At first glace I thought to myself "Wow, this shot makes CX racing looks kinda rad, too bad the CX crowd are still a bunch of uptight roadies at heart". Then I noticed the Vader mask, and trembled in fear.
FYI this was the Halloween Cyclocross Crusade. One day of serious racing, one day of partying. Beers handed out at the aide stations, anyone not wearing a costume and actually taking it seriously (like dude in green) gets heckled and pelted with whatever spectators had handy. Last year they did a CX super D too, can only imagine why that didnt go down this year....
Yes, CX-ers are crazy. But no, this shit wouldn't taco a CX wheel. Even my super-light climbing wheels would probably handle this - I've taken my road bike to an indoor bike park and played around in the air once. Was hella fun, albeit a little nerve-wracking to be clipped in while landing.
Well who could honestly be sane, to just sit down some day ages ago, and think, "Hey... you know what would be a good idea? Going OFF Road... on a Road bike!" and it evolved from there.
They ARE batsh*t crazy... But I can honestly say that I do respect their unique brand of insanity. Whoever was weird (or high) enough to come up with a sport that involves road bikes on mtb trails must be some kind of off-brand smarty pants... But the guy hucking himself like it's BMX grands? 'Geniused' out of his goddamn gourd. I'm impressed. No, really. I truly am.
They ARE batsh*t crazy... But I can honestly say that I do respect their unique brand of insanity. Whoever was weird (or high) enough to come up with a sport that involves road bikes on mtb trails must be some kind of off-brand smarty pants... But the guy hucking himself like it's BMX grands? 'Geniused' out of his goddamn gourd. I'm impressed. No, really. I truly am.
Going hard on a CX bike off road makes for some almost stupidly blind confidence on a bike with some travel and a short stem. They are a rare breed indeed
And this is why I love 'Cross. Been racing in Oregon for a few years now, and I gotta say, it's just as fun, if not more fun than some mtb racing. The spirit of the racers and the fun they have while wrecking themselves on the bike makes for an atmosphere unparalleled in most other races. Plus, free beer!!
A wow i see it now. His helmet. Cx is hard. I tried it on my commuter hardtail, with the jumping on/off the bike and all the bunny hopping. Its tough. Question, why use road bike stuff vs more mountain hardwear?
road bike components hold up fine to normal cx racing, and are much lighter than mtb components. cx tires run better though mud too, which is pretty common. and most factory racing cx bikes weigh less than most people's pretty decent road bike too.
well actually in my hood we used to do this stuff quite long time ago! Not that we were so cool!! But road bikes were the only bikes we had, so we crossed with them :-))
Nothing new here. Zdeněk Štybar has been doing that for years in almost every pro cross race there is, including world cups. Pinkbike users please open up your mind to other disciplines of cycling.