters for an excruciating set of exercises. If we weren't doing lunges, we were kicking our legs like middle-aged cheerleaders or dropping for a set of push-ups. My legs (and shoulders and arms) howled when I rolled out of bed the next morning.

I've been a little worried. I've been traveling so much lately (backpacking in Yellowstone National Park, visiting friends in North Carolina, checking out petroglyphs in South Texas) that I've missed a lot of the group workouts. I'm trying to run on my own when I miss, but it's hard to motivate for a 10-miler when you're running alone in unknown territory.

It's also been tough juggling running with my regular swim team practices. So far, though, it's more or less working. I'm fired up about possibly running 26.2 miles in the Feb. 15 Austin Marathon, although I still haven't registered.

Until then, I need a new pair of running shoes ...

Registration time for MS 150

If you're planning to ride in the 25th anniversary edition of the BP MS 150, pay attention. Registration for the Houston-to-Austin bike ride, which raises funds for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's Lone Star Chapter, opens Wednesday.

Last year's ride filled in a record 11 days, and nearly 1,500 riders registered in the first 24 hours. The 2009 ride, scheduled for April 18-19, is capped at 13,000 people. To register, go to www.ms150.org. And be quick!

The 2008 ride broke national fund-raising records by generating more than $15 million to support multiple sclerosis research and fund programs. Registration this year is $100, which helps offset organizational expenses for fuel, supplies and safety support. A minimum pledge of $400 is required.

I did the ride four years ago. It was my first century (100 miles or more) ride, and I got the full experience — pedaling out of Houston at dawn, catching a few pace lines, camping in LaGrange and rolling into a gigantic party in downtown Austin at the end.

Proceeds benefit a good cause, too. Multiple sclerosis is a disabling disease of the central nervous system. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. Most people who have MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, and it's twice as common among women as men. It affects more than 400,000 people in the United States and 2.5 million worldwide.

Another half and 5K

We've got a new half marathon on the local running calendar.

The inaugural ZOOMA Austin Half Marathon & 5K, presented by New Balance, is scheduled for April 4. The race will start and finish at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa near Bastrop. LifeWorks, an Austin-based social services nonprofit organization, is the race's official charity partner.

Of note? Packet pickup will include the ZOOMA Marketplace, where racers can browse cutting-edge gear and apparel designed especially for women. The ZOOMA After-Party Expo is billed as a "girls' weekend" celebration, with food, wine tastings, mini spa treatments, demos, shopping and live music.

For more information go to www.zoomarun.com.

pleblanc@statesman.com; 445-3994