Jeremy Powers ready for Pro CX season opener in Rochester

September 3, 2015

Jeremy Powers won a Boulder area cyclocross race on August 30. “Today was 95 degrees. That’s hot for me. I didn’t really know how to react to that, especially that and altitude.”

As is so often the case when Jeremy Powers (Aspire Racing) comes out to play on a cyclocross bike, he rode alone off the front, this time in a local race north of Boulder, Colorado. The J-Pow / FasCat Cyclocross Season Kick-Off – which Powers won – capped off a three-day camp organized for last week by FasCat Coaching with the reigning national champion.

The victory, albeit at a good-times local event, sent a signal. Powers is ready for this coming weekend’s first race on the USA Cycling Pro CX calendar, Full Moon Vista – Ellison Park Cyclocross Festival, in Rochester, NY.

He weighs in a wee bit more than this time last year due to changed-up off-season training. He’s gained, he said, “a couple of pounds” of muscle (not the three reported by VeloNews).

After the race Powers couldn’t say if the effort felt any different as a result of the new program and other changes that include bike position. As his first hard competition for the 2015/16 season, it’s too soon to tell.

“I’m undercooked with race efforts at this point. Those are going to come up as we get more towards CrossVegas,” Powers said. “But I’m real happy with where I’m at and it was obviously a confidence booster to take a win today though it was more for fun and bike handling and getting a hard workout in.”

Riders circled the ‘ole shade tree

Without Limits Productions promoted the non-USAC sanctioned J-Pow / FasCat Cyclocross Season Kick-Off which was designed as an opportunity to stretch the legs and have a good time. It took place on Oskar Blues Brewery property. With a pond, views of the Rocky Mountain foothills and fields dotted with grazing horses, the space provided one of the most scenic venues for ‘cross racing on the Front Range. The course swung by a live band, through hops fields, and over a fly-over and tree trunk shaped barriers.

“It’s awesome to have such a big, local company like Oskar Blues invite us out and to this type of event. It felt like an old school mountain bike race,” Powers said. “There were a few hundred people out here. It just felt good.”

See more images from both races, a write-up with more quotes from Powers on his website, and also a ProVéloPassion report with photo gallery on the women’s elite race won by Ellen Van Loy of Telenet-Fidea.