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Climbing and mountain biking trails are rain-saturated messes. There is not sufficient snow to ski or snowboard. Howling winds threaten to tip your kayak or SUP as quickly as you shove off the seaside. Roads slick with moist leaves are simply ready to trigger a bicycle owner to wipe out. Oh, and it will get darkish earlier than 5 p.m.
Do not inform any of that to cyclocross racers, who lined up by the a whole lot Sunday for the Woodland Park GP, the grand finale of Western Washington cyclocross races.
The occasion is a joyous celebration on this area’s most disagreeable month, bringing a celebration ambiance with costumed racers, meals vans and loads of bikes swooping via the muddy woods.
“It is a good way to make crappy climate not so crappy, have a superb time with associates and luxuriate in your group,” mentioned Russell Stevenson, president of Off Camber Productions, which places on the MFG Cyclocross sequence in addition to the Wednesday Night time World Championships mountain bike races at North SeaTac Park and the GRiT Journey Gravel Journey close to Cle Elum, Kittitas County.
This is what you want to find out about this built-for-bad-weather sport.
What’s cyclocross?
The century-old sport based in northwestern Europe sits someplace in a muddy center between street biking, mountain biking and criterium racing on a closed circuit.
Opponents race laps on a 1.5-mile closed course for 30-60 minutes, relying on their class. Each course is completely different, however widespread threads embrace a mixture of surfaces — dust, grass, gravel, pavement — and 15-inch boundaries that require riders to leap or dismount and carry their bikes. For a lot of, cyclocross calls to thoughts racers operating whereas shouldering a motorbike.
There are numerous origin tales to cyclocross, however there is a common settlement that aggressive street cyclists considered cyclocross as a method to maintain coaching into the winter by swapping skinny-tire street bikes for one thing slightly burlier that might deal with muddy farm roads. Immediately’s devoted cyclocross bikes, additionally referred to as gravel bikes, are like a hybrid street bike with larger, wider and knobbier tires, although not fairly mountain bike-sized. They sometimes have drop handlebars like a street bike.
Above all, cyclocross thrives in inclement climate.
“It needs to be moist and chilly,” mentioned Mountlake Terrace resident Scott Grinsell on the sidelines of an October race in Magnuson Park, the fourth of six races in MFG’s fall sequence. “The extra it is like Belgium, the higher.”
With clouds obscuring the Cascades and raindrops splattering the moist floor, the Magnuson Park Cross may have handed for some model of Flanders Fields. However the scene was extra festive than the standard European cyclocross race, the place professionals and amateurs do not sometimes mingle.
As an alternative, the shores of Lake Washington have been crowded with cyclists protecting a variety of ages and genders, loudspeakers blasting music and spectators clanging cowbells on the sidelines. Native biking golf equipment and race groups huddled underneath tents to grill meals, cheer on teammates, gently heckle rivals and hand out snacks to struggling racers. (Registration charges cowl turf remediation at each Magnuson and Woodland parks following cyclocross occasions.)
Strive it your self
Western Washington’s cyclocross racing scene is open to all comers. Race classes embrace first-timers, youngsters as younger as elementary faculty, cyclists age 60-plus, heavier riders, unicyclists, tandem bikes, girls and nonbinary racers. There are additionally ultracompetitive cyclists accumulating factors in sanctioned races en path to nationwide championships, in addition to nationally ranked riders who journey out to the Northwest for races like Magnuson Park Cross and the Woodland Park GP.
Whereas different aggressive biking occasions can have an intimidating barrier to entry, that is not the case with cyclocross, riders say.
“You do not have to be in tiptop form to have a superb time,” Grinsell mentioned.
I raced the Magnuson Park Cross as a Class 4 Male and positioned twenty eighth out of 47 finishers. Not dangerous for a beginner who worn out on a number of slick corners. Grass, thankfully, is extra forgiving than a rocky mountain bike path.
For my cyclocross debut, I rented a Kona Main Jake ($80 per day from the brand new Seattle-based peer-to-peer bike rental platform Spokeo). Additionally verify Spinlister, which has a search filter for cyclocross bikes. Cassette Membership, a motorbike store in Pioneer Sq., rents gravel bikes for $75 per day.
Shopping for an entry-level cyclocross bike runs not less than $1,000. A mountain bike can work in a pinch, however is way heavier and can put you at a aggressive drawback. Highway bikes should not really helpful.
Northwest credentials
Cyclocross has been standard within the Pacific Northwest because the Nineteen Eighties. From 1987 to 1996, Washington hosted the U.S. Nationwide Cyclocross Championships 4 instances — twice every in Bremerton and Seattle. Oregon performed host 4 instances within the 2000s between Bend and Portland. In 2019, nationals returned to the Evergreen State for the primary time in additional than 20 years, with a race weekend in Lakewood, Pierce County.
“That was a crescendo that boosted participation and publicity to the area for the game,” mentioned Stevenson, a nationwide and world cyclocross champion. 4 of the ten greatest cyclocross races this 12 months so far have been held in Washington and Oregon, residence to the Cyclocross Campaign race sequence, proof constructive that the Northwest is the nation’s cyclocross capital.
Different cyclocross sizzling spots embrace the Midwest and New England. What does the Northwest convey to the desk?
“We’ve got the terrain, climate and bikers who can get into it,” mentioned Stevenson, who highlighted the area’s younger racers. “A few of the finest juniors within the nation are from Washington and Oregon.”
Rely 15-year-old Bellevue resident Keaghlan Robinson amongst them. A motorcycle fanatic who may also be discovered astride a BMX bike, in a velodrome on a monitor bike, or gripping mountain bike handlebars, she has competed in a number of cyclocross Junior Nationals from Illinois to Connecticut.
Not like different cyclocross scenes, she credit the Northwest for caring about enjoyable, not simply profitable, even on the best stage.
“As a lot as I like to win,” she mentioned, “I additionally love popping out right here and having enjoyable on my bike.”
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