Revisit Louisville 2023 with us, thanks to the images of our photographer Adam Koble, resident of Portland - East, MN. Accounts from each of the women’s team riders (Madeline, Annie, Brenna, and Clara) are mixed in with the images. Please enjoy and celebrate the US’ annual biggest, emotion-filled day of CX.

Our partners at HiFi Sound Cycling Components have stepped up to help us fund our season’s “second half,” Clara’s racing campaign in Europe January through the 2024 CX World Championships. Click this post, watch the video, learn more!

Team S&M CX is thrilled to welcome back reigning women’s Elite National Champ Clara Honsinger, a quiet rider known for her class, technical tenacity, and fun-lovin’, coffee-sippin’, newspaper readin’ ways. Clara got her start in CX with us back in 2016, winning her first ‘Cross Crusades, then UCI events, then U23 title, then her first Elite National title all with us. Since then she’s earned two more titles, and a whole lot of other palmares. We are of course so thrilled to see her return to our program three seasons later, and welcoming back a champion gives us an extra wonderful reason to really celebrate her accomplishments as well as the incredible gear we get to race, ride, and rep out on the circuit.

Why do “The Nationals” matter? Why is it compelling to set your sights on such a big event firmly planted on the far end of a long road that is a season? And why especially is it worth it to make the effort to travel so far from home for a single day in the wintery elements of perhaps “just another race course?”

“Our goal as a team is also to continue feeding that beating PNW heart that loves cyclocross so much, to feed the grassroots hunger for fun and community and doing hard things. We do that in a lot of ways year after year, but planning and hosting our race weekend, Bridge City CX, has proven to be a beautiful and critical contribution to our local world.”

Unlike most springs and summers where I find myself weaving bike races into my seasons, this year my spring and summer was focused on being patient—something I am not good at. After having back surgery at the end of March, I knew that the only way I could be at the start line for cyclocross season would be to hang up all the race bikes, avoid epic games of horse at the neighborhood basketball game, set down my pickleball racquet, and fulfill the role of caddy for any golf outings. Really, the goal was to avoid being myself at all times, as I just love to play…

“It was a brisk damp December day when I got the call: “Want to come watch a cyclocross race?” I had no idea what cyclocross was but I had spent the better part of 3 weeks in bed after knee surgery and jumped at the opportunity to get out of the house. I grabbed my crutches, and my friend ushered me to this cyclocross race thing. It was the year Cross Nationals was in Bend, OR.”

‘Ms Geiter, why do you ride bikes so much?’ is a common question from my 8th grade students. From September to June, I’m happily learning about space, physics, and genetics with ~130 middle schoolers in the small town of Walla Walla, WA. They are fascinated by my weekly trips to Portland or Seattle, how far and long and fast I ride, the strange spandex suits, and asking me how much money I make racing. My colleagues are shocked by my weekends filled with 4+ hour drives and muddy/rainy/cold races. And no, the kids don’t go easy on you just because you’re exhausted! My student’s big question - why do you race bikes? - is a good one.

“I realized that one of my favorite things about racing is that there is no way to fake it.” In our summertime series of rider updates, Sophie Russenberger shares with us a meaningful part of her 2022 summertime experience. The Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder has quickly become an iconic event in the scene of gravel riding and racing, partly for its 5-day, point-to-point stage race format, and more for its incredible routes traversing the heart of the Oregon Cascade range.

Our friend Jonathan Maus of BikePortland.org recently brought Erik on the BikePortland Podcast. Intended as another installment in the Podcast’s sub-series of interviews with shop owners, this episode quickly distinguished itself as a standalone episode.

Let me open by saying that we aren’t here on accident. Luck feels good, and successes, whether small or big, always feel magical. Sport certainly manifests luck in beautiful ways, benefits from it in its storytelling—yet Team S&M CX was founded three seasons ago with intention. We aren’t gamblers, and we’re always in it for the long-haul. We’re loyal and dedicated to the process, and that has more staying power than luck.

The riders and staff of Team S&M CX are multi-discipline cylco-racers. We’re a cyclocross-centric operation, but we shred trails, commute by two wheels, and in the spring and summer, we race our road bikes. This year, Beth Ann, Brenna, and Clara all made their way to Knoxville, Tennessee to race the US Pro National Road, Crit, and Time Trial events.

In this second installment from Clara’s 3-week block in Europe, she dives right in to share her race day at U23 World Championships in Bogense, Denmark—a day we’ve been building to all season. Erik and Brenna made the midnight trip across the Atlantic to join Clara’s family and support her race day in person. Our friend and team partner, photographer Patrick Means, traveled with us to capture scenes from the weekend.

Clara chimes in with an update from Europe! She’s currently in the Netherlands with USA Cycling, having just raced the Pont-Château World Cup. Tomorrow she races the final World Cup of the series in Hoogerheide, with 2019 World Championships just one week away!

Three riders and our photographer share our tales from CX Nats in Louisville, a race weekend that’s already fabled. These stories combined provide a lovely insight into the internal dynamic of Team S&M CX.