It’s been a long time since I’ve gone a winter without suiting up to compete almost every week. As far back as I can remember, winter weekends have always been spent either running gates, chasing jumping meets, or generally cruising around the northeast race circuits. This winter was no different, except for this time I wasn’t the one doing the racing.

My first winter of full-time coaching was a big learning experience. Jumping from the EISA to the USCSA level opened my eyes to what the other side of collegiate racing is like: wide ranges of attitudes and abilities, teams ranging from the lone Marlboro and WPI skiers to UVM and Clarkson rolling up with 20+ athletes every weekend, and a much more laid-back race organization that values effort over results and ritual.

That last bit is what took the most getting used to. Having raced EISA and USSA, we always took it as SOP to have fully marked courses, a maze of fencing and V-Boards in the stadium, and race officials around every corner. At this level, teams run their own races, each one with their own standards (though technically under the same rules as USSA and FIS). It wasn’t uncommon this season to have athletes warming up backwards on course, something that the next level would’ve been a disqualifiable offense.

The other big change for me this year was how race-days went from a preparation standpoint. With 24 skiers almost every weekend, classic races were very much a race to get skis prepped in time for everyone's start. The skiers were more than willing to help, but at a point it gets to be too much when eight or ten people are testing waxes and they all say different waxes work (or worse, the same wax works for one person but doesn’t for the next).

That being said, my biggest fear this season was not being taken seriously by the athletes, but as it turned out, I had nothing to worry about. everyone on the team was more than helpful with anything I asked of them, including driving personal vehicles through horrid lake-effect snow storms to deliver equipment on less than an hours notice. While the team captains were my primary source of team information, my real brain-trust this season have been the sophomore and junior classes, who have been more than open with me, expressing concerns and changes they’d like to see in the coming years.

The team was very accepting of me as a new (young) coach, to the point where many were looking to me for personalized training plans to supplement/augment the ones provided by the head coach. A majority of them have even asked me to step in as the head coach next year after the current one retires at the end of the season (We’ll see guys, we’ll see).

So far this season has exceeded my expectations immensely, and I can’t wait to see how it concludes. Yesterday, we arrived in Jackson Hole for the USCSA National Championships, which start for us on Tuesday.

Doing something a little different on this one, mainly because I haven't been so excited about a piece of equipment that I've been on to write a review about it.

Yesterday was a little weird for northern New England. Instead of our usual February temps of mid-20's and an ever-present chance of snow, we were greeted today with temperatures nearing 70 degrees and blue skies. With this short turn of nice weather, my teammate and Tyrol Sports Group co-owner Bruce Diehl invited me out on a ride to test out Swix's new ASX line of gravel bikes in their first rides on US soil.

For a little refresher, and for those of you who know Swix mostly/only for their skiing goods, the Norwegian ski company bought the Norwegian bicycle manufacturer Hard Rocx in late 2015, and in late 2016 came out with the Swix Fatbike in an effort to (re)establish their image as a year-round active brand, rather than just winter sports.

Enter the SwixHR ASX-1 and ASX-2 gravel bikes.

Bruce sported the carbon fiber ASX-2

My steed, Swix's aluminum ASX-1

Jumping on the ever-growing gravel/all-road/adventure trend, Swix's latest venture into the drop-bar market feels strong. The ASX-1 sports a 6061 Aluminum frame with a sporty geometry and is spec'd out quite nicely, featuring an FSA headset and BB as well as a Shimano 105 5800 compact groupset with flat-mount hydraulic brakes (160mm rotors front and rear), and with a chainring and tire change would make a pretty decent cross bike.

The compact 50/34 crankset paired with an 11-32 cassette made light work of the rolling hills on our ride.

For my first ride on Shimano Hydraulic levers, I felt the reservoir integration was well done and made for a comfortable ride.

The roads were what most New England cyclists expect for early spring riding, wet; and full of grit, salt, and frost heaves; all of which the 40mm Schwalbe G-One AllRound tires handled with ease. Driving these roads every day on my commute and feeling like my car was going to break in half was not a feeling that was repeated on this ride.

Even with the less-than-perfect road conditions, the bike responded well to dirty cornering at speed, wasn't terribly harsh over the winter speed bumps, and hardly flexed climbing out of the saddle.

While I rode the ASX-1, Bruce was on its carbon cousin, the ASX-2. With a slightly more relaxed geometry than the ASX-1, this bike would make a decent carbon touring bike; and is full of bosses for whatever you may choose to mount. Equally spec'd with Shimano 105 5800, Bruce had already upgraded his wheelset to Mavic's new Allroad Pro UST wheelset with matching Yksion Allroad UST tires.

Between the two of us, a majority of our two-hour ride/conversation was spent exclaiming how much we loved the bikes we were on (with a brief break for a photo-shoot), and the only gripes we had were about adjustment issues we had brought upon ourselves.

I absolutely loved the bike, although as a SRAM guy, my main modification would be to drop the front mech and toss on a clutch rear derailleur for a bomber 1x setup (fight me, Bruce).

I really hope to be able to ride this bike again (it's currently our display piece in the shop I work at) the next time the weather calls for it so I can put it through its paces. All in all, I think Swix has done a great job with their entries into the market, and I look forward to hopefully seeing them hitting shop floors in the near future.