Matt Hill’s sandpit tutorial for Issue 03 of our Magazine, I wrote
Once ate at Hooters next to Wellens, for reals and have never made it all the way through a sand pit.
True story and Bart remembered the moment too. Then I’m sure went about his training and perfecting his technique of attacking the sandpit in a giant gear and stomping his authority on the pedals with soul-crushing power. Like glaciers that pound rock for millennia until it gives way to powder, Wellens crushes the sand relentlessly and powerfully. He powers through it like a Paris-Dakar moto, throwing up a roostertail of dust into his competitor’s faces.
Because our Magazine is a mobile app, we want to keep the download reasonable and shipped just 2 photos from 30 taken of Wellens in the sand and the rest of them are on G+.
Mark V was so mortified in that same pit he began obsessing about what’d roll better over the sand: 650b or 700c? That obsession resulted is his new Cross whip that he describes at length in Issue 03 too.
If I am racing on the typical cx course that you see here in the states, not far removed from a fast, dirt criterium, then that is all the bike I would need. But I still yearn for the versatility of truly fat tires……Sixteen months ago the idea hit me to create a 700C/650B cyclocross bike with disc brakes, 2 months ago the lightweight 650B xc tires became available……
Read about Mark’s bike and how Wellens rides the sand in our Magazine available now on iTunes for $1.99 per month or $3.99 per issue. Download the issue, read it, practice, and maybe avoid the sand despair #37 felt that day.
This season my goal is 4 bike lengths into the sandpit and then a clean dismount/remount cycle.
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