by 
The devil is in the details. Like this pic. Some rave about the course, some talk about training others still ramble on about hand-ups and hand-downs.
Credit to Bici Girl for these pics. Please don’t yell at me. I just wanted to share.
—bp.
by Cyclocross…
by by 
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=GBB32UNIG
Or the downside of cross…
BP, i always worry about what im clicking on when you post. :) that was what ive been missing this CX season.
i like this one too.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bicigirl/5216086947/in/set-72157625489400452/
makes me mad just looking at them. i didn’t get mud on me one time this year racing CX. totally lame.
@MM
Ouch.
That pic screams broken neck.
We had zero mud here this year as well, Judi. Only one more to go…Dec.18…good chance of snow and mud on the lakefront for that one. On a bad note…I crashed similarly to that neck-braker pic yesterday, so I’m hoping to be relatively pain-free in a couple weeks so I can subject myself to more pain.
I’m still sore from that race… dropped my chain on the last lap in that very same puddle… cost me 4 places and a little bit of my soul.
Bici Girl knows how to capture the moment – from same race:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bicigirl/5217097634/in/set-72157625489400452/
Jeez, you guys act like you’ve never seen a mud puddle before. I got splashin’ in the mud out of my system when I was about ten years old. Now I ride AROUND the puddles.
@mikey, and what is fun about that?
BP, heck yea. I went ahead and nabbed a screen shot of that image and posted up in yer post. All cred points to the flickr page. if they want to send a cease and desist letter, I’ll take it down.
rock’n image.
Here’s another picture of a great carbon CX FAIL i took last weekend in Sweden.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/manyjourneys/5200068405/
@Judi— I ride a fair bit up here in the Pacific Northwest, so I get muddy all year long. I guess the novelty wears off. This year, it was June before I rode in a short sleeve jersey— and that was in California! I suppose everyone wants what they can’t have… well, I want blue sky and sunshine. Boo hoo, poor me. :)
…actually, kinda nice to see mud @ that event…that was sunday’s ‘bay area super prestige series cyclocross race in golden gate park & the last couple a’ years it’s been bone dry…
…my friend josh snead picked up 4th in the elite men…some really ‘old’ guy i happen to know, placed 10th in the elite men, thus kicking the ass of some very fit & much younger friends of mine…that ol’ guys name ???…ned overend…props ‘deadly’…
…my friend barbara howe got 2nd in the elite women..‘barbarella’ is the reigning usa masters national cx champ, a very pretty, pleasant & petite young woman who, once she’s on a bike, will ride your ass into the mud…yesterday, she was doing just that to some of the very fit younger women…
…props bikepunk for pickin’ up ‘bicigirl’s’ thread…
Ned was replaced with an anamatronic robot some years ago per Specialized contractual obligations. The Real Ned was frozen in carbon, and tucked Phil Liggett’s personal Mausoleum of cycling legends next to Merckx, which is strange, since he’s not technically dead.
Check the wiki on it.
…gnomer…it wouldn’t surprise me…ned still comes out here every couple a’ years & races the ‘mt tam hillclimb’, a serious old time event…
…only 12.5 miles but with some steep ass ramps (the seven sisters) across the ridge, near the finish…senor overend always races elites & still podiums…
…incredible guy, ah, er, robot, i mean…a tribute to the ‘product’ built by the big s…
Riding in mud like that just gives me an excuse to clean the bike. There’s nothing better than tearing a bike down to a bare frame, re-lubricating, and putting it all back together again. Well, sex is better, but there are parallels to draw between the two.
Also, when you ride around the puddle, doesn’t that just widen the trail (and puddle)?
“Also, when you ride around the puddle, doesn’t that just widen the trail (and puddle)?”
Mr. rogbie makes an excellent point here. If you’re riding singletrack, there’s not much you can to but close your mouth and hit the puddle. Fortunately for me, there is almost no singletrack in the Pacific Northwest, so I mostly ride doubletrack.
In many places that have good singletrack, it’s poor form to ride the trails when it’s muddy anyway.
My discomprehension relates to CX types who live in nice, dry places and LOOK for mud puddles. That’s just wacky.
I remember when cyclocross was less about mud and more about running through woods and across fields and shit. But I’m freakin’ old.
i’d give my right arm to race CX in golden gate park.
Mikey is right, the CX types are a diff breed altogether.
Me: 1) head to toe layers and showers pass stuff all winter long, 2) fenders and mud flaps on the LHT 24/7, 3) pannier full of adult bev-ies. But then again; I’m just a bike rider, I’m not wacko.
All those pics make me want to piss off the missus and go buy that CX bike I been eye’in for the last 2 months.
Maybe I’ll just sell my left nut to finance it.
BP, talk to gnome and get that voodoo. its sick.
Let’s be clear. It’s The Gnome. There is no other.
the one and only. :)
That might have been the last CX race in GGP. The organizers are calling it quits, there is one more race left in the series and they’re done. Tom posted on the bay area cross email list that he’s just tired of people bitching and isn’t having fun anymore.
Out of the 5 or so cross series in my the area I have to say his is the best. It sucks that he’s hanging it up. I’m glad I got a chance to race GGP at least one time.
…tom & alec simpson always run a great show, particularly the race in ggp…
…great race course, absolutely spectator friendly, wonderfully scenic…
…i have friends who battle sunday tourist traffic from beyond sacto, in the sierra foothills just because the venue is so cool & the organization is top notch…i’m talking like masters cat 3’s, not elite racers but tom & alec simpson have worked so hard & garnered such a reputation that people of all levels go out of the way to race their events…
…what a shame if they do pull the plug but the reality is, it only takes a few negative, whiny, self important participants to queer the deal…it’s understandable to react if there’s a glitch in scoring, timing, whatever but with the large fields at those races, it should be accepted that on occasion that <i<"shit happens"…then it’s time to man up & offer a heartfelt apology if you’ve stepped over the line…
…sounds like that hasn’t happened often enough & that’s a shame…the bay area cx racers, families & fans lose out…
I hope “shit happens” when SSCXWC happens in San Fran next year. I’m not flying out there for some standard bullshit cross race. I want chaos thank you very much.
…don’t worry, colin m…the initials ‘ss’, when linked with either ‘cx’ or ‘mtb’ usually assures some form of chaos…factor in san francisco & i think you’re gonna find what you’re lookin’ for…
…now, if anyone here tries to link the initials ‘ss’ with ‘godwin’s law’, then that’s a different kinda chaos altogether…
SSCXWC huh? in SF? when is this?