This site is dedicated to the supporters of Jordan Cullen's quest to race Cyclocross in Europe during the 2011-2012 Season.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Video: Review of Jordan Cullen's Cross Bike


Jordan reviews his Ridley cross bikes equiped by SRAM, HED Wheels, Ritchey, Fizik, Clement, Dugast, and Crank Brothers.

Cross Night


I was really looking forward to this race not only because it is organized so well, but its a twilight race! The course was super fast and had some great features.
For the first few laps a group of four consisting of myself, Pat Lemieux, CJ Faulker, and Josh Roeser. We kept riding a pretty hard tempo and we had a pretty solid gap when I flatted with 7 to go.
After I switched bikes I just focused on picking up time on the people in front of me. With 5 laps to go I had chased up to the group of 5 battling for 3rd place. I attacked the group several times and eventually with 2 to go Jesse Reients and myself got away.
For the remainder of the race I let Jesse pull and on the last lap through the barriers I went through them pretty hot. I got a gap on Jesse but I still had to sprint pretty hard to stay in front of him.
Besides flatting today I really enjoyed today's race and I'm super pumped that we have a night race on the calendar!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Monday, October 24, 2011

Jackson Meadows/Green Acres


Saturday morning I headed up to Marine for the Jackson Meadows cross race. I raced the juniors race and I really liked the course and thought it had some good flow.
The following day was the Green Acres cross race. I really wanted to do well here because I had not raced there for several years. The course was pretty hard but it also had some wonderful rhythm to it.
I finally had a good start today and got right into my pedal. For the next few laps the lead group consisted of Pat Lemieux, Cj Faulkner, and myself all going for the win. After the third lap I put in a pretty hard effort to get a gap and try to hold Pat and Cj off.
For the next several laps I rode a pretty high tempo to keep Cj at bay. I held the gap at about 20 seconds until the last lap Cj brought it all the way down to 10 seconds. I had to drill it pretty hard through the last several sections to keep Cj from catching me and I was able to stay away.
All in all it was a great race but I am super bummed out that Adam Bergman was not able to race since he broke both collarbones on saturday. Hope you heal fast Adam!!

Video: Green Acres CX Elite Men's Race


Video courtesy of www.skinnyski.com

Euro Cross Campaign Fundraiser A Success

I really want to thank everyone that attended my fundraiser this past Friday!! I wouldn't be able to do any of this without you guys! A huge thanks to Larry Foss and Sophie St. Jacques for providing such an awesome venue and being huge supporters of mine! This experience has made me realize how generous the Minnesota/Wisconsin cycling community is!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Fundraiser Success!


A sincere thanks to all our friends and family that joined us for Jordan Cullen's European Cross Campaign Fundraiser last night at The Fix Studio. Larry Foss and Sophie St. Jacques were fabulous hosts, and Chef Keven Kvalsten served up an amazing spread.

Your support is essential in helping Jordan realize his dream of becoming a world class Cyclocross racer. We are truly humbled by the generosity of our local cycling community.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Absentee Bidding on Silent Auction Items

If you are interested in bidding on one of the silent auction items, but cannot make the fundraiser, feel free to e-mail j.cullen@sbcglobal.net with your bid on any item. Absentee bids must be submitted by 3PM, Friday, 10/21, to be considered.

A list of items up for auction can be found here:
http://eurocrosscampagin.blogspot.com/2011/10/fundraiser-silent-auction-items.html

You can also e-mail j.cullen@sbcglobal.net with questions about any item.

Your support is greatly appreciated!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Fundraiser Silent Auction Items

People have been asking what items will be up for silent auction at the fundraiser. Here is a list (All items are brand new):

  • EKHO FiT18 Heart Rate Monitor

  • EKHO FiT19 Heart Rate Monitor

  • Chiropractic Treatments from Jon Toftoy

  • Tiny Footprint 1lb Dark Roast Coffee Beans (2)

  • Kinetics Trainer from Pam Slayer

  • Fix Studio Gift Certificates

  • HED Stem (you choose the size)

  • HED Handlebars (you choose the size)

  • Cyclops Jet Fluid Pro Winter Trainer Kit from Jeffery Long-McGie

  • Professionally framed Lance Armstrong Photo w/Plaque from Mike Lalla

  • 10 lb. block of Belgian Chocolate from the Bikery

  • Crank Bros Candy 3 Pedals(2 pairs)

  • Crank Bros Candy 1 Pedals (1 pair)

  • Crank Bros Pint Glasses (3) from Mike Pederson

  • TRP EuroX Brakeset

  • Selle Italia Flite Saddle

  • Selle Italia Troy Lee Designs Yutak Saddle

  • Banjo Brothers Messenger Bag

  • Bontrager Messenger Bag

  • Specialized Virtue Aero Bottle 2/cage from Jeffery Long-McGie

  • Camelbak Podium Chill Bottle

  • Pair of Gopher Football Tickets including parking - MN vs. University of Iowa - Sat, Oct 29th

