Cyclocross Rivalries

I really like this little blog. I like writing about things that are not about me. Mostly those things that I write about are cycling related and for most people that's simply not interesting. So me and this little blog run into a bigger problem of things to write about when for the casual cycling fan the road season has come to a close and my personal favorite time of the year, cyclocross, has started.

I've expressed how hard I find it to describe cyclocross to someone who's never heard of it many times. We're a niche within a niche so that makes it pretty tough. I guess this shouldn't really matter to me because I've never bothered with google analytics (?) to see how many people stop by and read my ramblings, so I suppose it's not out of the question that I just write about whatever I want to write about and assume that it's simply getting lost in the interwebs. Which, I also suppose, is fine.

That brings me, in a totally unrelated sort of way, to today's topic, rivalries. Boy do I love a good rivalry. There's just something about a group of people deciding they dislike another group of people for really no good reason beyond their own attraction for someone or some other team. I am a pretty firm believer in that rivalries are 100% good for any sport. You know why Nebraska decided to leave the Big 12? Mainly because they felt like their old rivalry game with Oklahoma was being ignored. When Nebraska officially moved to the Big 10, both Michigan and Ohio St. were quick to make sure that their game stayed on the schedule. Both of those schools need that game. College football needs that game. Rivalries are what keep sports interesting and meaningful and they extend well beyond the scoreboard.

Cyclocross, while growing, is still a terribly small niche within the already niche sport of cycling. The races are often not close to where you live and the tiny amount of coverage they are given make it very difficult to follow and stay up to date on. One website trying to fix that, and doing a pretty good job, is cyclingdirt.org. Through their attempt to bring better coverage to the sport, they've also shined the light on a rivalry that has apparently existed for quite some time between Tim Johnson, current National Champ and Johnathon Page, former multi-time National Champ.

The first time I became aware of the rivalry was watching videos of the 2009 GP Gloucester last year when this happened:

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Let me try to break the video down, just a bit, to help people who may still actually be reading but not understand what they saw. In a cross race there are sections, sand especially, that you are a huge advantage if you are in the front. The reason being, if the guy in front of you looses his line or dismounts and has to run, you then have to go around him through a bad line which may force you to dismount giving the guy in front a huge advantage. Similarly, if you're in front and you bobble then at least everyone behind you is equally affected and you are in a sense still in control of the situation. These two guys, Page (who crashes) and Johnson (the one with his leg out) both want to be in the front going into the sand so they are racing for the entrance.

Here are Page's post race comments when asked about it:

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And Johnson's at about :38 :

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There's also a video of Jeremy Powers who's response is basically, "rubbin' is racin' and we're all friends."

Disclaimer:This is where I clearly take a side and show my loyalty in this rivarly.

I could dig up a ton of videos of Page after every race he doesn't win complaining about how everybody was using negative tactics and nobody rides hard and nobody wants to race and nobody's being aggressive and blah blah blah. But oddly enough, these comments only come after he doesn't win. Page races mostly in Europe where, rumor has it, the races are way more aggressive than in the states, with guys chopping corners for 30th place, so it seems odd, that he's always upset when these things happen in the US. This year in Madison for the first round of the USGP, while there's no video of the incident, apparently Page took issue with Johnson once again.

Look here at about :15 where he interrupts an interview.

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And here, in his own interview, where he can't even answer questions he's so angry:

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This is how Ryan Trebon responded on twitter after the race.

Powers once again denied all rivalry. Which I actually believe because he's probably the nicest person in lycra.

But, I think this video, if you can actually get through it all, the bike geek level is really, really high if you haven't noticed, these guys, totally independent of the situation, without naming names, pretty much call Page out. My assumption is that he's "that guy" when they say "that guy," but I could be wrong.

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Anyway, what do I know? No matter who's at fault I think having a rivalry like this is 100% good for the sport. Polarizing figures/situations make people take sides and when you take a side you cheer louder for your guy. This weekend at the World Cup in Switzerland will be the first time these two have raced on the same course since Madison at the USGP. With the larger field size and both guys having to start 3rd or 4th row it seems unlikely that they'll be spending as much time in small groups where they can annoy one another as they do over here. That's also the unfortunate thing about this rivalry, it's pretty short lived on a yearly basis since Johnson races mostly in the US and Page races almost exclusively in Europe. But, you take what you can get I suppose.

What I'd really like to see is a Ryan Trebon v. Jeremy Powers rivalry. It sort of exists. I feel like there's a the Kona v. Cannondale mind set with a lot of fans. It doesn't hurt any that the Kona guys are west coasters and the Cannondale guys are east coasters. I think it would be good for both of those bike companies if they could figure out a way to build that rivalry up. I have no ideas for how to make that happen. Especially since they also seem to actually like each other, which, in my experience, dampens the spirit of a true rivalry.