  • Pair of Gopher Football Tickets including parking - MN vs. Illinois - Sat, Nov 26th

Thanks to everyone who donated items for the auction!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Baker Orchard


This race is one of my favorite venues. I love the atmosphere at the orchard. The course is pretty sweet too because it is so wide open and a sand pit was added this year.
I was called to the line first because I was last years winner. I was hoping to have a good result again this year but it was clearly not meant to be.
From the start my brake got jammed into my rear wheel so I needed to stop to fix it. After I fixed that I started chasing again in an attempt to salvage a result. On the same lap, through the sand pit a rider went down in front of me and I piled into them at full speed. Our bikes were super tangled up and when we finally got them separated I noticed that my tire was shredded. I had just passed the pit so I ran half of the lap and switched to my pit bike.
Once I had switched bikes I was 4 and a half minutes down coming through the finish so I started chasing to just get a solid workout in. I started catching people and was riding into the top 10 with a lap to go when, guess what, another flat! There was only half a lap left so I just shouldered my bike and ran to the finish. I more or less just laughed this race off because of all the stuff that happened during the race.
Don't forget my fundraiser is this Friday at the Fix. I hope to see a you guys there and there will be tons of food, fun, and a silent auction

Monday, October 10, 2011

Fort Collins USGP Day 2 - Post Race Interview

New Belgium Cup Day 1

This past weekend I headed out to Fort Collins, Colorado for the New Belgium Cup. The weather wasn't too bad before the race started and I really enjoyed pre riding the course.
The weather was awesome until when we began staging it started to pour and the temperature dropped. I started on the front row and had a pretty solid start but got a little caught up in lap traffic from the masters race.
In the following laps I worked on establishing my 4th place spot while still chasing the lead group. I had to switch bikes twice due to some minor mechanical issues. I was pretty happy with my result today but I felt like I made a few mistakes on some of the descents.
I really enjoyed coming out here and getting some awesome hospitality from the Downings in Boulder!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Respect

We, the Cullen family, have been so impressed by everyone's support of Jordan's cycling dreams. There are so many stories I could share of people's generosity.

One example was this past weekend, when following the podium ceremony, the 2 riders who finished 2nd and 3rd to Jordan graciously donated thier prize money to Jordan's European Cross Campaign. I was truly taken back by this display of sportsmanship, respect, and comradarie. CJ and Josh, you guys are great role models for Jordan!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Hudson Doublecross Shootout


This Sunday started off great! I got an awesome night of sleep,woke up and caught some of the highlights to some of Saturday's football games. After a solid few hours of relaxing in the morning, I got ready to ride to the course at JR Ranch. I'm a huge fan of all of the Hudson cross races, especially since none of them are more than a five minute ride from my house! When I arrived at the course,I rode a few laps on the course. I was really feeling the rhythm the course had and I knew that the race was going to be pretty hard the entire time. After pre-riding the course, I picked up an awesome cup of coffee from Oliver at the Bikery van. It was seriously one of the best cups of coffee I've had in a long time! I'm sure the waffles are amazing too!! I just relaxed at the course for a few more hours until I started to get ready to race. I was feeling really good in my warm up, but I knew the heat would be a huge factor so I was drinking as much fluids as I could to try to stay hydrated. After I finished warming up, I went down to the start. The field was looking strong with the previous day's winner CJ Faulkner, both Dan and Doug Swanson, Josh Roeser, and roadie Brandon Krawczyk. I messed up the start pretty bad because after warming up I forgot to redo my rear brake cable so it ended up getting caught in my wheel immediately. After redoing my brake and checking to make sure that everything was still good,I started to chase back to the front. The rear brake was pretty loose because I had stretched the cable when it was in my wheel, so just to be safe I switched bikes in the pit. I chased a little too hard, but by the end of the second lap I had caught CJ and Josh at the front. When I caught them, I had a lot of momentum coming into a long uphill section. I attacked pretty hard and got a gap on CJ and Josh was just a little ways behind. I spent the next lap riding a pretty high tempo, but CJ was still easily able to catch me with his amazing technical skills. He was putting a ton of pressure on me through a lot of the technical sections, so whenever I could get in front through any turns, I would. We kept going back and forth,with 6 laps to go I had recovered from chasing. I attacked all out on the same uphill section as before and got a good enough gap that I felt I might be able hold. I made sure to make as few mistakes as possible until the end of the race. I was able to hold CJ off for the rest of the race. Both Josh and CJ made me push myself much harder than if they wouldn't have been there. Thanks Dag and Paul for putting on such a great race!